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

an overview of the dimensions requiring attention when developing adaptation options. The first column indicates some of the current adaptation strategies found in reports and scientific studies from the Barents area (based on Table 9.4). This is not an exhaustive list, but indicates the broad range of adaptation strategies that people, communities and sectors have developed.These strategies are either reactive adaptation responses to changes or challenges – to events that have happened; or are proactive (planned) adaptation responses – to projected or expected events or trends. The strategies are interlinked in practice, and applying only one strategy is rarely sufficient.The second column highlights the salient factors that activate the adaptation process.Whether adaptation strategies are feasible and successful depends on the ways these processes are shaped and activated. Worth noting is the dynamic and qualitative nature of these factors, which is mirrored in the cumulative and interacting changes to which the adaptation processes are responding. The third column highlights some of the barriers and limits that may have a bearing on both the adaptation processes and the strategies. Research has found that adaptation processes may be driven by the best intentions and willingness to address challenges (or opportunities) only to be limited by, sometimes unexpected, societal or governance factors,at another scale or with other and potentially conflicting goals (such as fisheries management through quotas that are not in step with shifting fish stocks as a result of ocean warming; see also examples in Boxes 9.1 and 9.3).This illustrates that both the will to adapt and the plans to adapt may be in place but are met by structural or resource related barriers and limits.Adaptation governance cross-cuts the three dimensions and is expressed

knowledge plays a central role, to other countries where it is not addressed at all. Not using local and traditional knowledge in adaptation processes and governance can be a major barrier to adaptation. However, its inclusion is a complex matter and even if efforts are being made to ensure indigenous and local participation in the processes, it is not a given that they will have the human or financial resources or trust in the system to contribute (Risvoll and Hovelsrud, 2016).The barriers may manifest as resistance to measures because local communities may not recognize their own situation in the measures that are being developed. Adaptation measures may also be limited in scope and relevance if local knowledge is ignored. Research and education in indigenous peoples’ society over the past 30 years may not be adequate for future solutions, in light of the speed and magnitude of the changes taking place and projected for the Arctic. There is a need for a new kind of education in the North; one that incorporates multidisciplinary, multicultural, and holistic approaches for sustainable development and that also includes indigenous peoples world views and traditional knowledge as well as the prevailing worldview (see also Chapter 7). Scientific and traditional experience-based knowledge is key to developing successful adaptationmeasures and securing viable livelihoods and communities. 9.4.4 Key insights on adaptation options This chapter has illustrated the interlinkage between changing climatic, environmental and societal conditions and has identified various adaptive strategies and processes for the Barents area. Building on Tables 9.2 and 9.4, Table 9.5 provides

Table 9.5 Dimensions of adaptation options.

Dimensions of current adaptation strategies

Dimensions in activating adaptation processes Barriers and limits to adaptation

Motivation and the perceived need to adapt Trade-offs between adaptation concerns and mandatory and more pressing tasks Available and relevant knowledge Lack of resources Transferability of national goals and guidelines to local concerns Unclear responsibilities and insufficient frameworks Ignoring local/ traditional knowledge

Knowledge about the change and challenges/ opportunity Attention to the change Observations of real events (local outmigration, unemployment, longer growing seasons) Extreme weather events (floods, avalanches) Engaged officials and residents Direct contact and involvement with research Enabling institutions (municipality or county for example) Livelihood flexibility and diversification Access to knowledge Access to human and financial resources, Capacity building Long term or short term perspective on adaptation

Engineering technical solutions and innovation; infrastructural improvements Regulatory mechanisms Technological standards Economic mechanisms Innovation and entrepreneurship; product development and marketing New knowledge Institutional structures Production practices and routines Cross-sectoral interactions

Governing tools Cooperation and coordination on international, national, regional and local levels

Distribution of responsibility for adaptation – at different levels Legal, regulatory, strategic and policy frameworks at various levels Climate scenarios and projections Policy and planning tools regional and local level – risk and vulnerability assessment, spatial planning

Handbooks and guidelines on climate change adaptation planning; spatial planning taking climate change into account Networks and meeting points for sharing experience and knowledge dissemination among public agencies, ex. conferences Webpages as information hubs Cost-benefit analyses of adaptation in order to assess different options