Sustainability of Local Communities in a New Oil and Gas Region: The Case of Eastern Siberia

Abstract

The need of the global economy for natural resources encourages the movement of extractive industries to new areas, significantly affecting local communities. The study of community sustainability under the influence of extractive industries is multidimensional, as it depends on the geographical characteristics of the area, the historical background, the sociocultural and institutional environments, current government policies, and so on. Therefore, it is important for these local-level studies to comprehensively consider heterogeneous qualitative and quantitative data, paying special attention to the views of local people. This paper examines the impact of industrial natural resource development on community sustainability through a comprehensive approach that considers qualitative and quantitative socioeconomic data, including residents’ perceptions of current and future settlement development. The study is based on the example of communities located in areas of new oil and gas development in the north of the Irkutsk region (Eastern Siberia, Russia). Social science methods (semistructured interviews, surveys, questionnaires, and participant observations), comparative geographical, and statistical methods are used. A comprehensive approach allows us to identify various issues associated with maintaining the sustainability of local communities manifested under the influence of oil and gas extraction in different types of settlements. The findings contribute to the study of community sustainability during the industrial development of natural resources and have practical implications for decision-makers in terms of the socioeconomic management of the studied area and other territories with similar conditions.

1. Introduction

Sustainable development issues are of particular importance to resource regions because an economy based on nonrenewable natural resources is limited in its development by the volume of raw materials and usually causes significant damage to nature. While the beneficiary is not always area-specific (in practice, the main beneficiary is often located outside the resource region), the social and environmental impacts of industrial activities directly affect local actors. Hence, in resource regions, there is often an imbalance between the interests of economic development, society, and nature, which is contrary to the goals and principles of sustainable development [1].

The duality of the impact of industrial developments on local communities has long been discussed, but there is still no consensus on this issue [2,3,4]. On one hand, communities have the economic potential to develop and improve the wellbeing of their residents. On the other hand, a number of negative impacts on the natural and socioeconomic environments appear, and processes known as the “resource curse” are common [5,6,7] and widely discussed in the scientific literature. These situations have much in common in different parts of the world, e.g., in the north and south and in countries with different levels of socioeconomic development, but they can be overcome in different ways, depending on the institutional conditions [8].

The industrial development of natural resources continues to engage new territories in the north and the Arctic, having significant impacts on local socioecological systems. Indigenous peoples engaged in traditional activities often represent local communities in areas of new economic development. This creates conflicts of interest between industrial and traditional land uses. At the same time, the activities of industrial companies, depending on different circumstances, bring benefits to local communities [9,10,11], including those engaged in traditional land use. In some cases, this can lead to paradoxical situations, for example, when the productivity of hunting activities decreases due to industrial activities, but the hunters are dependent on the sponsorship of companies and try to avoid conflict with them [12]. Ignoring these cases today can lead to future negative consequences associated with the long-term planning of the socioeconomic development of such territories, including a decrease in regional sociocultural diversity.

Recent work on this issue area focused on the roles of different actors in the implementation of the principles of sustainable development in the north and the Arctic [13,14,15,16]. The uniqueness of processes and interactions among the natural, economic, and local community domains is highlighted [17,18,19] as well as the importance of applying a local-level understanding of contemporary development processes to the subsequent design of sustainable development frameworks in the north and the Arctic [17]. Despite the extensive coverage of the topic, there are still challenges in understanding and implementing the research findings [20]. A literature review demonstrated the necessity of concentrating on the local level in the study of sustainability issues, enabling a more in-depth focus on the particulars of the northern territories.

Eastern Siberia covers a substantial part of Asiatic Russia, playing a significant role in the national economy. This region has a major role in the development of Russia’s “Eastern vector” [21,22], and the region’s hydrocarbon resources are seen as the basis of the country’s sustainable development [23]. The construction of the Eastern Siberia–Pacific Ocean oil pipeline brought Russian oil to the Asia–Pacific market in the late 2000s. Today, other similar mega projects are actively developing here, aimed at solving not only economic but also geopolitical tasks in the east of the country [24,25]. Meanwhile, regional development within the framework of national priorities has significant challenges in terms of disseminating the multiplier effect of large projects on local socioeconomic systems [26,27]. With its especial natural–climatic and sociocultural features in the environment of industrial development projects, East Siberia shares similarities with other northern oil and gas regions of Russia and the Arctic countries [28]. The smallest unit of sustainability research is local communities, which are communities identified by a number of features: territorial cohesion; the presence of an inter-related institutional environment, including governing structures; and sustainable social interactions, based on which the practices of inter-dependence, cooperation, and competition are formed [29]. In this interpretation, the term “local community” refers to certain types of human settlements (small towns and villages). In this paper, based on a review of the literature on the subject [30,31,32,33], the author understands the sustainability of local communities to be the preservation of sociocultural identity and demographic development indicators as well as the improvement of the wellbeing of the population in the short- and long-term. Examples of local-level research on sustainability in industrialized areas highlight the importance of including a subjective component, i.e., examining local people’s perceptions of ongoing processes and development trends [31,33,34,35]. This paper aims to investigate the impacts of the extractive industry on communities’ sustainability through a comprehensive approach that takes qualitative and quantitative socioeconomic data, including the local residents’ perceptions of current and future settlement development, into account. The study is based on the example of local communities located in areas of new oil and gas development in the north of the Irkutsk region (Eastern Siberia, Russia). This is the first time such a study has been carried out in these areas. The author’s approach of synthesizing qualitative and quantitative data is proposed to examine the issues associated with the sustainability of local communities under the conditions of industrial development.

