Recent publications on human appropriation of Net Primary Production (NPP) raise the question of how much of the biosphere’s productivity we can appropriate in a sustainable way. This article brings the issue into the context of Siberian development. In contrast to many other regions of the world, the population density in Siberia is still very low as compared to the NPP supplied by regional ecosystems. Hence, it is not too late to raise the question on how much of the NPP supplied by Siberian ecosystems we can appropriate in a sustainable way