A/HRC/15/37/Add.5 other form of ownership. Most of the land and subsoil resources in Russia are currently the property of the State. All issues concerning ownership, use and allocation of land, mineral resources, water and other natural resources are jointly administered by the federal and regional Governments. Agricultural, forest, pasture and other land parcels are currently utilized by private entities primarily on a lease basis from the Government. 31. Consistent with this general framework, indigenous peoples in Russia are accorded rights to use the land and its renewable and common resources, while title ownership remains with the State. The Special Rapporteur holds the view that such use rights could be sufficient to comply with relevant international standards, if they are well established, implemented, judicially protected, and working in concert with other entitlements such as those of consultation and consent, compensation, environmental protection and development. 32. Indigenous peoples’ rights to lands and natural resources are promoted by the federal law “On Territories”. The law provides that the land an indigenous community utilizes for traditional economic activities may be granted a special legal designation of “territory of traditional nature use”, and be assigned to that community to use free-ofcharge for a certain renewable period of time. Once created, the indigenous people living in these territories are guaranteed the right to continue to occupy the land and use its renewable resources for traditional activities, the right to participate in decision-making when industrial development in the territory is considered, and the right to receive compensation when industrial development that interferes with their access to land or damages the environment occurs there. 33. However, a common criticism of the federal law “On Territories” is that no territories have been established directly under it, and that to date the federal law is lacking by-laws or procedures specifying methods for its direct implementation. In response, the Ministry of Regional Development reports that it is currently working on a proposal for amending the law “On Territories” in order to strengthen the law’s effectiveness and means of implementation. Additionally, the Committee on Nationalities at the State Duma is working on a new draft law “On the protection of the environment for traditional way of living and traditional nature use of indigenous small-numbered people of the Russian Federation”. 34. Although no indigenous territories have been established under the federal law, regional laws have, to varying extents, within 28 regions of the Russian Federation, protected territories for indigenous traditional use, which are documented in an official federal listing.8 The regional regimes have functioned well in many cases, for example in the Khanti-Mansiyski Autonomous Region where there are 523 traditional use territories created under regional law. 35. Nevertheless, most indigenous communities across the Russian Federation still do not enjoy designated territories, and due to ongoing reforms to the land regime at the federal level, which affect regionally created territories, the status of existing territories is perceived as legally uncertain. For example, in the designated “regional territory of traditional use” in the area spanning over 17,000 hectares along the Amur River surrounding Sikachi-Alian village in Khabarovky Krai, indigenous residents currently enjoy de facto free-of-charge use of land resources and receive preferential access to fishing areas. However, concern was expressed to the Special Rapporteur that federal land reforms could have the effect of undermining these currently existing regional entitlements, and in 8 10 Common List of Places of Traditional Lifestyles and Traditional Livelihood of Numerically Small Indigenous Peoples of the Russian Federation, N 631-p of 2009. GE.10-14779