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ArcticXchange - Exchanging knowledge and co-producing climate services with reindeer herders and Arctic communities

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 institutions involved in ArcticXchange are:

Position

Institution

Team

Coordinator

Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS), Department of Earth Sciences, Earth System Services Group, Spain

Marta Terrado

Dragana Bojovic

Nuria Pérez-Zanon

Nube González-Reviriego

Albert Martínez-Botí

Partner

University of Lapland, Arctic Centre & Palojärvi reindeer herding cooperative, Finland

Tanja Joona

CO-CREATE: Comprehensive Policy Brief to the EU Commission - A roadmap to decolonial Arctic research

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

The CO-CREATE Consortium provides the EU Commission with a Comprehensive Policy Brief as an evidence-based roadmap for achieving decolonial innovation in the Arctic research landscape and mainstreaming co-created and collaborative Arctic research conducted in equal partnership by Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers and rightsholders in 1) large-scale projects, 2) calls for projects, 3) proposal and project evaluation, and 4) in the implementation of the European Polar Research Program.

 

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

At the international level, the rights of Indigenous Peoples have been receiving increasing legal recognition. Similarly, EU calls-for-proposals ask now for a ‘co-design approach’ in research (i.e. Horizon 2020). Arctic researchers are increasingly adopting decolonial research approaches. Yet mainstreaming decolonial research practices and initiatives that support indigenous sovereignty in the Arctic are often still lacking. It is exactly here, where theoretical and methodological ambition connected to the concept of co- creation will help to improve capacity among researchers and EU Commission in their efforts to mainstream decolonial research practices and policies.

 

WHEN ARE RESULTS COMMUNICATED?

The findings will be presented to the EU Commission and relevant stakeholders during the Comprehensive Policy Brief’s official launch event in Brussels in February 2023, which will be followed by the International Arctic Research Day.

 

WHO IS INVOLVED?

The CO-CREATE Consortium is composed of Indigenous rightsholders and researchers and non-Indigenous scientists from social sciences and natural sciences. They build on long-term experience in collaborative and co-creative Arctic research and lobbying:

Position

Name

Affiliation

Coordinator & Lead-Partner

Thora Herrman

Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ & German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Germany

Lead-Partner

Elle Merete Omma

Anja Márjá Nystø Keskitalo

Saami Council

Lead-Partner

Jan Erik Henriksen

Britt Kramvig

Nina Hermansen

Ida Hydle 

The Indigenous Voices (IVO) research group – Álgoálbmogii jienat, The Arctic University of Norway UiT

Partner

Nina Döring

Institute of Advanced Sustainability Studies IASS, Germany

Partner

Stephan Dudeck

Foundation for Siberian Cultures, Germany

Partner

Josef Elster

University of Southern Bohemia, Centre for Polar Ecology, Czech Republic

Partner

Gertrude Saxinger

University of Vienna & Austrian Polar Research Institute APRI

Partner

 Annette Scheepstra

Francesca Brunner Alfani

Arctic Centre, University Groningen, The Netherlands

Partner

 Wolfgang Schöner

Anna Burdenski

Jorrit van der Schot

University of Graz, Austrian Polar Research Institute APRI