Comments on the Russian Federal Target Programme “Economic and social development of the small-numbered indigenous peoples of the North up to the year 2010”

Summarised by Winfried Dallmann from comments by F. Donskoy, L. Abryutina and the editors published in “IWGIA Document No. 107: Towards a new millennium. Ten years of indigenous movement in Russia. Copenhagen 2002 (pp. 246-263).” The text of the federal target programme was reprinted in ANSIPRA Bulletin No. 7, June 2002, and can be found on ANSIPRA’s website.

Goskomsever (Russian State Committee on Northern Affairs) circulated a draft of the Federal Target Programme in early 2000. Indigenous organisations and representatives in Russia discussed the draft and concluded that it contained significant weaknesses. After negotiations between RAIPON and Goskomsever, suggestions to further develop the programme were adopted. After the reorganisation of the Russian State administration in May 2000, Goskomsever was abolished and its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Economy and Trade and the Ministry on the Affairs of the Federation, Migration and National Policy. These ministries had not established capacity to work further with the programme. It was approved unchanged by the Government of the Russian Federation on 27 July 2001.

The programme text properly describes the actual situation. Criticism is based on the fact that people who were not familiar with the real problems and their causes developed the programme. Indigenous representatives and competent research facilities were not consulted prior to the circulation of the draft programme. An example for the lacking insight of the authors is that they explain the degradation of the fishing industry in the North, Siberia and Far East as a result of excess of permits and non-observance of environmental regulations, while research at the Institute of Problems the Indigenous Peoples of the North (Rus. Acad. Sci.) has shown that the main reasons are absence of local market sales through mass-liquidation of industrial settlements, rising transportation costs, etc.

The programme is ostensibly aimed at improving the socio-economic situation of the indigenous population, but the proposed measures would in reality only promote the general economical exploitation of the northern regions, potentially at the expense of resident indigenous peoples. Unconstrained exploitation of indigenous lands will continue, without apportioned revenues for the local population. This is the opposite of what indigenous peoples have been fighting for during the past decade: partnership with government and mainstream society instead of continuous paternalism. Measures, which are imposed on the indigenous population by the authorities, and which these people do not feel to be part of, are condemned to fail.

The programme does not even consider the integration of indigenous people into mainstream development: industry, transport, communication, etc. The programme does not take into account the establishment of indigenous clan communities and territories of traditional land use, which the indigenous peoples themselves consider essential for their cultural survival.

Despite previous, similar development programmes (for 1991-95, and up to 2000), the situation has only been more and more aggravated. Some facts about the situation of the indigenous population will illustrate what really needs to be addressed. The following numbers are a few years old; the situation today is worse:

• Indigenous families have on average 30-50% per capita income of non-indigenous families.
  
• Indigenous communities have 25-30% income of that defined as the subsistence level.
  
• 40-80% of the adult indigenous population has not had paid employment for years.
  
• Indigenous people eat 40% (1996) less food than necessary under the extreme conditions of the North.
  
• Life expectancy of indigenous people has decreased by 16 years during the last 10 years.
  
• The birth rate for indigenous peoples fell by 43% between 1990 and 1998 (most extreme: 8.6 times for the Nivkhi), and the death rate exceeds the birth rate for 8 of the 40 federally recognised peoples.
  
• Native language education is available for less than half of the indigenous population (1998/9).
  
• About 10 indigenous peoples are right on the brink of cultural extinction.

A development programme aiming at reviving indigenous economies must tackle the problem of production limitations and restore government procurement of indigenous products. A thorough overhaul of the health care programme is vital. Along with this, the establishment or improvement of waste treatment and securing of clean drinking water are essential. To counteract cultural disintegration, native-language speaking environments must be created in schools, cultural centres, broadcasting media, etc. Most important: indigenous representatives from the areas under consideration must be part of the programme at all stages, from its development to its implementation.

The present legislation allows for the formation of indigenous clan communities (obschinas) and territories of traditional land use. Especially the latter are by law considered as optional for the regional administrations; the regional bodies should be urged to implement them. These important measures are not even mentioned in the target programme.

Administrative programmes like the present one have previously failed, for instance the programme “Children of the North 1993-96”, where lots of money was spent for other purposes than planned, while the socio-economic situation continuously declined. Those blaming the Russian economy and the lack of money for the fact that nothing changes, express only half the truth. Money is indeed spent, such as for the present programme. The problem is that it disappears somewhere between the authorities and the executing personnel without really affecting what happens on the ground. Already in 1920, the Committee of the North concluded: “To trust the Siberian authorities to rescue the Siberian natives is like trusting a wolf to protect a sheep.” Unfortunately, there is still a lot of truth in these words. To avoid these things happening again, a federal target programme for the development of the indigenous peoples of Russia must be based on partnership principles and delegate part of the action plan and budgetary responsibility to the people themselves and their representatives.