ИСТИНА

Despite of the harsh climate and insufficient logistics, farming was historically developed on the territories of the Extreme North, and remains a significant economic activity in many Nordic regions of the world. Agricultural practices on the Arctic margins can be classified as: aboriginal (1), traditional farming expanded during spontaneous colonization before the XX century (2), intensive farming established for food supply of workers during the period of massive development of mining industries (3), innovative forms of farming as urban agriculture (4). Combination of these types of agriculture determines the character of land use, and their superposition becomes more and more frequent, which increases pressure on the environment and often generates social and economic conflicts. Farming on the Arctic margins in different countries faces similar social, economic and environmental challenges, but the impact of each of them on land use properties can be specific depending on national level of economic development, size and regional diversity of the country, regional policy, etc. In this paper we compare modern development of farming as a driving force of land use changes in different countries owing territories in the Arctic, and focus on results of detailed study of two northern subdivisions of Russia: Republic of Karelia and Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).