#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Nornickel and the Association of Indigenous Minorities of Taimyr have signed an additional agreement to the basic agreement.
The document clarified the list of the most relevant events for the indigenous peoples that the company will support, and also increased the amount of their funding by 100 million rubles.
“The tasks set in the agreement have already been partially completed. There are new tasks that we are discussing with representatives of the indigenous peoples of the North, the Taimyr municipal district, the Krasnoyarsk region, and the Russian Federation. And proceeding from these new tasks, it became necessary to change the agreement. Moreover, the director of the Norilsk division Nikolay Utkin, by his decision, supplemented the program with new events, our program increased by 100 million rubles”, explained Andrey Grachev, vice president for Nornickel’s federal and regional programs.
The funds will be allocated in addition to financing a five-year program aimed at protecting the original habitat and supporting the traditional activities of the indigenous peoples of the North.
The implementation of the program is provided for by an agreement concluded in 2020 with three organizations representing the interests of more than 90 percent of northern Russia indigenous population and most of the indigenous population of the Taimyr peninsula.
The program includes 42 projects aimed at supporting traditional activities and the implementation of housing and medical projects, as well as projects in the field of education, culture, sports and so on. For these purposes, they plan to allocate a total of two billion rubles. Now this amount has been increased by 100 million.
“Nornickel’s response to the needs of indigenous peoples is a confirmation of the company’s flexibility and systematic work with local communities. Our agreement is a demonstration of the desire for the Taimyr peoples sustainable development. We constantly monitor the needs of specific communities and, in contact with the company, change the parameters of individual clauses of our agreements. Moreover, most of the changes are an increase in the number of events with an increase in funding for the most important support programs”, said Grigory Dyukarev, chairman of the Taimyr Indigenous Peoples’ Association of the Krasnoyarsk region.
Nornickel strives to fully comply with the UN sustainable development goals by funding key programs to support Taimyr’s small ethnic groups.
The additional agreement was signed during the round table on the results of the ethnological examination of factors ensuring the sustainable development of the indigenous peoples of Taimyr, organized by the all-Russian public organization Association of the Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation.
Recall that from December 2020 to July 2021, large-scale scientific studies of changes in the original habitat of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North living in the western part of the Taimyr municipal district and the social and cultural situation took place in Taimyr. The ethnological examination was carried out by scientists from the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology named after N.N. Miklouho-Maclay and the Russian Academy of Sciences’s Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography named after Peter the Great (Kunstkamera), the expert center Project Office for the Development of the Arctic and others.
Representatives of the indigenous peoples highly appreciated the openness of Nornickel and the desire to overcome the crisis phenomena that appeared after the accident in May last year in relation to the areas of life and economy of indigenous peoples. Delegates from various regions emphasized the relevance and importance of ethnological expertise not only for Taimyr.
Grigory Ledkov, president of the Association of Indigenous Minorities of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation, summing up the results of the round table, emphasized that ethnological expertise is the most important tool for understanding the real state of affairs in the development of indigenous ethnic groups throughout Russia.
“There are 35 regions in Russia where indigenous peoples live. I am sure that in most of these regions, ethnological expertise of such depth has never been carried out, as we discussed today on the example of Taimyr. It is very encouraging that Nornickel strongly supports such scientific work and makes the participation of leading Russian specialists in the interests of indigenous peoples possible. I would like to relay this experience to all regions of our country where indigenous peoples live”, said Grigory Ledkov.
Recall that the lands of the indigenous northerners will not be included in the Arctic hectares for the Arctic residents. We also reported that some indigenous peoples may stop being small numbered after the census.
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Text: Angelica Stepanova, Photo: Nornickel press office and Denis Gaskov
