Surrounding society and the main economic activity of the region of residence

The Chukotka autonomous area is the northeasternmost region of the Russian Federation; it is part of the Far Eastern Federal District. It borders with Yakutia in the west, with the Magadan region and the Kamchatka territory in the south, and Alaska (the U.S.) in the east. The entire district lies in Russia’s polar region.

The Chukotka autonomous area is subdivided into six districts: Anadyr, Bilibino, Iultin, Provideniya, Chaunsky, and Chukotka districts. Together, the Anadyr, Chaunsky, and Bilibino districts form the center of the region’s advanced economic development, while other districts develop traditional folk crafts and preserve the cultural heritage of Chukotka’s indigenous population.

Chukotka’s industry is dominated by mining (gold, silver, stone, and brown coals) and the energy sector. Other well-developed economic sectors include fishing and fish processing and construction materials manufacturing. The Chukotka autonomous area’s economy primarily rests on mining, mostly gold mining concentrated in the north of the area in the Shmidtovsky, Chaunsky, and Bilibino districts. The Ozernoye West gas field is currently being successfully developed in the Anadyr industrial zone. The gas produced in that area covers local economic needs. Annual gas production totals about 30 million cubic meters. The Bering coal basin development project is a highly promising area of the Anadyr industrial zone as the deposit has resources of over 1 billion tons of high-quality stone coal that meets every international standard.

Traditional economic sectors in the Chukotka autonomous area include reindeer herding that meets 45-50 % of the area’s meat demand, as well as sea hunting that meets coastal residents’ demand for marine animals’ meat. Between 2013 and 2017, reindeer numbers fell from 172.500 head to 150.800, and the sea hunting yield fell from 2.400 to 2.100 tons. The decreased reindeer numbers are partially due to anomalous weather and policies that affect reindeer farms. Sea hunting is a regulated activity. Hunting is widespread, while quotas are allocated only to the indigenous peoples of Chukotka in order to preserve their ethnic uniqueness.

Asian Inuits mostly live on the coast of the Chukotka Peninsula and are largely engaged in sea hunting and fishing, as is traditional for coastal settlements. As per quotas allocated, Chukotka’s indigenous population hunts cetaceans (bowhead whales, gray whales, and beluga whales), pinnipeds (walruses and ice seals), and also Salmonidae. Only two ethnic villages (Lorino and Inchoun) still practice caged-animal farming. In 2010, the hunter caught 6.026 head of all marine mammals (22.690.55 centners), and fully exhausted the quota of two bowhead whales.

Currently, communes constitute a promising form of organizing economic activities of the indigenous population. Chukotka has 68 communes of indigenous small-numbered peoples that include clan communes and neighborly communes. This allows the population to fully maintain their traditional ways of life engaging in tundra and taiga reindeer herding, sea hunting, fishing, picking wild harvests and providing themselves with official employment and stable earnings.

Besides hunting walruses, bearded seals, ringed seals, and whales, the population is engaged in related activities: curing the pelts of bearded seals and ringed seals, harvesting and selling walrus tusks. They use new technologies for storing sea animals’ meat (vacuum packaging and state-of-the-art freezers).

The food industry mostly includes fishing and crabbing. Several enterprises work in this sector including a fish processing plant in Anadyr and Provideniya fish company (whaling). In addition to fish products, the area manufactures meat, dairy, and bread products. Principal food sector enterprises operate in Anadyr, Pevek, and Bilibino.

Owing to Chukotka’s specific weather conditions, agriculture as such is underdeveloped and is geared almost entirely toward animal husbandry. Agricultural lands are small in size, comprising about 7.700 ha (0.01% of the area’s entire territory). The crop areas are very small (i.e., less than 100 ha) and include potato and vegetable fields, mostly grown in allotments.

Currently, the area has 29 farms growing fruits and vegetable on the field and in greenhouses, working in plant growing, caged-animal farming, pig farming, poultry farming, reindeer herding, meat and fish processing, etc.

The Chukotka autonomous area is a promising region for developing cruise tourism, ethnographic tourism, environmental tourism, adventure tourism, extreme tourism, and academic tourism. Principal tourist attractions include the Beringia national park and Wrangel Island national reserve.