Reindeer breeding requires legislative control, said Sergei Kharyuchi, speaker of Yamal Duma, president of the Russian Association of the Indigenous Peoples of the North, during the 3rd reindeer breeders’ Congress in Moscow.

“The Russian Federation is the world’s biggest reindeer breeding country – about 70% of the reindeers‘ population is pastured in the territories of Russian North. But we should admit that nowadays reindeer breeding  is on the wane, the total number of reindeers has decreased twice during the last 15-20 years. And the only region in the country where the livestock has increased is Yamal.  Here 46% of the all-Russian livestock is pastured and more than a quarter of the world one’s, which means 700 thousand heads. And this is not just statistics, these facts are real and they call upon other regions to strive for the same levels”, - Kharyuchi said. 

Press service of the Okrug’s general court reports that the Yamal speaker considers the reindeer breeding development a question of demographic stability and preservation of the indigenous peoples’ of the North identity, traditions, language and spiritual values. Therefore general condition of the reindeer breeding sphere depends on the regional cooperation in the legislative sphere taking into consideration the specific features of the sector yet at the initial stage of the standard acts’ elaboration. It also depends on the level of modern technology integration and the application of positive experience, say, of the Scandinavian countries.

Elena Pushkareva, member of Yamal Duma, supported the idea of legislative control of the state support issues.

On November 13 the All-Russian reindeer breeders’ Congress took place in Moscow. The results of the Russian reindeer breeders’ union’s work during the report period were reviewed. Dmitriy Khorolya, president of the Union of Russia’s reindeer breeders, presented his report.

A seminar was held for the participants – they were told how to work during the crisis. The economic and ecological peculiarities of the traditional economy had also been discussed.

Reference info: Union of Russia’s reindeer breeders was created in 1995. There are about 1,5 mln domestic reindeers in Russia at the moment, while during the Soviet times their number reached 2,2 mlns. The number of reindeers is slowly growing nowadays.