2. Local Level in Sustainable Development Research

The approaches to sustainable development goals vary by the implementation framework level: global, national, regional, and local, which can be divided into municipal (district) and local (settlement) in the current administrative division framework for Russia. At the same time, the transitions between levels in the direction from global to local determine each transition from a declarative and framework statement to more specific actions [36]. Consequently, the local level, being an inherent part of higher systems, is the level of practical implementation for the principles of sustainable development, and the actions carried out by local authorities in this direction will contribute to the solving of not only local but also national and global problems associated with sustainable development [37,38]. In fact, this reflects one of the key principles of the concept of sustainable development “think globally, act locally” [39]; i.e., any action at the local level should be assessed from a long-term perspective and the consequences of those actions in the future [39]. The increasing role of the local level in the study of economic development processes and their consequences for local communities is reflected in the concept of “glocality” [40] through which the authors [41,42] emphasize the systemic coherence of global and local processes in contemporary development regions of the north and the Arctic.

Implementing the principles of sustainable development at the local level is crucial because local causal relationships are important for solving socioeconomic problems at different levels [43]. Currently, one of the main directions of implementing the principles of sustainable development in Russian practice at the municipal level relates to the policy of strategic socioeconomic planning [44]. Without a long-term development strategy for the area, management devolves into quick reactions to changes in internal and external factors; this type of management results in the instability of regional socioecological systems. In Russia, strategic planning policies are currently being implemented at all levels, from the federal level to the municipal. However, in reality, actual long-term development strategies are not always available at the municipal level. Another problem is the qualitative content of the available local-level strategies and their consistent implementation when one of the leading factors is the qualified personnel in the local governing institutions [45,46]. At the same time, the overall economic environment affects the priority of the set goals, as in a crisis, decision-makers prioritize issues of economic nature, and consequently, the sustainability of development mainly relates to economic indicators. The focus on economic indicators can be observed in existing development strategies, programs, and government documents [47], and a similar situation is developing at the regional and local levels. However, there may be significant differences between regions due to their geographical, economic, social, administrative, and other unique factors. Therefore, it is important for both regional and local strategic documents to reflect these features and allow for the most efficient use of available resources in accordance with the principles of sustainable development [48]. In particular, the new economic development areas of the north and the Arctic should have their own special approaches to strategic planning, taking into account the huge transformations of the local socioeconomic environment, the increasing pressure on local ecosystems from the increasing anthropogenic impact, and the global climate changes recorded at high latitudes [49].

At the local level of sustainability development studies, an important role is played by the social component [31,33,34,35,50], which can be expressed by the social perceptions of the local population regarding short-term and long-term prospects for the development of their community or migration attitudes that indicate relations to a place [51]. The use of qualitative and quantitative approaches to sustainability research at the local level is very valuable [52]. There are examples of studies on the social perceptions of local communities to assess prospects for sustainable development [53] and the impacts of oil, gas [34,54,55], and other industries on local communities through socioeconomic and environmental impacts [52,56]. The mentioned studies share the authors’ position on the importance of taking the residents’ perceptions into account in order to achieve sustainability at the local level. Their research using qualitative and quantitative methods provided nontrivial results that present new information on the socioeconomic development of the study areas, which is important for decision-makers not only in theoretical but also in practical terms. However, the analysis of the studies shows an underdeveloped issue of differentiation in social perceptions, based on the type of community involved. Usually, respondents from study areas are presented as a general population, and a common list of positive and negative effects on the socioeconomic development of communities in the zone of influence of industrial developments is formed. This paper provides a different approach that takes the settlement type into account when studying issues associated with local residents’ perceptions of current and future development.

3. Study Area

The study area includes three administrative districts located in the north of the Irkutsk region: Katangskii, Kirenskii, and Ust-Kutskii (see Figure 1). More than 60 settlements of various types (urban administrative centers of districts, urban administrative centers of municipalities, administrative centers of rural settlements, villages, and small villages of intersettlement territories) are represented here by 67.5 thousand residents. Towns account for 70% of the total population, while the remaining population lives in the numerous villages scattered over long distances in the Siberian taiga. The lowest level of territorial administration is represented by urban and rural municipalities, usually comprising several neighboring settlements. The population density is the lowest in the Katangskii district with 0.02 ppl/km², followed by the Kirenskii district with 0.4 ppl/km², and the Ust-Kutskii district with 1.4 ppl/km².

