The interregional public organization L’auravetl’an Information and Education Network of Indigenous People (LIENIP) was established in 2003. The establishment of the information center was driven by the difficult situation of indigenous peoples in the North, Siberia, and the Far East of the Russian Federation. Thirty indigenous peoples in each of these regions, traditionally inhabiting areas comprising 65 percent of the total Russian Federation territory, are separated from each other by huge distances.
The aim of LIENIP is to reach a sustainable development of indigenous communities of the Russian Federation, by providing their direct participation in the economic and political life in the country as regards decision-making processes on the federal, regional and local level.
LIENIP works actively in the field of education on human rights and rights of indigenous people, information exchange, lobbying of interests of indigenous people on regional and federal levels, and implementing projects on the social and economic development of the communities.
At present, LIENIP is working in five regions of the Russian Federation: the Karelia Republic, the Altai Republic, Krasnoyarsky Kray, Altaisky Kray, Kemerovskaya Oblast. LIENIP plans to establish offices in all of the regions where the indigenous peoples of the Russian Federation reside.
