This article discusses the results of research on the benefit sharing system in Russia focusing on compensation of losses to indigenous peoples due to industrial development in the Arctic. The authors analyzed a Russian case-study on the economic mechanisms of coordination and harmonization of multi-vector and conflicting interests in the process of industrial development of traditional lands. The developed recommendations will allow, on the one hand, compensating the losses of the indigenous communities, and, on the other hand, to engage indigenous peoples in the process of environmental management and socio-economic development of their territories. The object of the research was the Republic of Sakha and the indigenous communities of the remote Anabar region. The calculation of losses was considered. The authors suggest using this tool for the traditional lands development, because it helps to define fair compensation due to project impacts and to form a fund for sustainable community development. The considered project was exploring and extracting placer diamonds in Polovinnaya River in Yakutia. This paper also presents the social poll results organized in the indigenous communities in 2017. The results helped to formulate the recommendations for the business on benefit sharing agreements with Anabar communities.

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The article discusses the issues of sustainable development of indigenous communities in the Arctic based on the optimization of projects of mining companies. The purpose of the article is to develop tools for decision-making to optimize the mining projects based on economic and mathematical models. The authors suppose that, by comparing and selecting different options for resource extraction, the use of various technologies and the impact of projects, the conditions of the traditional life of indigenous peoples, the preservation of health, it is possible to find a compromise solution for stakeholders. The case-study of Alrosa—a diamond giant mining in Yakutia is researched in the paper. To ensure sustainable development of traditional lands, it is proposed to optimize mining projects, in order to carry out a project maneuver during Arctic development. The project maneuver of the mining company makes it possible to choose the optimal solution from the existing alternatives for the extraction of minerals. The authors propose criteria and procedures for the selection of alternative options for the implementation of extractive projects. The alternative projects selected in this way make it possible to compensate to indigenous communities for the negative impact during industrial development of the Arctic.

The method of the social investing of the Arctic subsoil users is considered in this article. As the portfolio of social investments is formed based on the interests of indigenous peoples, the authors used expert assessment and sociological research for social investing modeling. A two-stage procedure for forming a portfolio of such projects is proposed. An approach has also been developed for assessing and selecting investment projects for the Arctic sustainable development according to different criteria of optimality. The authors substantiate the need for a new approach to sustainable development of the Arctic, based not on compensation for the negative consequences of industrial development used in many countries, but on social investment. In this article the proposed approach is tested on the case of the Arctic indigenous community in Taimyr and the optimal social investing portfolio is justified.

The compensation for losses caused to the indigenous peoples in Arctic Russia due to the industrial development of their traditional lands is an urgent question whose resolution requires development of new mechanisms and tools. The losses caused to indigenous traditional lands are part of the damage caused to the natural environment, their culture and livelihood. In the Russian Federation cultural impact assessment is a rather new tool aiming to protect indigenous peoples' rights to lands. In this paper the authors show the applied side of the cultural assessment that is used to improve the methodology of the calculation of losses adopted by ministry of regional development in Russia in 2009. This methodology is based on the resource disposition and evaluation of traditional lands. Accordingly, compensation payments are calculated as the sum of the losses in traditional economic activities such as: reindeer herding, hunting, fishing and gathering. Such compensation is considered by authors as the elements of a benefit-sharing system. In practice, this methodology has been tested at industrial projects on alluvial diamonds in Yakutia. In this paper we look at the Polovinnya project case-study which deals with indigenous peoples of Dolgans and Evenks and argues that such a justified, understandable methodology both for indigenous peoples and subsoil user could reduce to a minimum the conflict of interests.