The northernmost Katangskii district belongs to the Far North area due to its natural and climatic characteristics. Administratively, it is represented by four municipalities. The district is considered difficult to access, since only air transport is developed there, and public autoroads only operate in the winter. There are indigenous peoples of the north, the Evenki, many of whom continue their traditional activities, such as hunting, fishing, and gathering, and several nomadic reindeer-herding families live in the north of the area. In addition to the indigenous peoples, most of the local population are old-settlers for whom hunting, fishing, and gathering are the basis of their life support. As a result of long processes of mutual acculturation between the indigenous peoples and the newcomers, the Evenks in the study area have become sedentary, maintaining cattle and farming, but hunting is still the most important aspect of their livelihoods. At the same time, the Russians adopted the traditions of the Evenks, primarily in hunting and fishing, as well as in the adaptation to harsh natural conditions [57]. During the Soviet period, the economy of the district was based on hunting, fishing, and gathering, and state enterprises were engaged in the organization of these activities. After the crisis of the 1990s, state enterprises closed down, and the organization of hunting and fishing has now been taken over by the locals themselves. To protect their rights to traditional land use, communities of Indigenous Peoples of the North (“obschiny KMNS” in Russian) were created in the 2000s. This was timely, given that, in the mid-2000s, a project to build the East Siberia–Pacific Ocean oil pipeline was underway through the north of the Irkutsk region to supply oil to the Asia–Pacific market. Although the route of the pipeline passes south of Katanga, it has had a huge impact on the district, as a number of large oil fields are located there and have moved into commercial exploitation over a short period of time. Geological exploration has also intensified, covering almost the entire district.

The Kirenskii and Ust-Kutskii districts are located to the south of Katangskii (Figure 1). Their subsoil is also promising in terms of hydrocarbon extraction, with several fields that are being actively developed at present. Administratively, these areas are represented by nine and seven municipalities, respectively. In terms of transport, they have the most advantageous locations, especially the Ust-Kut, which is a hub, a “gateway to the North”, the Baikal–Amur Mainline (BAM) railway, and year-round, regional and federal highways pass through it. There is an airport through which remote fields are serviced. The route of the ESPO oil pipeline passes through these districts, and the Power of Siberia gas pipeline passes through the Kirenskii district. Key to both districts is the Lena River, which is used for shipping. The Osetrovo river port (Ust-Kut) is the main base through which the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is supplied during the summer, and it serves all industrial projects in the north of the Irkutsk region and in Yakutia.

Settlements in these areas are almost entirely concentrated along the banks of the Lena River, with a small number located on tributaries of the river and along the Baikal–Amur Mainline. Settlements along the banks of the Lena River were founded by Russian Cossacks and settlers who came to Eastern Siberia in the 17th century and whose main occupations were agriculture and hunting. Agriculture is still the main livelihood source of the local populations in many of the small settlements. These populations are also actively involved in hunting and fishing, which provide significant support for their food supplies. Urban settlements in these areas were established in the Soviet period during the first wave of industrial development in these areas. Mainly, these settlements were established by large state logging or transport companies. After the closure of these companies in the 1990s, almost all settlements went through a deep crisis and a migration outflow of the population, mainly losing qualified specialists. Some of the residents working on various industrial and infrastructure projects eventually found employment with oil and gas companies or their contractors, where they were able to offer their professional competence.

The active development of the oil and gas industry in these districts has had a significant impact on regional statistics on economic indicators. These districts are leaders in the Irkutsk region in terms of their own outputs (due to oil and gas), growth dynamics of the budget income, and average wages. The districts have left a list of subsidized territories in the region, having significantly increased the share of their own budget income. However, analyzing the statistics in the context of sociodemographic indicators, there are no trends of improving the quality of the study area’s social environment [58]. Although, according to the projected documentations of infrastructural and industrial objects, a significant contribution to the wellbeing and quality of life of the local population would be made through a socioeconomic multiplier effect from these projects, as of today, 15 years have passed since the beginning of the active industrial development of the oil and gas resources in the region, and the expected multiplier effect is weak. These effects of new industry development do not contribute to the sustainability of local communities.

4. Materials and Methods

The paper is based on material from primary and secondary sources. The first stage involved the collection and analysis of available sources to identify the socioeconomic characteristics of the studied areas as well as the prospects and development plans according to regional and local authorities. Such sources included the strategies for socioeconomic development of the studied districts and municipalities as well as the region as a whole, reports on the work of the mayors of the districts and the heads of settlements, programs for the socioeconomic development of settlements, etc. On the basis of these materials, as well as data from the Federal State Statistics Service, quantitative socioeconomic data were collected in the context of municipalities, a detailed list of which is presented below.

Data from primary sources were obtained during field research carried out in February and March 2022 in 18 settlements of the Katangskii, Kirenskii, and Ust-Kutskii districts of the Irkutsk region using social science methods: semistructured interviews and participant observations; questionnaires were also conducted in some settlements. The winter season was chosen because of the specific geographical location and transport accessibility of many settlements in the study area, which can be easily reached only by winter roads, and communication between them is only available by land transport during the cold season. The total length of the route by road was 2860 km. The sample included 106 male and female respondents ranging in age from 18 to 70 years with an average age of 45 years. The respondents were selected mainly by the “snowball” method. The socioeconomic conditions of the settlements under study were taken into account, and characteristics were formed for each of them as a result of the analysis of secondary sources. This included the number of individuals and main types of employment for the population, the presence of indigenous peoples engaged in traditional activities (hunting, fishing, gathering, and reindeer herding), the presence of industrial companies in the territory of the municipality, etc. Accordingly, among the respondents are representatives of municipal authorities, public sector organizations (education, health care, culture, etc.), as well as employees of industrial companies, small and medium businesses, individual entrepreneurs, hunters and fishers, pensioners, and other representatives of the local population. The proportions of representatives of different spheres of employment in the surveyed areas are presented in

Table 1. Respondents.

