Permafrost and indigenous land use in the northern Urals: Komi and Nenets reindeer husbandry

Permafrost is an integral part of the environmental conditions that frame indigenous peoples' livelihoods in many parts of the circumpolar region. On the basis of their long-term ethnographic field researches, the authors describe the various ways in which permafrost dynamics influence the lives and economic activities of two groups of reindeer-herding nomads in North-Eastern Europe and Western Siberia: Komi and Nenets. Permafrost affects the herders directly, for the herders have to take into account the probability of thermokarst while choosing the campsite and performing certain herding procedures. It also affects the herders indirectly, through its influence on landscape and vegetation and thus on reindeer behavior. More rapid permafrost degradation will have a range of adverse effects on reindeer herding.