The article addresses issues related to the preservation of the natural and cultural heritage of the Arctic for the maintenance of the traditional way of life of indigenous peoples, whose culture of nature management form unique examples of sustainable development of territories in specific natural conditions. These issues are especially relevant today, when industrial expansion is becoming more and more evident in the territories, where traditional nature use is still carried out, while globalization and unification of cultures of different peoples is underway. The lack of systematization of cultural landscape elements and programs for their preservation threatens to gradually lose many components of natural and cultural heritage. The importance of the creation of territories of traditional nature use is emphasized for the solution of urgent problems of our time: development of traditional activities and preservation of natural and cultural heritage of indigenous people. This question is relevant for many regions, including the north of European Russia, where there is a pressing problem of comparing the socio-economic efficiency of the preservation of the natural environment with the industrial or other economic use of the territory, which has not only rich raw materials, but also well-preserved natural landscapes and a unique preserved “living” culture of the aboriginals of the Kola Peninsula - the culture of the Saami people.