The Conservation Value of Sacred Sites of Indigenous People of the Arctic: A Case Study in Northern Russia.

This document is a summary of a case study of the sacred sites of two indigenous peoples in Arctic Russia, the Yamal-nenets and Koryak, carried out in close collaboration with the people themselves. It identifies the sacred sites, describes the state they are in, explores their importance to local natural and cultural heritage, looks at the threats and pressures that some are having to face up to, and proposes ways of conserving them. The Yamal-nenet identified 263 sacred sites, whilst the Koryah identified 84. The intimate relationship between the sacred sites and traditional ways of life are remarkable, not only due to their position on migration routes and in pasturelands and fishing sites, but because the maintenance and protection of these sacred sites both depend on healthy life-styles. Protection proposals vary from instruments for protecting cultural heritage and indigenous rights to the establishing of protected natural areas.