Representation of Respondents by Sphere of Main Activity, %	Kirenskii District	Katangskii District	Ust’-Kutskii District
Local authorities	314	19.5	42.8
Employees of public-sector organizations	34.1	43.9	38.1
Employees of industrial companies	5.1	2.1	3.7
Small and medium businesses	12.2	9.8	6.9
Hunters and fisheres	8.3	22.5	5.3
Other local communities members	8.9	2.2	3.2

.

The field research involved 64 semistructured interviews (average duration of 40 min) aimed at identifying multiple aspects of the impact of the new industrial sector on various spheres of local community livelihood as well as assessments of community development prospects in the short-term (5 years) and long-term (30 years). The other meetings with respondents were held in the form of surveys. The general designs of the interviews and surveys were similar, but the focus varied among conversations with different categories of respondents based on their professional fields. All collected data contained valuable information on various aspects of the impact of industrial development on local communities and their perceptions of the future. All respondents’ answers were coded and categorized according to the impacts of industry on the social, economic, and environmental spheres as well as optimistic and pessimistic perceptions of settlement development in the short- and long-term.

Among the population of the Katangskii district, a questionnaire survey was conducted in addition to the interviews to identify the relationship between social perceptions of the future and a respondent’s age, social or material status, current life satisfaction, and desire to move, as well as the geographical location of the community. Perceptions of the future were assessed through open-ended questions about how a respondent viewed his or her community in 5 and 30 years. A total of 35 questionnaires were collected from five communities in the Katangskii district.

The collected qualitative and quantitative data were combined to form a database (DB) on the municipalities; it was not possible to form a similar database on each settlement that included diverse information about the socioeconomic plan, because there are no state statistics available at this level. Socioeconomic variables were selected on the basis of the methodological recommendations for assessing the sustainability of the Northern Territories [33]. The final database included 10 economic and 10 sociocultural and demographic variables. The data series were analyzed for correlations; in the groups of variables with close linear relationships, only one representative was selected for further analysis by the principal component method. For example, population size had strong positive correlations with the coefficients of dynamics of the number of cafes and restaurants as well as the population density. Thus, the final DB for municipalities included the population size (2022), the population coefficient (coef.) of dynamics over the last 15 years, the coef. of the natural population growth dynamics, the coef. of the migration dynamics, the coef. of dynamics of the cultural and general education institutions, the presence of KMNS obschines in the territory (1 and 0), the expectations of the local population regarding the development of the community in the short-term (5 years) (optimistic (1) and pessimistic (0)) and long-term (30 years), the average municipal budget per capita (for the last 15 years), the level of economic development (diversified (3), monospecialized (2), and public sector only (1)), the transport infrastructure development level (number of public transport modes), and the industrial facilities in the territory of the municipality (3), exploration works (2), pipeline infrastructure (1), and none (0). The principal component method was used for the multifactorial analysis. This method is based on the hypothesis of linear relationships between variables, and the results of the PC analysis depend not on the qualitative but on the quantitative variability of the selected attributes and objects, making it possible to establish implicit relationships. The method of principal components was actively used for a variety of tasks, including ranking the level of the socioeconomic development of various territorial units and searching for comprehensive indicators of the socioeconomic development of the territory [59,60]. The study also used comparative geographical, statistical, and general scientific methods for analysis and synthesis.

5. Results and Discussion

The sociogeographical field research allowed us to systematize the different forms of impact of the developing oil and gas industrial activities on various local communities in the study area (

Table 2. Key characteristics of the settlements.

Settlement Types (Community)	Total Number in the Area under Study	Covered by Field Research	Key Characteristics of the Settlement and the Patterns of the Oil and Gas Industry Impacts
A. Small town—district center	2	2	There are two towns: Ust-Kut (36.9 thousand people) and Kirensk (10.9 thousand people). These small towns, which are administrative district centers, have the most advantageous transport and geographical positions in the area under study. These settlements are characterized by a concentration of goverment and public organizations and the most diversified economies. They are trans-shipment bases for shift workers, so these small towns are characterized by the specific impacts of industrial development [61], which also affect the sustainability of local communities [35]. District administrations have socioeconomic agreements with the main oil and gas companies operating in the territory. Therefore, various social projects supported by industrial sponsors are often implemented in these towns.
B. Settlement—district center	1	1	The settlement of Erbogachen is the administrative center of the Katangskii district (1.9 thousand people). Its transport and geographical position are less favorable. Regular year-round transport links with the regional center and other settlements within the district by air only (planes and helicopters). There are shift workers in the settlement, but far fewer than in A. The largest number of workers are present during the winter period, when the winter road is open and geological exploration works are carried out in the territory of the municipality. Nevertheless, as in the previous case, projects operating under socioeconomic cooperation agreements are actively implemented here.
C. Urban settlement—the administrative center of the municipality	3	3	These are urban-type settlements with populations of up to 2000 people. These were created during the Soviet period as settlements of workers from large industrial or transport companies. Some companies still exist in these settlements, but they no longer play the same roles as in Soviet times. Small businesses have developed mainly in the trade sector and much less so in the service sector. Many locals who have qualifications are employed by oil and gas companies and work on a shift basis. The only direct presence of the oil industry is in the Yantal’ settlement, where the pumping station of the ESPO pipeline is located, so the settlement actively cooperates with the company. For other settlements of this type, the influence of the oil and gas industry is indirect and occurs through district administrations.
D. Settlement—the administrative center of a rural municipality	15	9	These are administrative centers of rural municipalities with populations of about 500–1500. There are administrative organizations and public offices that serve these settlements and the villages that are part of the municipalities. In such settlements, the role of the oil and gas companies operating in their territories is particularly noticeable, as their taxes make a significant contribution to the local budgets of these small settlements and make them more stable in terms of their own revenues. However, problems arise with budget spending, as many pressing social and economic issues, including infrastructure, are outside the competency of local authorities [62].
E. Villages	34	2	The population ranges from a few people to 150. Usually, these are hard-to-reach villages where there is only a senior specialist who connects the locals with the municipal and district administrations. In these settlements, indigenous peoples and local people of similar status usually engage in traditional activities (hunting, fishing, and gathering, and in the north of the Katangskii district, there is reindeer breeding) or farming. Many of these settlements lack medical facilities and educational institutions (schools or kindergartens), which have closed due to the strong decline in population. The closure of these institutions has further intensified migration from these settlements. Many of them are now on the verge of closure. Residents of these small villages are facing problems with the negative impact of new industry on the natural environment. They have noticed a decrease in the productivity of hunting and fishing grounds in places of active industrial works and have tried to negotiate with oil companies to reduce these negative impacts. Local hunters often witness violations of environmental legislation. There are examples where, through negotiations with the companies, the negative consequences are remedied. Thus, these small communities in the Siberian taiga play an environmental protection function under the conditions of industrial development of the territory.
F. Villages of intersettlement area	8	1	These are small villages with populations of less than 100 people. Administratively, they belong to the district center. There are difficulties in maintaining social infrastructure, as they are located at a considerable distance from the center. The locals survive through farming, hunting, and fishing activities. Mostly, in such territories, there are villages aged over 300 years that were founded by the first Russian settlers who came to Eastern Siberia in the 17th century. Additionally, like the previous type of settlement, they can perform an environmental function during the industrial development of the territory.

). In total, six community types were identified. Type A settlements (small towns) are the most socioeconomically developed. Among the respondents from these communities, representatives included people working in administration, industry workers from the local population, service sector workers, and educational, cultural, and health care organization representatives. The perceptions of the effects of the development of new industry were mixed among the different social groups. Administrative workers had positive attitudes towards new industry, because municipal budgets are being stabilized, and social projects are being implemented in the framework of the CSR policies of leading oil companies in the region. The service sector has received new opportunities for the development of small businesses. Business has also been actively developing in the sphere of transport. In education, new areas of training for children (special classes in schools organized by an oil company) and adults (new courses in colleges) in professions that are in demand in the oil industry have emerged. Residents expressed negative attitudes about the slow resolution of the accumulated problems in these northern towns, including those associated with housing and road maintenance, in the face of strong growth in municipal budget incomes. There have also been negative consequences due to the influx of fly-in/fly-out (shift) workers, which have caused strong increases in the prices of housing, food, services, etc. These phenomena are typical of similar settlements in areas of extractive industry development in other regions of Russia and in other countries [35,61].

“Shift mode is a feature of our times. A shift city, I would even say so. There are a lot of shift workers! And the cost of housing has gone up, especially the rent. It is incommensurable with what we had before. Prices are rising frantically, it’s going to get worse…”

(local resident, Ust-Kut)

Type B settlements are very close in administrative terms to Type A, but despite being a district administrative center, Erbogachen is a remote settlement. It is located away from the routes of shift workers to the fields, so there are far fewer shift workers, although the number has also significantly increased in recent years due to the development of industrial activities, primarily related to geological exploration, in the north of the district. The district administration has socioeconomic agreements with the companies operating in the territory of the district. Additionally, local authorities work on a negotiation basis with exploration companies, and there are different benefit-sharing mechanisms [9,10].

“We have fewer oil workers here compared to the Preobrazhenskoye and Nepskoye municipalities, since geological exploration is still underway, nothing is being extracted on our territory yet. As an administration, we always hit it off with these companies, they provide us with sponsorship, which is great. There is a company (a base of geological explorers) 25 km from the Evenki camp. The company helps them, they are supplied with products, and they help with the preparation of firewood, with fuel. And we, as the administration, appeal to them, they always provide all possible assistance.”

(an administrative worker, Erbogachen Katangskii district)

“Geotek [exploration company] is based nearby, and other parties of geologists are still standing, because of this there are a lot of shift workers in our settlement, but they mostly come to the shops. […] On the hunter grounds, of course, they impact when they work, the animals leaves because of the noise.”

(local resident, Erbogachen, Katangskii district)

The locals are disconnected from the fact that the oil workers are active visitors to the shops, as food delivery in the area is very expensive and irregular. In winter, it is carried out by cars along the winter road, which operates from late December to late March, and in summer, it occurs via the Lower Tunguska River, with deliveries becoming very difficult and expensive in cases of shallow water (this has started to happen frequently). There is also a large number of indigenous hunters living in the settlement, and they have noted increasing animal disturbance in the hunting grounds.

The urban settlements serve as examples of Type C settlements: Yantalskoye, Zvezdinskoye (Ust-Kutskii district), and Alekseevskoye (Kirenskii district). Only Yantal’, as mentioned in Table 2, has direct interactions with a company involved in the oil industry, and some local residents are employed there. There are shift workers (women and men) among the residents of these urban settlements, who are employed by the oil companies in the area under study. In general, local residents have positive attitudes towards the development of new industry in the region.

“Many locals go as shift workers, usually more or less young drivers. If they learned, worked here before, when this was a timber plant, they gained experience, now everybody works in shifts. […] The Irkutsk Oil Company helps us with all public organizations. They do not work on the territory of the settlement, but they collect applications all over the district and help us too.”

(an administrative worker, Zvyozdnii, Ust’-Kutskii district)

Type D settlements are small with an average position that combines functions of territorial administration; i.e., many residents of these communities are associated with the municipality administration, but at the same time, there are many residents living through subsistence economies, including traditional activities. Therefore, the problem of balancing the interests of industrial and traditional land use is acute for local authorities. In terms of statistical indicators of economic development, rural settlements in which there is active oil production are the most stable in terms of the local budget income. However, the budget expenditure items are strictly prescribed by Russian legislation [63], which has problems in relation to remote settlements in the north. As a result, the terms of project implementation, their quality, and their accessibility for local residents have increased considerably. The current situation does not add optimism to the assessment of the prospects for the development of this type of community for locals.

“There’s nothing from these oil companies, they only scared the animals, and cut up forests for the geological profiles. There are few moose this year.”

(a local resident, Katangskii district)

“We have the technique, there is natural material nearby for filling village roads, but we cannot take it, because to take this one you need so much documentation (!). This process was shifted to the district, but even the district could not do it, because this requires highly qualified specialists who will carry out the entire process of paperwork, but they are not here… Is it really impossible for such remote settlements to do these processes according to a simple scheme? This is not for commercial purposes, but for local roads, we need very little material.”

(an administrative worker, Katangskii district)

Settlements of type E are the most numerous, but the populations living in them are much smaller than in the previously described settlements. The populations living in these communities are the most rooted and accustomed to their ways of life in remote conditions. However, the populations of these small villages are steadily declining. There are a number of circumstances contributing to the acceleration of this process in the context of new industrial development in the territory. Firstly, there has been a decrease in the prospects for the preservation of traditional activities under increasing industrial pressure on the territory.

“This is, of course, a factor of concern for animals! Just imagine, they lived here from time immemorial, they had migration routes, and then bang—a drilling rig appeared, the river was filled up, the profile [geological line clearing] was cut, a swamp appeared, dried up. Everything is disrupted! Well, plus all these wildfires.”

(hunter, local resident, Katangskii district)

Secondly, especially among young people, there is a desire for employment in a new, profitable industry. However, work, even on a shift basis, under conditions of a remote residence place, forces locals to move to other settlements with better transport. Additionally, it is more difficult for men from the village to leave the household while working on a shift.

“A couple of our men used to work for the oil company, but then they quit. Can you imagine, there is a family at home (!). You have to leave the whole household for them, it’s hard for men to work on shifts far from the village. Here are the vegetable gardens, harvesting of firewood and so on.”

(a local resident, Katangskii district)

Type F settlements are very similar to the previous type, and the attitudes of local residents toward the processes of industrial development in the territory are similar. However, for them, the problems of maintaining the social infrastructure, which, due to the administrative management, is tied to the district centers, are even more acute.

“When our school was closed, everything fell apart, as a result, the last pupils were transferred to a city school, and parents moved after them, now only old people are left here.”

(local resident, Omoloy, Ust’-Kutskii district)

The quantitative distributions of the respondents’ answers regarding the key issues associated with oil and gas industry impacts on local communities are presented in

Table 3. The key issues associated with the oil and gas industry impacts on local communities mentioned in respondents’ answers (as percentages of the total number of respondents in the group).

Settlement Type	Number of Respondents	Employment Opportunities, %	Business Opportunities for Locals, %	Concern about Environmental Impacts, %	Incomes to the Local Budget, %	«Presence of Shift Workers»,%	Projects within CSR Policy, %
A	27	48.1	40.1	33.3	59.3	44.5	77.8
B	15	13.3	20.0	46.7	60.0	20.0	66.7
C	10	60.0	50.0	40.0	30.0	20.0	70.0
D	41	19.5	24.3	63.4	17.1	19.5	43.9
F	10	10.0	10.0	80.0	-	10.0	50.0
E	3	0.0	0.0	66.7	-	0.0	33.3

.

Through their activities and lifestyles, residents of small settlements Type E and F have the closest connections with nature, its condition, and responses to all changes. This is also relevant to many Type D communities. These communities are the basis for the preservation of the local culture of indigenous peoples and land use. Their knowledge of the nature and relationships in local socioecological systems is a valuable source of information about regional and local environmental responses to anthropogenic impacts as well as ongoing climate change and the capacity to adapt to changes. Traditional and local knowledge is an inherent component of the sustainability of these communities [17,64].

The involvement of residents from these settlements in environmental monitoring is an important step in the development of sustainable local communities. Such examples already exist in other regions of Russia and abroad, but they have not yet been implemented in the Irkutsk region. Because of this, the elimination of environmental violations revealed by locals in the area of industrial development is left to the voluntary responsibility of companies. However, negative experiences (a company refuses to eliminate violations) and the lack of a formal mechanism for such appeals reduce the initiative of local hunters. Thus, having considered all community types and the dominant models of developing relations with industrial companies, we note that, while there are certain prospects for improving the wellbeing of residents in the short- and long-term, there is also a large number of problems and new challenges faced by local residents.

