YAKUTSK, October 14. /TASS/. Experts will study the role of reindeer grazing in permafrost preservation and in prevention of carbon dioxide and methane emissions in the Arctic. The study will be conducted under an agreement signed in Yakutsk at the Northern Sustainable Development Forum, Maxim Dankin, Director General of the Expert Center - Project Office for the Development of the Arctic (PORA), posted on Telegram.
"We are beginning our second voluntary climate project, for which we have chosen the Primorskiy reindeer breeding farm in the Bulunsky District," he wrote. "In August, together with the region's Arctic Research Center, we conducted an expedition and began preparations. The project is based on the idea of preserving permafrost through regulated reindeer grazing."
The project's goal, he continued, is to prevent carbon dioxide and methane emissions, additional carbon uptake by vegetation, and the task is to create a working model in Yakutia that could be replicated in other Arctic regions.
Animals affect the moss cover, contributing to the grassy vegetation development, and in winter they compact the snow, he said. This, in turn, allows the cold to penetrate deeper into the soil, slowing down the permafrost thawing and the stored carbon release. "The Arctic has been warming up 3-4 times faster than the rest of the planet. The permafrost degradation threatens infrastructures, leads to additional greenhouse gas emissions, and endangers the traditional way of life of the North's indigenous peoples," he explained. "Most revenues from the possible sale of carbon units will remain in the farm, to be directed to its development and to support for the indigenous people's traditional way of life."
The PORA Expert Center already has experience in implementing the first forest climate project in the Arctic, on the Yamal Peninsula. The project has been validated and right now it is at the stage of carbon units' registration.
The changing permafrost
According to Mikhail Zheleznyak, director of the Melnikov Permafrost Institute (the Russian Academy of Sciences' Siberian Branch), in Central Yakutia, the temperature varies depending on landscape conditions, and the soil temperature at a depth of 3-3.5 m varies towards warming at the depth of the seasonal thawing layer. In some woodlands, this difference over 50 years has reached 0.3 degrees, and there are areas where this temperature has changed by 2 degrees. "There are territories where the surface has thawed or sunk to almost three meters over 50 years," he told participants in a round table discussion - "From Yakutsk to Antalya: Forming a unified Arctic voice for COP31." "We are talking about a very complex system. Can it be predicted? Of course it can. What is missing? We need to know the trend."
The permafrost degradation process has points of no return, and permafrost has never been stable or permanent, the scientist said. "If we are talking about engineering structures for thousands of years to come, this is one aspect, but if we are speaking about a hundred years, then we can manage it. We must learn to manage it and to be building facilities properly. The problem is only with us. We need good design solutions and we need to know how the changes are developing. That is, we are missing an observation network."
About the forum
The 7th Northern Sustainable Development Forum took place in Yakutsk on October 7-10. Human capital development in the artificial intelligence era was the event's key topic. The forumfeatured participants from Russia's 20 regions and from twelve countries.