Services

Decision-making within the reindeer herding community has been traditionally based on indigenous and practitioners’ knowledge, which are contextual and local forms of knowledge passed on from one generation to the next. Although this community is used to coping with adverse weather and grazing conditions, today’s rapidly changing Arctic environment poses new challenges to the management of herding activities.

ArcticXchange will apply a transdisciplinary framework for knowledge co-production, involving natural scientists, social scientists, and reindeer herders. The project will co-develop a case study for reindeer husbandry in Finnish Lapland, understood as a proof-of-concept of the added value of climate services for this community. The case study will explore how climate predictions can help anticipate the climate conditions for the next weeks and months and how this can inform reindeer herders’ planning and management practices. If appropriately integrated with the traditional knowledge that Arctic communities rely on, this new scientific knowledge will help enhance the capacity of these communities to deal with climate change and variability. Overall, this will increase the resilience of Polar regions in the face of climate change, offering opportunities for adaptation and helping to preserve traditional activities whose sustainability is under threat.

The work within the framework of the ArcticXchange Service Contract is published in the Journal Science of the Total Environment (STOTEN): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969723071486 

The institutions involved in ArcticXchange are: