Revealing of Land Use Conflicts at Indigenous Population Territories in the Russian Arctic Using Atlas Information Systems Methodology

Evseev AV, Krasovskaya TM,

Abstract

Declaration of transit to sustainable development in the Russian Arctic zone mentioned in recently adopted Federal programs draws attention to risks of different nature management conflicts emergence, connected with mainly industrial development vector. These conflicts may appear at territories of traditional nature use (TTNU) of indigenous population. Special research is needed to present these risks origin and reveal territories of their possible emergence Methods of land use conflicts at indigenous population traditional land use territories in the Russian Arctic are described. They are based on ecosystem services exploitation analysis using specially elaborated conflict matrix. Panarchy theory provides the conceptual base of this research. Our research focuses on management of heterogeneous regional ecosystems variables at TTNU presented by ecosystem services, ethnic-cultural data and overlapping modern land use patterns. System analysis wasthe principle research method .It was based on processing of ecological, economic, ethnic-cultural etc. published data and statistics as well as long-term field  investigation experiences in the Arctic. Atlas Information Systems (AIS) methodology was used for visualization of conflicts distribution patterns. Data base within AIS included statistical data, thematic maps, descriptions etc. Visualization of such data base in AIS media enabled to compile a chorographic nature management conflicts. 3 variants of conflicts are shown: the already existing, developing and potential. In each case ecosystem services exploited in different competing types ofnature management at TTNU are presented. Our research demonstrated that territorial planning procedure for TTNU must include compiling of conflict matrixes especially in case of low supply of a certain ecosystem service (for example-ecological assimilation potential).Modern ecological-economic methods enable to receive primary monetary assessment of relatively broad spectrum of ecosystem services thus revealing their possible contribution to regional economy  development.