In the next stage of the study, local residents’ perceptions of their community’s development prospects were compared with a series of quantitative socioeconomic variables associated with municipal development over the last 15 years. For this purpose, the principal component method was used to investigate the internal correlations among the different variables from primary (social perceptions of development prospects, expressed in scores) and secondary sources (quantitative indicators of socioeconomic development). The first four principal components account for more than 70% of the variation. The first component, PC1, is defined by the size of the population, the population dynamics, perceptions of locals on the short- and long-term development of the settlement, economic development, and the presence of industries in the territory of the municipality; i.e., this set of variables can be defined as “the socioeconomic sustainability potential” of the municipalities. PC2 is determined by the size of the local budget’s own income. PC3 is caused by the natural population growth, and PC4 includes the dynamics of migration. The positive perceptions regarding future development are related to population size, the dynamics of income growth, and economic development. In other words, the populations of large settlements with developed economies perceive the future more optimistically; i.e., they showed more sustainable trends in the comparative analysis. This was also confirmed by the identified dependence: the small settlements lose members of their populations faster, indicating that the processes described by the concept of “space contraction” [65,66] take place in the territory under study. As noted earlier, the processes of new industrial development further contribute to this. The most pessimistic perceptions of development prospects were noted among the residents of the Katangskii district. In parallel to the interviews, some respondents also participated in a questionnaire survey to identify population groups or settlement types that have different attitudes towards development prospects. The overall analysis of the collected questionnaires showed no correlations between the subjective assessment of the long-term development of the settlement and other variables (age, gender, social status, financial situation, type of settlement, and desire to move). Almost 30% of the respondents from the Katangskii district stated that they could not see their settlement existing in 30 years. These respondents described their place of residence in 30 years as “a desert with oil rigs”, “an empty place”, and “the forest will be cut, the oil will be pumped out and they will leave, and we will be left with nothing”. Moreover, 62.3% found it difficult to answer this question, and only about 8% gave an optimistic assessment. More optimistic results were noted when assessing short-term prospects (35% for the next 5 years), but, in general, these results indicate serious problems in terms of building the sustainability of communities in the area under study in the long-term.

Using the hypothesis that perceptions of local communities in mining areas are essential to understanding how mining can affect their wellbeing and sustainability allowed us to identify different residents’ perceptions regarding the Eastern Siberia oil and gas region, which depend on multiple factors, primarily the type of community.

In the scientific literature, there is a wide range of regional and national studies on local communities in the context of the industrial development of natural resources [31,54,67,68,69,70]. Additionally, as noted before, there is no consensus on how to view industry development as a positive or negative process for the local socioeconomic development of an area [2,3,4]. By providing an example of the developing situation in the Eastern Siberia region, our study also highlights the duality of consequences, and it also becomes obvious that, here, as is the case for other similar regions, the issues of security and sustainability of the country often prevail over the interests of local communities [71].

Nevertheless, this study of the social perceptions of the current situation and prospects by different groups of locals provides a new angle for further assessment of the socioeconomic situation and development programs. For all the benefits derived by stakeholders, including local residents [10,11], the population generally reported positive effects from a short-term perspective only and, in the long-term, perceived industrial resource use to be an unsustainable development path, which is comparable with the results of other researchers [34,54]. Contributions to sustainability require the development of local human capital [72] and a focus on economic diversification in the context of industrial development [73] to create a basis for sustainable development. The conducted research shows the importance of taking into account the community types within the boundaries of municipalities when developing strategies for socioeconomic development and making administrative decisions in the present.

For example, special attention should be paid to small villages that may perform an environmental protection function, which is especially relevant to the north of the Irkutsk region. Moreover, the preservation of indigenous settlements is also a necessary condition for preserving the sociocultural diversity of a region and country.

The results of the study reveal significant heterogeneity in the influences of the processes of industrial development of natural resources within the study area on the socioeconomic development of different types of communities and municipalities regarding spatial and substantive aspects. The heterogeneity is determined by the geographical conditions and the positions of settlements in relation to modern transport routes and industrial projects as well as the functional significance and sociocultural characteristics. The findings are consistent with those of other similar studies conducted on resource regions around the world. The local population of the area under study also has both positive and negative perceptions of socioeconomic and environmental issues associated with industrial development [34]. In this paper, however, the author highlights that positive and negative perceptions of industrial development processes by local communities may differ considerably, even within the same municipality. For some of them, the economic impact may be more urgent; for others, the environmental consequences are most important.

Thus, the emerging positive impacts that may contribute to sustainability in different types of settlements within the area under study are as follows:

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An increase in incomes for regional budgets and settlements in areas where industrial works are carried out (can be any type of settlement). This aspect is regulated by institutional mechanisms at different governing levels. In Russian practice, only a small portion of the income received from the extraction of natural resources remains at the local level. Nevertheless, a dynamic increase in the local budget income was noted in the studied districts. Both local managers, especially heads of settlements, face the problem of using these funds, due to their limited power [62]. Amendments to federal law by the local government are required [63]. This document is currently under development, and it will be valuable if local authorities have a basis to make proposals regarding the development of this law. The results of this study may be useful when addressing this issue.

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The development of businesses in the service and transport sectors in settlement types A, B, and D. This has a positive effect, allowing the diversification of the local economy, making it more sustainable [34,52]. However, due to the large distances between settlements and the poorly developed transport infrastructure in the study area, this effect is manifested only in a limited number of settlements, which have become transport hubs for the movement of people, goods, and energy to serve extractive companies.

