Nornickel and Federal Agency for Ethnic Affairs to jointly support Indigenous Northern minorities
The signatories were Igor Barinov, Head of the Agency, and Andrey Grachev, Vice President, Federal and Regional Programmes at Nornickel.
The parties agreed to promote sustainable development, better quality of life, preserve and foster traditional way of life of indigenous peoples living across the Company’s geographies. Nornickel and the FAEA also intend to cooperate in improving social and economic environment in the territories where indigenous minorities live. Additionally, the parties agreed to take into account the positions of all stakeholders and consider any enquiries and suggestions of their representatives when making decisions and implementing joint projects that address matters relating to interests of indigenous peoples.
According to Igor Barinov, the development of standards and relationships between businesses and indigenous ethnic minorities of the North is largely shaped by the practices used by major industry leaders in the territories where indigenous minorities live. PJSC
Norilsk Nickel is one of such high-impact companies.“Arctic development is a priority that drives national economic growth and has been a huge area of focus. With industrial projects coming in thick-and-fast in the Russian North, it is important not lose sight of people who inhabit this territory and still uphold traditional customs. The agreement is aimed at striking a balance between facilitating industrial development and preserving the unique nature of the Russian North and the lifestyle these peoples adopted,” said Igor Barinov.
As part of the cooperation, Nornickel and the Federal Agency for Ethnic Affairs will implement a wide range of joint initiatives. These include the International Summit of Arctic’s Indigenous Leaders, events to encourage indigenous people from the Company’s regions of operation to use global platforms for indigenous communities, the Indigenous Peoples of Russia — Social Diplomacy programme, the development of a methodology for ethnicity expert reviews based on the ethnological study of Taimyr peoples and more.
Nornickel has significantly expanded the scope of cooperation and improved dialogue with indigenous peoples. Joint planning has started to facilitate the development of local infrastructure, indigenous trades and commercial activity of indigenous communities of the North, as well as new sustainable production businesses.
The Company has joined hands with the tribal communities to develop and launch a
“The programme includes initiatives to improve the quality of village life and promote indigenous trades. Some of the initiatives such as construction of 18 residential buildings and community centres in the Ust-Avam and Volochanka settlements, acquisition of fish and reindeer meat processing facilities, freezers, equipment for skin currying and souvenir production, study and registration of fishery resources at the Pyasina River’s side reservoirs to issue quotas to the tribal communities, creation of a tourist information centre in the Ust-Avam settlement will be launched this year already. All these projects are joint initiatives whose success depends on close contact with the communities and families of indigenous northern minorities. That is why we are setting up a Coordination Council for Indigenous Communities engaged in economic activities near and around the Pyasina River and Avam tundra supervised by the Director of Polar Division,” said Andrey Grachev, Vice President, Federal and Regional Programmes at Nornickel.
The council will invite representatives of the regional and municipal authorities to contribute to its work and will include representatives of more than 50 business entities run by the indigenous minorities. Day-to-day liaising will be managed through a department working with the indigenous minorities that has now been established in Polar Division.
According to Grigory Dyukarev, Chairman of the Association of the Indigenous Peoples of the Taimyr Peninsula, the council is a new mechanism that will, first and foremost, underline the equal status of the parties involved. This means that the communities have been invited to play a meaningful role in this dialogue and can now essentially take control of their lives and make improvements by setting the necessary development priorities. We welcome today’s agreement and, of course, commend the fact that the Federal Agency for Ethnic Affairs and Nornickel are working to develop joint approaches.