Occupying the far northeastern
corner of Eurasia, Russia’s Chukotka Peninsula
juts into the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, approaching
North America. Its shores, washed by the Chukchi
Sea in the north and by the Bering Sea in the
south and east, are dotted by small coastal settlements,
many of no more than a few hundred hearty souls.
Largely inhabited by indigenous Chuchki and Siberian
Yupik people, these villages preserve the region’s
ancient coastal hunting and fishing cultures.
Here, people’s lives are shaped
by the natural environment; its resources their
lifeline. In this unique part of the Russian Arctic,
traditional skills and knowledge — and observations
about the environment — are passed from generation
to generation. Local residents’ insights into
the natural world around them carry strong links
to the past. As a recent WWF climate change survey
indicates, these insights may offer a very important
glimpse into the future.
A change in the weather
With support from WWF-Russia, Vladilen Kavry,
a local Chukotkan hunter, traveled to seven coastal
communities to gather information about residents’
perceptions of climate change. Kavry’s journey,
traveling through some of the region’s more inhospitable
terrain, took him to the remote settlements of
Ryrkaipii and Vankarem along the peninsula’s northern
shore. He also visited five villages along the
Bering Sea coast: Enmelen, Nuligran, Sireniki,
Yanrakynnot, and Lorino.
In each of these communities,
Kavry interviewed a variety of people representing
different age and ethnic groups — Chukchis, Siberian
Yupiks, and Russians — many of them involved in
subsistence activities such as reindeer herding
and hunting. Asking each of the 17 total survey
participants a series of questions about their
observations of climate change, responses clearly
demonstrated that people in Chukotka’s local coastal
communities have indeed noticed signs of climate
change. And, these changes are affecting their
lives.
Across the surveyed region,
people commented on changing seasonal weather
patterns and on the increased unpredictability
and instability of the weather. Respondents noted
shorter winters, observing that the fall–winter
transition is occurring later and spring weather
arriving earlier. Many pinpointed the deviation
as being approximately a full month on both ends
of the winter period.
Magtagin, a 71-year-old Chukchi
hunter from the village of Vankarem on the peninsula’s
arctic coast, however, noted that winter was beginning
a full two months later. He said that while the
winter frosts had previously begun in September,
they were now really only taking hold in November.
Magtagin, and many other survey participants,
also noted the frequent occurrence of weather
phenomena that either did not occur previously,
or occurred only very rarely. He cited frequent
thunderstorms.
Other respondents, such as Anatoly
Ranavtagin, a 64-year-old sea hunter from Lorino,
on the peninsula’s eastern Bering Sea coast, noted
the uncharacteristic occurrence of very strong
snow storms and blizzards, as well as wintertime
rains.
“In years past, the winter was
cold, but calm,” said Ranavtagin. “Now, easterly
winds carrying blizzards are more prominent, and
for several days at a time. Snow is more abundant.
There were never such snow banks in the village
before. Only in December do we head to the ice
edge to hunt, while previously we left in November.
Sometimes there are periods of thaw and rains
in the winter.”
Survey respondents also observed
numerous warming-related changes in the physical
condition of the peninsula’s familiar landscapes
and landscape features. With increased temperatures,
frozen ground and snow fields have begun to melt.
Rivers and lagoons have also begun to melt earlier
than they did before, but by far of greatest concern
to many were observed changes in sea ice. The
extent of sea ice has declined and its quality
and timing are changing. In the village of Sireniki
— one of the few remaining traditional Siberian
Yupik settlements in Chukotka — Vladimir Petrovich
Typykhkak, a 41-year-old Siberian Yupik sea hunter,
noted that “the sea begins to freeze in November
only, while before it did so in September.”
A change in habitat
Another common theme addressed by coastal residents
is the change in distribution of animal species.
Many survey respondents noted having encountered
animals that had not been observed in their region
previously, such as moose, lynx, badger and beaver.
Several sea hunters from two villages along the
Bering Sea, Lorino and Nuligran reported having
caught sharks in their nets. Some also noted the
appearance of uncharacteristic birds like swallows
and a species resembling sparrows or swifts. Tilmyet,
an 81-year-old Chukchi sea hunter from the village
of Vankarem, mentioned that birds are arriving
earlier and departing later.
Others surveyed also noted changes
in the habitat and, in some cases, behaviour,
of more common species, including walruses. Due
to the lack of coastal sea ice in the early fall,
walruses have been forced to come ashore and form
large rookeries on the Arctic coast. In the past,
the walrus remained on the ice and seldom came
ashore.
Changes in sea ice make for
a shorter hunting season. Girgory Mikhailovich
Rykhtyn, a 37-year-old Chukchi seal hunter and
reindeer herder from Vankarem explained:
“There is no longer good sea
ice. Sea ice now remains until mid-June, and is
gone altogether by mid-July. In the past, people
were able to hunt on the ice all summer long.”
Experienced Chukchi reindeer
herders are all too aware of climate change’s
effects on reindeer. In the village of Lorino,
herders Maya Nikolaevna Nupenrulet and Yevgenii
Vasilievich Tatata said that in the winter ice
now covers the ground and life-giving pasturage,
while in the summer reindeer have become susceptible
to a serious hoof disease that has increased reindeer
mortality. Another Lorino-based herder, 71-year-old
Vladimir Grigorievich Tynarakhtygirgin, suggested
that an increasing number of reindeer were perishing
in winter’s more frequent and severe blizzards.
People region-wide also noted changes in berry
growth. Even along the arctic coast, where previously
berries sometimes did not ripen at all, they have
begun ripening very quickly, before people are
able to gather them.
“Such testimonies to climate
change, offered by people whose connection to
the environment is so close, are very valuable
in our understanding of the climactic transition
taking place in the Arctic,” said Viktor Nikiforov,
Director of WWF-Russia’s Global 200 Programme.
“Because climate change will
most affect indigenous peoples whose lives depend
on natural resource use, it is very important
to use the knowledge of indigenous communities
to develop mechanisms for adapting to possible
changes in the future.”
* Melissa Mooza is Assistant
Editor at the Russian Conservation News.
END NOTES:
• According to scientists, the
latest findings indicate that Earth is warming
faster than at any time in the last 10,000 years
and climate change in the Arctic is expected to
be among the greatest of any region.
• Since 1992, WWF’s International
Arctic Programme has been working with our partners
across the Arctic to combat these threats and
preserve the Arctic's rich biodiversity in a sustainable
way. WWF works in the Arctic through seven offices
in Canada, the US, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway
and Russia. The Programme focuses on five of WWF’s
global priorities: marine, freshwater, species,
toxics and climate change.
• Survey participants’ responses
were recorded and compiled for WWF by Andrei Boltunov,
a polar bear expert from the Moscow-based All-Russian
Institute for Nature Protection, who is very familiar
with the survey region from previous field work
there.
By Melissa Mooza*
