New project in Russia to enhance sustainable land use by Kola Saamis

Published 19 December 2005

The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided to support the project “Enhancing sustainable land use among Kola Saami communities”, developed by NEPCon in cooperation with Kildin Ancestral Community, an important Saami organisation in the Kola Peninsula.

The project intends to create positive feedback mechanisms between the rich cultural heritage of the Kola Saami, sustainable land management, and generation of improved income for Kola Saami families.

The Kola Saami people: Challenges and cultural strengths

The Kola Saamis are a group of indigenous Saami people living in the territory of Murmansk Region of the Kola Pensinsula. The Kola Saami people are facing challenges common to most indigenous peoples of the former Soviet Union, including above all low income levels and high unemployment rates. Widespread environmental degradation and lack of legally established rights of traditional land uses add to these problems.

At the same time, the Kola Saamis still retain their own unique and strong cultural identity, which inter alia includes social organisation into family groups, animist religious beliefs, and traditional economic activities such as reindeer herding, fishing, production of handicrafts, hunting, and berry-picking. This cultural identity is currently being revived and strengthened, partly through the establishment of so-called ‘obshinas’, ancestral communities that act as units of indigenous production and culture. At present, there are nine established obshinas in the Murmansk Region.

Project approach

The project is strongly connected to and based on the cultural identity and strengths of the Kola Saami communities. It aims to enable the Kola Saamis to improve their livelihoods based on traditional income-generating activities such as reindeer herding, fishing, and handicraft production, while ensuring that these activities take place at levels that are compatible with the area’s ecological carrrying capacity.

Capacity building of Kola Saami communities to re-establish and revive traditional handicraft skills and to set up business cooperatives will be provided, in order to improve the communities’ income based on natural resources. It is crucial for the general development of the Saami communities to generate sufficient income for guaranteeing food, health and education. The approach is to train key community members who are skilled in passing on knowledge and experience in their own communities.

Finally, the provision of legal support to to facilitate restoration of land use rights to Kola Saamis forms an important part of the project. This will prevent future development threats to the area and thus ensure a permanent incentive for Kola Saamis to employ sustainable land use metods. In order to strengthen the legal capacity of communities, a Kola Saami representative will receive two years of legal training in Murmansk.

The project is a follow-up to a previous project “Capacity Building of Kola Saami Community Organisations”, which was also developed and managed by NEPCon in cooperation with Kildin Ancestral Community. This project analysed realistic pathways of sustainable development among the Kola Saami people, and ended in 2004 with the successful finalization of a common development plan for the Kola Sami ancenstral communities. The current project implements a number of proposals contained in the plan.

Expected impact

It is expected that the realisation of this project will constitute a major step forward in securing sustainable pathways of development for the Kola Saami people. The project will produce the following specific outputs:

• Kola Saami Communities provided with legal support from the project lawyer in issues covering land use rights, establishment of smallscale businesses and other legal issues solved.
• Representatives Kola Saami Communities are trained in legal issues
• Training in production of Saami Handicraft during a two-step course covering both collection and treatment of raw material as well as actual production of handicraft.
• Brand for Kola Saami Handicraft established including procedures for its use and registration.
• Marketing study completed for sales of Saami Handicraft.
• Analysis of carrying capacity for reindeer areas managed by Kola Saami Community organisations conducted by a licensed company and preparation of herding areas
• Representatives of Saami Communities trained in reindeer herding.
• Representatives of Saami Communities trained in fishing technologies including fishing methods, maintenance of boat engines, safety, processing of fish.
• Market study on sales of fish to the local market with special focus on hotels, restaurants and other local potential purchasers of Saami fish products.