Indigenous groups on Kamchatka fear for their means of livelihood

An urgent appeal for help from the far east of Russia has alarmed the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) in Göttingen. "We shall be facing a famine if the new regulations are put into practice”, said a spokesperson from the peninsular of Kamchatka to the GfbV consultant for the states of the Russian Federation, Sarah Reinke. The native peoples, who live from traditional fishing, are threatened in their existence by new regulations concerning commercial fishing and the sale of fishing rights in their area. The GfbV is supporting these attempts with letters to the Russian authorities involved. With a vigil and a petition Itelmens, Koryaks, Evens and Aleuts on Kamchatka are trying to draw attention to their situation and to their demands on the government. The GfbV is supporting these attempts with letters to the Russian authorities involved.

A register of the fishing regions has been compiled without any discussion with the indigenous groups. The regions in which they used to fish traditionally have been opened for commercial fishing. The rights to fish there have been sold by auction, criticised the GfbV.

The indigenous communities have had no chance to make an offer. Their spokespeople are calling for these decisions to be revoked and for them to be included in the revision of this register.

The indigenous communities are also calling for the annulment of the regulation of the ministry for fisheries allowing 500 tons of stint from the River Kovran. They are warning of over-fishing, holding that the upper limit for the catch-quota should be 100 tons. If more stint are fished from the river this means the end of their largest settlement, the village of Kovran, on the river of the same name, fear the Itelmens..

For the indigenous groups fishing is the only source of income. The native people have already written to President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and also drawn attention to Russia’s international commitments. But they have not yet had any answer. "I have the feeling of living on the volcano Koryaksky. It has been dormant for 300 years and is now becoming active. The threat from the political decisions makes us afraid”, says Tyan Zaotshnaya, the spokesperson for the Itelmens living in Germany, an expert for the GfbV of many years standing on the indigenous groups in the far east of Russia and on the situation of her fellow-countrymen.

The head of the Russian fisheries agency Rosrybolovstvo, Andrei Krainiy, is in spite of the world economic crisis in 2009 counting on a catch-quota of some four million tons of fish by comparison with 3.3 million in the previous year.

If you have questions please do not hesitate to telephone Sarah Reinke at

++49 (0)157 71 83 60 82.

We can also put you in contact with Tyan Zaotshnaya.