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

187

Chapter 7 · Indigenous peoples’ perspectives

Andreas Ausland

Much knowledge is embedded within indigenous food systems and cultures; traditional Sámi reindeer slaughtering techniques are one such example

Traditional knowledge has been formally recognized by the Arctic Council as important to understanding the Arctic in many Ministerial Declarations, including the 1996 Ottawa Declaration on the establishment of the Arctic Council. The “… role of Arctic Indigenous Peoples and their traditional knowledge in the conservation and sustainable use of Arctic biological resources ” was also emphasized in the Tromsø Declaration (2009). Furthermore, the Kiruna Declaration (2013) called for the Arctic Council to “ recognize that the use of traditional and local knowledge is essential to a sustainable future in the Arctic, and decide to develop recommendations to integrate traditional and local knowledge in the work of Arctic Council .” Permanent Participants represent traditional knowledge holders and are integral to the inclusion and use of traditional knowledge in the work of the Arctic Council. These fundamental principles represent the foundation for the long-term vision and framework for incorporating traditional knowledge inArctic Council activities. Traditional knowledge and science are different yet complementary systems and sources of knowledge, and when appropriately used together may generate newknowledge andmay informdecision-making, policy development and the work of the Arctic Council. The co-production of knowledge requires creative and culturally appropriate methodologies and technologies that use both traditional knowledge and science applied across all processes of knowledge creation. The Arctic Council Scientific Cooperation Task Force for Enhancing Scientific Cooperation in theArctic (SCTF) reached recent ad referendum agreement on a new Agreement on Enhancing Arctic Scientific Cooperation and indigenous peoples’ traditional knowledge was noted to have a role in enhancing international scientific cooperation in the Arctic.

in fishing communities, where government control of fisheries has had a negative effect on local livelihoods. The need for a new social contract between science and society is clear,one based on knowledge partnerships where indigenous peoples’ traditional knowledge is included. “In regards to the important Sámi traditional livelihood of river fishing, an unspoken but considerable threat to its future continuation is that traditional knowledge related to traditional fishing methods is not being passed down between generations in a systematic manner. In fact, I personally know only a handful of people around my age who actually know how to make a buođđu, a traditional Sámi dam net fishing structure. I feel that the perceived primary value of wild salmon is ever more leaning towards its value as a commodity for tourists, rather than food security,or traditional right or practice –which I see as being a threat to our regional food security itself.This of course has also an effect on the broader Sámi society. If people become ever more dependent on tourismand its related activities we are depending on the economic situation of others outside our region, rather than investing our future on the salmon run itself.” AslakHolmberg,a young Sámi who grew up by the Deatnu River and now teaches in the Sámi College of Applied Sciences, Kautokeino, Norway Indigenous traditional knowledge, culture, and language provide a central foundation for adaptation and for building resilience in the face of rapid environmental change, which implies that education based upon traditional knowledge, culture and language should be provided locally. The Permanent Participants to the Arctic Council recently developed the Ottawa Traditional Knowledge Principles.