The Arctic region is currently undergoing many changes. The interest they arouse is reflected in the number of reports and studies on the region. Are the reports able to look at complex phenomena as interrelated entities, and can the results of these studies feed into decision-making?

CHARTER is a major EU Horizon2020 project
that has been running since 2020. Its main objective is to advance capacity of
Arctic communities to climatic and biodiversity changes. 

At the same time, the project has explored how its key research themes
are addressed in various reports, studies and policy documents. A study on this has
just been published in the prestigious One Earth journal.

The researchers compared different Arctic assessment reports and policy guidelines.
The purpose was to find out how these documents deal with land use in the northern
region, biodiversity, climate change, and local communities and livelihoods, all
together. In other words, how the complex linkages between these issues are
addressed, rather than the issues separately.

– A vast
number of reports on the latest scientific research aimed at decision-makers have
been written on the Arctic region. Someone noted that no other region of the world
has as many scientific assessments per capita as the Arctic in the world, says
researcher Sirpa Rasmus from the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland.

In addition to assessment reports, there are Arctic strategies
and action programs by a wide range of actors at different levels. Among these, the
researchers selected 80 documents that fit the scope research in the CHARTER
project.

– We were interested in learning whether such
reports and policy guidelines would regard vital, complex matters as separate issues
or as the interconnected and interlinked drivers of change they actually are, Rasmus
continues.

According to Rasmus, it is important to
understand how things are done in the ‘real world’ in the playing fields of
government and politics. One goal of doing research is to influence decision-makers
and take small steps for the better.

The role
of local communities is overlooked

In a
rapidly changing environment, Arctic communities and livelihoods are vulnerable. But
they also have the potential to make a major contribution to mitigating climate
change and halting habitat loss, if the opportunities are recognised and
acknowledged, says Rasmus.

"Reindeer
The different ways of land use in the North have a major impact on
the conditions for traditional livelihoods such as reindeer herding. Photo: Matti
Kantola. 

According to the researchers
who have studied the texts, the links between the issues most affecting the future
of the Arctic are already quite well understood.

– There was even a surprising amount of “nexus thinking” in the documents ,
i.e. treating the above issues as an interrelated whole. However, some links were
emphasised more strongly than others, Rasmus says.

The
researchers also found big differences in the direction in which the impacts were
thought to occur, or whether, for example, climate and biodiversity were seen as
interacting in both directions. 

– What was
particularly striking was how rarely local communities and livelihoods were seen as
actors with the ability and power to influence these other big issues. Yet many
traditional livelihoods have a strong influence on the surrounding environment and
use the land extensively. Similarly, biodiversity was seen as a the
‘victim’,” says Rasmus.

What are the
conclusions and what advice would the researchers give for future policy
recommendations? 

– We think that decision-making
and change-orientation would work better if we understood things and processed them
as a whole, not as separate items. This kind of more holistic management would
require much better understanding and communication across sectoral and national
borders, and also at the local level. In the current situation, this may sound
utopian, yet it is worth striving for, Rasmus says.

 

Policy documents considering biodiversity, land use,
and climate in the European Arctic reveal visible, hidden, and imagined nexus
approaches
One Earth, Volume 7, Issue 2, 16 February 2024,
Pages 265-279