Arctic native peoples on the edge of collapse

by Robert W. Corell

Scientists estimate that, within a decade, the Inupiaq village of Shishmaref, located on the barrier island of Sarichef
off the coast of Alaska, will be swallowed by rising seas. In October 2001, a severe fall storm caused the shoreline
near the village to move inland by 125 feet. The Inupiaq people have lived here for over 4,000 years but will now
be forced to relocate to higher ground at a projected cost of almost $200 million.^1,2 And along the coast of Greenland,
the once year-round sea ice is gone for most of the late spring, summer, and early fall, making the traditional dog-sled
transportation—which for centuries sustained the hunter-gatherer lifestyle—impossible. According to local Inuits,
some villages have killed their sled dogs rather than see them starve, because they can no longer hunt for the seal
meat to feed them.

For millennia, the indigenous peoples of Russia, northern Scandinavia, and North America—the Inuits, Aleuts,
Athabaskans, and Gwich’in, among others—have endured environmental and climatic change. But recent
anthropogenic climate change may be their most formidable challenge of all. In the past few decades, Arctic
 average temperatures have risen at almost twice the rate as in the rest of the world (and in some areas, like
Alaska, annual average temperatures are rising at five times the global rates). Sea level is rising, the ice is
thinning, and the ranges and availability of the seals, whales, caribou, and fish that have sustained northern
cultures are changing.

For Arctic peoples, flexibility and innovation have long been key to adapting to environmental change.³
Historically, the reindeer herding communities across Russia and northern Scandinavia have moved their
homes (their tent-like lavvu) with their herds to summer pastures, then back to higher ground for the winter,
and then back again. However, today many Arctic peoples cannot simply relocate or change resource use as
they could in the past. Most now live in permanent, planned settlements, and their hunting and herding
activities are governed by land-use laws, landownership regulations, and resource management regimes.³
Climate change comes at a time when the indigenous peoples of the Arctic are already struggling to maintain
their cultures in an increasingly regulated world.

A fishing boat off the west coast of Greenland. Photo credit: Robert Corell
































Empowering indigenous peoples through self-government and co-management arrangements—giving them more
power and more flexibility—is key to helping them respond to the challenges posed by climate change.^4,5 As
noted by Mark Nuttall and colleagues, adaptation to climate change predominantly occurs at the local level,
so it is important to build institutions and agreements that incorporate indigenous perspectives and knowledge
and to let indigenous societies decide for themselveshow to understand and address the risks associated with
climate change.⁶ Arctic peoples now more than ever need to prepare themselves, their societies, and their
governments for change. What they will need is the best available adaptation knowledge—both the expertise
of the scientific community and, essentially, their own on-the-ground and historical experience.

Since the 1970s, there has been a greater degree of local involvement in the management of natural resources.
An important example is the success of the Inuvialuit people of the Canadian Beaufort Sea region. The
Inuvialuit Final Agreement of 1984 is a comprehensive Native land-claims agreement that recognizes Native
rights to landownership, cooperative management, and economic development.⁴ The agreement evolved new
governance mechanisms that, by contributing to self-organization, help the Inuvialuit people manage the
effects of change.^3,7 While the agreement is an important example of increased self-governance and greater
local decision-making power, Claudia Notzke and others have noted that there remains considerable unfinished work.^8,9

At the international level, the Arctic Council provides indigenous peoples with a policy venue for addressing
their interdependence in cross-boundary matters.¹⁰ The council is made up of the eight countries of the Arctic
region: Canada, Denmark, Greenland, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Russian Federation,
and the United States; along with six permanent participants: the Aleut International Association, the Arctic
Athabaskan Council, the Gwich’in Council International, the Inuit Circumpolar Council, the Raipon, and the
Saami Council. The Arctic Council aims to enable full participation by these groups, including providing a
funding mechanism to cover the costs of such participation.