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The development of a corporate social responsibility policy by companies encourages initiatives by local communities regarding the implementation of various socially significant projects, predominantly in settlements A–D. Here, the results of the CSR policy for local communities largely depend on the management of companies and the activities of local leaders and administrations [9,69].

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The employment of local residents (settlements A, C, and D and training of local residents in demanded professions). One of the most important aspects for local residents that is often discussed in the context of new industrial development is the promise of new job creation. However, in reality, the lack of qualifications among local residents often does not allow them to find jobs in extractive companies [54]. Oil and gas companies in the study area offer special educational programs for local residents, but in comparison with the need for labor, this is still a small number of trained employees. Mainly, local residents are employed in positions without special training, for example, as drivers, which is especially important in areas with difficult natural and climatic conditions. As our respondents noted, local drivers are familiar with the features of driving a car on winter roads.

New challenges and problems that are in opposition to the benefits of oil and gas development:

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For type A settlements, problems related to the influx of shift workers to the settlements are becoming acute. There are several communities in the study area that act as transport hubs for which problems have arisen that are widely discussed in the scientific literature [35,61]: rising prices for renting and buying houses, high prices in local stores, a worsening crime situation, increased transport on the roads of the settlement, and, at the same time, the growth of traffic accidents, etc. Local residents are dissatisfied with this situation. Some of these consequences are difficult to prevent. However, some may be regulated by the decision-makers or local governments, for example, restricting the movement of vehicles along the streets of the settlement, creating transport interchanges that minimize the impact on city roads, increasing security in the community, etc.

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The negative impact on the natural environment, especially in territories of traditional land use, is relevant for settlements of types D, E, and F. The most pressing issue for small settlements in the study area is that since, at present, extractive activities in Eastern Siberia that directly serve the economic and political interests of state development prevail, the problems of local communities are growing in districts where industrial development involves more and more of the area of traditional land use.

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Difficulties in attracting locals to a new highly profitable activity as the logistical transport chains to the fields lead to an exodus of people from small, remote villages (D, E, and F).

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As an export-oriented economy, the oil and gas industry is sensitive to external factors [71] (global market conjecture, international relations, etc.). Any fluctuations in the global market (pandemic or sanctions) affect the financial stability of companies which, in turn, reduces the volume of social project financing. Additionally, of course, if production is declining, the local budget income is reduced.

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Changes in transport and geographical locations through the development of a technological road network lead, on one hand, to new opportunities for remote communities, new routes, and improved accessibility, but on the other hand, there are new problems associated with large numbers of newcomers entering these areas and changes in the wildfire hazard situation in the boreal forest [74] (especially relevant to D, E, and F).

Thus, positive and negative socioeconomic and environmental effects manifest differently in the various types of communities studied.

6. Conclusions

Local communities found in resource regions are exposed to the impacts of industrial development, which poses new challenges for maintaining their sustainability. This requires a specific approach to the design of long-term municipal development strategies and the active participation of local people in the process, as this is an important component of successful planning [75]. Local communities are sensitive to current changes in the context of industrial natural resource development. This can be observed using both qualitative (perceptions of the future and views on the positive and negative impacts of oil and gas development) and quantitative indicators (changes in the population due to natural increases and migration) [51,76]. The approach proposed by the author to synthesize heterogeneous qualitative and quantitative data allowed us to identify settlement types according to size, administrative function, and geographical location to systematize social perceptions of the impact of industrial development and to identify prospects for community sustainability. It was found that the perceptions of the impacts of oil and gas industry development by local communities in Eastern Siberia are determined by various factors: the type of settlement, proximity to different forms of industrial activity, the sociocultural component, the CSR policies of companies, accumulated local experience of interactions between communities and extractive companies, etc. Problems associated with maintaining the sustainability of local communities in the long-term that intensify under the influence of industrial development were identified. The results show that each community type requires a specific approach to long-term planning. For example, many villages in the area under study are under the influence of exploration activities. Potentially, the maintenance of these settlements contributes not only to local but also to regional sustainability, as they have an important nature conservation function in the context of the industrial development of natural resources. Equally important is the preservation of the indigenous peoples’ culture, which is linked to the preservation of the ability of indigenous and local people from small settlements in the area under study to be engaged in traditional activities, which is necessary not only for the achievement of local sustainable development goals but also global goals [77]. However, as the findings indicate, with the increasing economic and political importance of Eastern Siberia’s natural resources, it is these small settlements that face the most negative impacts and sustainability issues. The results of the quantitative analysis reveal positive correlations between local residents’ perceptions of future development and indicators of the population size, the dynamics of growth in the local budgets’ income, and economic development. People from large settlements with developed economies are more optimistic about the future, and such settlements were shown to have more sustainable socioeconomic development indicators in a comparative analysis. A relevant result arose for the small settlements, which are losing their populations faster; i.e., they have more negative perspectives on development, and the ongoing processes of new industrial development contribute to this even more.

The consequences of new industry development in the context of community sustainability are not just a set of problems and benefits of socioeconomic development. Without a detailed study of all sustainability factors, it is difficult to predict future development. However, the findings from the comprehensive approach involving social research can be applied in practice as guidelines for community development planning for different types of settlements.