Nowadays, the process of intensive industrial development of the Arctic territories is underway; it is connected with involvement of local natural resources into economic turnover and socio-economic development of these territories. At the same time, the Northern indigenous minorities establish and secure legislatively the territories of traditional land use with limited economic activity to protect their interests and rights, as well as to preserve their indigenous environment. In view of the fact that many mineral deposits and energy resource fields to some extent affect such territories, it is necessary to develop a mechanism to coordinate the interests of all stakeholders, including investors, producer companies, municipalities, the Northern indigenous minorities and their communities. The aim of the paper is to analyse an application of ethnological expertise in assessment of positive and negative impacts of capital projects and to find out possible forms of compensation, which may offset these potential negative impacts on the indigenous environments and indigenous peoples. Sociological research approaches were used as one of the tools to identify the interests and needs of indigenous inhabitants at the zero-stage of the project. The paper presents the results of sociological research as the means for development of an interaction model among the stakeholders in commercial exploitation of the territories of traditional land use. The presented scientific methodology for ethnological expertise of capital projects in the Russian Arctic can be also used in other Arctic regions and countries, which might face conflict situations during development of natural resources in native habitats of the Northern indigenous minorities.