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

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Chapter 1 · Introduction and framing issues

Arctic Ocean

Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug

Franz Josef Land

Kara Sea

Novaya Zemlya

Svalbard

Nenets

Barents Sea LME

Autonomous Okrug

Komi Republic

Finnmark

Murmansk oblast

Arkhangelsk oblast

Troms

Lappland

Norwegian Sea

Norrbotten

Republic of Karelia

Oulu

Nordland

Västerbotten

Figure 1.2 The Barents area, as defined in this pilot study. The terrestrial areas follow relevant administrative boundaries within the four countries. The marine area comprises the Barents Sea Large Marine Ecosystem (LME).

and looking decades ahead has been a challenge. Nevertheless, building shared knowledge and understanding of cumulative and cascading impacts is key to developing effective policy responses, such as adaptation actions, enhancing resilience and implementing of mitigation measures. Adaptation to change, and building adaptive capacity and resilience, is an evolving and dynamic process, constantly responding to an increasing knowledge base as well as to the actual or expected effects of change. It is a learning process, in which theArctic Council can also play a constructive role for many years to come.

as key consequences of projected changes, are discussed in Chapter 6, with particular emphasis given to indigenous peoples perspectives in Chapter 7. A resilience approach to adaptation is introduced in Chapter 8, and applied to studies of several local contexts to test the utility of developing a framework of resilience indicators.Chapter 9 on adaptation options highlights the many changes that will need to be addressed within the Barents area in the context of multiple stressors (environmental and climatic,societal,institutional and governance,and political and economic). The chapter illustrates different adaptation processes, barriers and limits to adaptation, and governing tools. Chapter 10 – the Synthesis chapter – places adaptation within the context of broader policy goals related to sustainable development and highlights those social processes that will need strengthening in order to support long-term adaptation action to the multiple and interacting changes expected in the coming decades. 1.4 Way forward The Arctic and the regions explored as part of the AACA project are complex systems undergoing rapid environmental and societal change. By integrating knowledge from many different fields of expertise, and across regions with large cultural diversity, multiple uses and users of local resources, and ambitious development plans for the future, AACA has broken new ground. Using a multidisciplinary approach, applying this across wide geographical and societal scales,