Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic: Perspectives from the Barents Area

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Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic: Perspectives from the Barents Area

2013).The growing importance of winter tourism is one of the future trends in the Barents area. Tourism development has a positive impact on the proportion of women in some localities as the tourism industry attracts female workers. In Finnish Lapland, big ski resorts have more women and young residents than surrounding rural areas (Kauppila, 2004). More foreign workers are also used in the tourism industry and this trend is expected to increase in Norway and Finland (Tuulentie and Heimtun, 2014).Winter tourism is experiencing a major increase and becoming increasingly important in all parts of Barents area. The impacts of climate change are expected to be both positive and negative for tourism. Tourism may decline owing to a lack of snow and other environmental changes, and in sparsely populated rural regions this could lead to a loss of retail and other services and so affect the viability of entire communities (Brouder and Lundmark, 2011, see Chapter 9). For polar tourism, environmental change represents both opportunities and challenges, while greater access and warmer summers may encourage tourism development (Saarinen, 2014; Chapter 9). Rising temperatures are likely to stimulate summer tourism demands, and more ‘mild days’ and ‘warm days’ will positively affect tourists’ thermal comfort. From this perspective, a warmer climate would ease some challenges related to seasonality (Førland et al., 2013). In Finland, climate change is expected to enhance winter tourism in Lapland in the near future as the projected lack of snow will adversely affect skiing conditions in central Europe. Summer tourism will benefit if rising summer temperatures in the Mediterranean become intolerable and drive tourists north (Kietäväinen and Tuulentie, 2013). Parallel situations can be expected for the Barents area as a whole. While cruise tourism is well established in northern Norway, it is slowly emerging in north-west Russia where it is seen as a potentially new form of tourism. The development of cruise tourism in the Russian Barents Sea and along the coast is often claimed by academics, industry and policymakers to be a promising economic activity for Russian Arctic communities and territories (for an overview see Pashkevich and Stjernström, 2014 and Lamers and Pashkevich, 2015). To develop the infrastructure to ensure regular and marine passenger transport, the investment project‘Arctic harbor’ will be implemented inMurmansk, where the marine terminal will be reconstructed with new buildings and modifications to the port area, including a pier for the long-distance lines, providing capacity to accept passenger cruise ships and an opportunity to open a regular ferry line between Kirkenes and Murmansk (McBride et al., 2016). The number of visitors to the national park ‘Russian Arctic’ and federal reserve Franz Josef Land almost doubled between summer 2015 (738 people and six cruise ships) and summer 2016 (1225 people and 11 cruise ships) (Figure 6.12). Opening of the new ‘pilot’ border location on Alexandra’s Land has made access easier for foreign tourists. However, seven of the 11 cruise ships were nuclear icebreakers on their way to the North Pole and according to JSC‘Atomflot’, from 2016, nuclear icebreakers will no longer be used for tourist cruises to the North Pole and Franz Josef Land and will be reassigned to their original purposes (including cargo transport, oil and gas

Number of cruises

Number of tourists

1400

12

Tourists Cruises

1200

10

1000

8

800

6

600

4

400

2

200

0

0

2012

2013

2014

2015

Figure 6.12 Numbers of cruise trips and tourists visiting the national park ‘Russian Arctic’ ( Russkaya Arktika ) between 2012 and 2016 (Russkaya Arktika).

industry, military activities). There will still be tourist cruises using the diesel powered icebreaker to Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya (McBride et al., 2016). Cruise tourism in Svalbard has increased considerably over the past 10–15 years with multiple operators and vessels (McBride et al., 2016). The number of landing sites has steadily increased and a total of 189 sites were used in 2013. Passenger numbers reached 9000 by 2012. This number has since declined probably for economic reasons and is now slightly lower. In addition to the settlements, there are a couple of landing sites suitable for passengers from overseas cruise ships. The ban on heavy crude oil limits passenger numbers and restricted access to cultural heritage sites has changed the routes of large ships and protects vulnerable areas in eastern Svalbard (McBride et al., 2016). There is a plan to extend the itinerary of the Norwegian coastal cruises of Hurtigruten to the Russian ports of Murmansk andArkhangelsk (Lamers and Pashkevich, 2015). The European part of the Barents area has the potential for turning the ordinary into the exotic for tourists (Kohllechner- Autto, 2011; Pashkevich and Stjernström, 2014). The high degree of heterogeneity characterizing the tourism industry in this area (in terms of business culture, level of tourism development, infrastructure, legislation and human capacity) not only hinders interregional cooperation but also creates barriers for some municipalities to the benefits of tourism (García-Rosell et al., 2013). Nevertheless, the consequences of climate change are not widely noticed in this sector. Instead, socio-economic drivers such as availability of skilled labor, economic fluctuations, international policy and consumer preferences receive more attention in marketing and planning (Amundsen, 2012; Tuulentie and Heimtun, 2014). 6.3.3 Energy The energy sector in the Barents area is changing in response to both global market forces and regional resource demand. Increased activity in the energy sector generally leads to increased environmental impacts, both for the oil and gas industry and for alternative energy sources.