An Inuit family just outside the town of Ilulissat, Greenland. Photo credit: Robert Correll

In addition, innovative co-management regimes allow indigenous peoples to share the responsibility for resource management
with the state.³ The Inupiaq and Siberian Yupik Eskimos in northern and western Alaska have hunted the bowhead whale
(Balaena mysticetus) for thousands of years. But in the 1970s, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) banned
Alaskan Eskimos from subsistence harvest of bowhead whales. The ban was later modified to allow a limited quota for
certain Alaskan villages. In 2008, the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission (AEWC) signed an agreement with the U.S.
government (through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA) to protect both the bowhead
whale and Eskimo culture. The agreement promotes scientific investigation of the bowhead whale and enforces the
Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Whaling Convention Act, and the Endangered Species Act as they relate to aboriginal
subsistence whaling.¹¹

The AEWC—led by ten commissioners elected by whaling captains from each village—now helps regulate the Eskimo
harvest of the bowhead whale. Through the AEWC, whaling captains and villagers are also given a forum to speak
about issues affecting their subsistence whaling at meetings with the U.S. commissioner to the IWC, NOAA personnel,
the mayor of the North Slope Borough, staff of the borough’s Department of Wildlife Management, and cooperating scientists.¹²

The North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission agreement, signed in 1992 by Norway, Iceland, Greenland, and the
Faroe Islands, also explores new approaches to international cooperation on conservation and management. At the
cornerstone of the commission’s strategy is a commitment to use reliable scientific and indigenous knowledge as the
basis for resource management.

Educational institutions of the North must be equipped to prepare indigenous youth for leadership roles within their
communities. In the coming years, many more indigenous people will need to serve as members on local boards, for
example, to ensure that their culture and extensive indigenous knowledge are part of the policies that will shape their
future. Much needs to be done at local and national levels to meet this educational challenge. The University of the
Arctic¹³ has made substantial progress in this area: it offers degree programs designed to provide northern residents
with opportunities for research and for exploring sustainable practices in the North. Graduates have an in-depth
understanding of the problems and concerns facing Arctic indigenous groups. They also develop the tools needed
to sustainably maintain or develop the Arctic as well as the skills and the knowledge to actively participate in Arctic
issues.

In some areas of Greenland, melting sea ice has made traditional dog-sled transportation impossible. Photo credit: Robert Correll





























In 2003, I met with 15 Saami reindeer herders in northern Norway to talk about climate change. At one point, one of the men
stood up, visibly moved, and said that his people have sustained their way of life for centuries, but that his generation will
likely be the last to herd reindeer in their ancestral lands. Arctic Native peoples have shown themselves to be incredibly
innovative and resilient in the face of change. But in today’s modern and increasingly prescribed world, adaptation alone is
not enough. Native peoples must be involved in decision making and resource management; they must be given the power
and flexibility to weather climate change. When institutions enabling such involvement are in place, indigenous communities,
scientists, and policymakers can work together to keep up with a changing Arctic.

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This article is in part derived from the 11th Annual National Conference on Science, Policy and
the Environment: Our Changing Oceans hosted by the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE).

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References

1. Shishmaref Erosion and Relocation Coalition [online]. www.shishmarefrelocation.com/our_culture.html.
2. Eira, IMG et al. The challenges of Arctic reindeer herding: The interface between reindeer herders’ traditional knowledge and modern understanding of the ecology, economy, sociology and management of Sámi reindeer herding [online]. archive.arcticportal.org/550/01/Eira_127801.pdf.
3. Nuttall, M et al. in Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA). Hunting, Herding, Fishing and Gathering: Indigenous Peoples and Renewable Resource Use in the Arctic 649-690 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2005).
4. Huntington, H et al. in Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA). The Changing Arctic: Indigenous Perspectives 61-98 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2005).
5. The Arctic Governance Project [online]. arcticgovernance.custompublish.com/index.php?find=self+governance.
6. Nuttall, M, Forest, P-A & Mathiesen, SD. Adaptation to climate change in the Arctic [online] (2008).www.uarctic.org/Adaptation_to_Climate_Change_in_the_Arctic_FINAL_web_rV6....
7. Doubleday, N in Co-Operative Management of Local Fisheries (Pinkerton, E, ed), Co-management provisions of the Inuvaluit Final Agreement (University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver, 1989).
8. Notzke, C. Aboriginal Peoples and Natural Resources in Canada (Captus Press, Concord, ON, 1994).
9. Cassidy, F & Dale, N. After Native Claims? The Implications of Native Claims Settlements for Natural Resources in British Columbia (Institute for Research on Public Policy, Halifax, NS, 1988).
10. The Arctic Council [online]. www.arctic-council.org.
11. Cooperative agreement between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission as amended 2008 [online]. www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/agreement_aewc.pdf.
12. Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission (AEWC) [online]. www.alaska-aewc.com.
13. University of the Arctic [online]. www.uarctic.org.

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