ИСТИНА

There is one tribe among the wide variety of local ones in the North of Enisey river area which incite a lot of scientific questions. It is the tribe of the Kethes. The dispersed groups of the Kethes live in the middle and the lower parts of the Enisey river basin and the lower part of the Podkamennaya Tunguska river basin. According to an approximate estimation, the total population of the Kethes is about 1200 inhabitants. During the previous centuries the ethnos attracted attention of various experts: geographers, ethnographers and linguists. The Kethes is a unique phenomenon because of the language that doesn’t have any analog. The main activities of the Kethes are fishing, hunting after elks and reindeer, mushrooms harvesting, berrying and furring (sable and squirrel). Some groups grow potato and other vegetables. Their adaptation to the natural conditions demonstrates the strong dependence on the river basin resources. The unemployment is a serious problem for the Kethes’ community. During the postsoviet period the Kethes’ social behavior became more profit-oriented. Currently the land where the Kethes live is used for poaching. In addition, legal entrepreneurs often ignore the interests of the Kethes. The problem of the Kethes isolation from their traditional source of living is getting more and more important. Along with a gradual disappearance of traditions, there is also a disappearance of the Kethes’ language. Less than 15% of the Kethes can speak the native language. It reflects the problem of communication between generations. Some members of local communities don’t see the necessity of the native language usage. The collected data enable to determine the features of climate changes impact upon local traditional nature management. The changes in landscapes have a great influence on the living standards of local communities, especially on the poorest ones. The Siberian Kethes follow the lifestyle which has strong relations with natural resources and subsistence production. Climate changes lead to some negative consequences for local tribes: the decrease in productivity of natural system, the decrease in berries, pine nut and mushrooms harvest (the outcome of short and strong spring frosts in the period of flowering and dry heat), the decrease in sable population and other fur-bearing animals’ populations as a result of nutritive base reduction, the increase in the number of forest fires and their area as a result of watering lack in landscapes and the expansion of the swamped permafrost area (the level of frozen subsoil in some regions lowered at 1-2 meters deep). These changes are also identified with the help of traditional knowledge of local native tribes and on the base of the following indicators: the ruptures and gaps in agricultural cycles, the weaken reliability of meteorological and climate forecasts, the changes of animals’ habitats and their populations’ dynamics, etc. So, the question of special measures and strategy projecting for local tribes’ adaptation to climate changes is becoming more important. The decrease in natural abilities of a “feeding landscape” leads to the necessity for local natural economy diversification. Under the conditions of global warming and the increase of climate instability we can more clearly fix the close interrelation between the development of local traditional economies and geographical and ecological factors of nature.