On Wednesday, November, 25, the Day of the Kamchatka Krai was celebrated in the Federation Council. Almost all the Krai’s leaders were present: the governor Alexander Kuzmitsky, a chairman of the Legislative Assembly of the Kamchatka Krai Boris Nevzorov, representatives of the Kamchatka ministries, departments and business.  

During the official opening the exhibition-presentation of the Kamchatka Krai took place. Generally the indigenous culture of the Kamchatka Krai was presented: souvenirs made of fur and leather, clothing. Ethnic creative work was represented by the famous national ensemble “Mango”.

Within the framework of the Day of the Kamchatka Krai in the Federation Council round table “Natural resources of the Kamchatka Krai and their role in the socio-economic development of the region” was held. The event was organized by the Federation Council Committees on natural resources and environment protection, on agrarian and food policy and fish economic complex and Federation Council Committee on national marine policy.

“Unfortunately, level of the indigenous peoples’ participation in such an important event was obviously inadequate. At the exhibition and during the opening practically all the presenting part featured the indigenous peoples of the Kamchatka Krai and it appeared pretty winning for Kamchatka. However, when it came to the discussion of such important issues as future development of the Kamchatka Krai, the indigenous peoples didn’t take part in it. It is vitally important to consider it in further Krai’s policy,” - said Dmitry Berezhkov, RAIPON vice-president, after attending the event.

As the participants of the meeting mentioned, Kamchatka and its shelf have considerable and diverse natural resources potential. Keeping it and sustainable use of it are primary objectives of the long-term strategy of the socio-economic development of the Kamchatka Krai. The speakers underlined that the leading role in the Krai’s economy belongs to water resources, the field and the scale of the mineral, water and water-power resources use is increasing. Fish sector is one of the key industries in the Krai’s economy. Its production share in total regional industry output is above 55%. There are 350 businesses working in the fish sector. However, despite certain obvious plus points in the local fish industry development the indigenous problems related to the Kamchatka’s fish economy complex are being solved too slowly. The participants of the meeting noted that the problems of modernization and building the new fishing fleet and modern coast infrastructure are aggravating. The industry is characterized by the low efficiency of labour, high costs of fishing and further fish food production.

The participants of the round table consider these and other problems concern other regions of the country as well and require measures to be taken to create legal bases for further industry’s development. And these problems are to be solved as a complex at federal level considering the interests of the Russian Federation’s entities.

Many participants of the round table talked about the present grave situation with the traditional fishing practiced by the indigenous peoples of the North on Kamchatka. Some said that many Kamchatkan poachers hide behind the indigenous peoples’ disguise. The participants talked about the necessity of introducing a mechanism of ethnic origin identification to the federal legislation.

Dmitry Berezhkov noted that ethnic origin identification is a really important question and the RAIPON has been raising this issue before the government for years. But speaking about other traditional fishing problems it is important to observe the concordance principle in preparing and approving managerial decisions. For example, many fishing enterprises, including such giants as “Acros”, “Okeanrybflot”, fisher public organizations often put forth questions of wrong decisions taken by the public authorities. This concerns the opportunities for them to work beyond the 12-mile zone, state guarantees for ships received under bareboat charter, etc. And fishers often say public authorities take decisions without coordinating them with fisher community, without taking into account fishers’ reality. Therefore problems and social tension arise. Public authorities are to introduce principle of the maximum concordance in decision-making, they are to consider all the factors and possible problems caused by their decisions.

But the Association of the Indigenous Peoples of the North is talking about the same principle. For example, a widely discussed fishing area registry – its creation was successfully contested by the “Kignakh” Aleutian community first in the Kamchatka court and then in the Supreme Court. And the Kamchatka Krai’s Governor lost the case. However, before making this list it would have been important to coordinate it with the indigenous peoples of Kamchatka. Kamchatkan regional Association of the Indigenous Peoples had been raising this issue since 2006, since the first days of the work on this project. Nevertheless, public authorities instead of starting constructive teamwork to create the register considering maximum of the indigenous peoples’ proposals, waved away the Association’s proposal of participation in such activity. Now everybody is reaping the fruits of this decision – very tense situation with the traditional fishing of the indigenous peoples of Kamchatka. Nobody says all the proposals can be or are to be considered, but the authorities have to fully estimate the steps and consequences of their decisions. This is what Dmitry Medvedev, the President of Russia, keeps saying. It is vitally important that such experience would be taken into account in further Kamchatkan public authorities’ work.

The discussion resulted in recommendations that consider all the problems of the socio-economic development of the region and possibilities of introducing corresponding changes into Russian legislation. This concerns the Tax code of the Russian Federation, the Administrative Code, the Law “On subsoil”, the Federal Law “On fishery and water biological resources preservation” and other normative-legal documents.