Nenets Tundra

The Nenets Tundra is a vast Arctic ecoregion in northwestern Siberia, Russia, spanning areas including the Yamal Peninsula and surrounding tundra landscapes. The region lies above the Arctic Circle and extends across some of the most remote territory in the Russian Federation.

The Nenets are an indigenous people of Arctic Russia who have practiced nomadic reindeer herding in the Siberian tundra for centuries. Their traditional lifestyle involves seasonal migrations with reindeer herds across the tundra, living in tents called chums.

The Nenets Tundra experiences extreme Arctic temperatures, with winter temperatures regularly dropping well below minus 30 degrees Celsius. The region has a short, cool summer and a long, harsh winter characteristic of continental subarctic and tundra climate zones.

The Nenets' reindeer-herding way of life faces pressures from climate change, which alters permafrost and migration routes, and from industrial development such as natural gas extraction on the Yamal Peninsula. These factors have disrupted grazing lands and seasonal migration patterns the Nenets have followed for generations.