page_title: Nenets people
section_title: Environment
hierarchical_section_title: Nenets people / Environment
context_page_description: The Nenets, also known as Samoyed, are a Samoyedic ethnic group native to northern arctic Russia, so called Russian Far North. According to the latest census in 2010, there were 44,857 Nenets in the Russian Federation, most of them living in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District stretching along the coastline of the Arctic Ocean near the so called Arctic Circle between Kola and Taymyr peninsulas. The Nenets people speak either the Tundra or Forest Nenets languages, which are mutually unintelligible.
  In the Russian Federation they have a status of indigenous small-numbered peoples.
context_section_description: Environmental damage to the Nenets' ancestral land is significant due to industrialisation of their land, colonization and climate change. Because of the expansive gas and oil industry, reindeer pastures are shrinking, and some regions, such as the Yamal Peninsula are overgrazed, further endangering the Nenets way of life. The effects of global warming and climate change on nomadic Nenets reindeer herders have been documented, as certain lands they need to cross to follow migration patterns are only accessible during winter. Earlier spring melts compounded by delayed autumn freeze, affect the ability of reindeer and herders to traverse the frozen tundra. Arkhangelsk-based Leonid Zubov has documented how this restricts Nenets people's access to medical facilities, causing them to wait until the next snow season for medical attention.
caption: Nenets child
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