The author presents a regionalization of Yakutia on the basis of the sensitivity of the permafrost environment to disturbance. This is related to parallel mapping of the distribution of segregation ice in permafrost throughout the USSR. Not unexpectedly, the coastal and riverine lowlands of northern Siberia emerge as areas of both maximum ground ice concentrations and maximum sensitivity to disturbance. Other topics discussed include the dangers of ground‐water pollution in permafrost areas and of industrial air pollution under the special meteorological conditions of northern Siberia. The author also speaks out strongly against the large‐scale, mechanized poaching of both fish and game by unauthorized personnel of mining or construction organizations in the North. Finally the need for northern national parks and nature reserves is discussed and six potential sites requiring urgent protection in the form of reserves or natural parks are identified. (The article is based on a paper read in Yakutsk at a session of the Council for Problems of the Biosphere of the Academy of Sciences USSR in July 1978, devoted to environmental protection problems under the particularly severe climatic and permafrost conditions of northern Siberia during the present period of active exploitation and industrial development.)