Abstract
Russia is the largest state on the Earth with the ancient history, multinational culture and rich natural and intellectual resources. This country has rich traditions in the biodiversity conservation, for example, the system of protected areas, forestry and rational use of hunting and sea biological resources. In this work the author wants to stress on the role of indigenous communities in the biodiversity conservation. The world community has realised that it is crucial for biodiversity preservation to envolve indigenous people, use their traditional knowledge. For this purpose the Convention on Biological Diversity by Article 8j gives for all members the framework of protection of indigenous communities and their TK. This paper deals with the issues of implementation of Article 8j in Russian Federation. But Russia has its own features here: Russian indigenous people's traditional knowledge is tied to natural resources and lands they are living on, thats why the protection of indigenous people's knowledge here should start from protection of basic rights of indigenous communities, the rights for lands and natural resources.