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

national goals into local contexts. This indicates a need for further analysis of decision-making structures, both in terms of administrative functionality and in relation to power over decisions that are relevant for adaptation, including decisions that may not be labelled adaptation. European Union legislation can be a limiting factor when deciding optimal adaptation measures in the Barents area. However, the EU has several funding programs that support regional development and cross-border cooperation, thereby providing financial opportunities for adapting to change (Chapter 3). Given these close links to the EU, together with the EU as a major market for resources from the region (Cavalieri et al., 2010) and the flow of immigrants, the Barents area is highly exposed to potential changes in European cooperation,which are very difficult to predict. Local sensitivity is likely to be dependent on how economic and demographic structures develop, as well as on local decision-making powers. The Barents area is highly exposed to global geopolitical change, even if the impacts are moderated by national and international cooperation.After a 25-year period of increasing cross-border collaboration, political tensions and military presence have recently increased.As highlighted in Chapter 5, the impacts on local futures of changing geopolitical priorities and interests are difficult to assess but nevertheless should be included in any analyses of changing conditions and the need for adaptation processes. 10.2.1.4 Access to salient and relevant knowledge Knowledge of climate change and its immediate impacts on the physical environment has increased significantly over recent decades (see Box 10.1). The knowledge base includes scientific analysis of observed changes as well as increased efforts to document and include indigenous observations and knowledge and to integrate these in the published literature (Chapters 6 and 7). New efforts that combine scientific and indigenous peoples’monitoring are also underway (Chapter 7). Downscaled scenarios for future climate change generate information at scales that are relevant to local and regional decision-makers. Some of this information is available via interactive websites, providing details at the watershed- scale and even further (Chapter 5). Nevertheless, Chapter 9 highlights the need for ‘tailor-made’ scenarios that are easy to understand and salient for users’ purposes, where lack of relevant knowledge is currently a barrier to adaptation in specific weather-dependent sectors. Despite the increasing availability of information, the Barents area still faces several challenges related to knowledge (Chapter 3). These include communication gaps between producers and users of knowledge, as well as the lack of frameworks for integrating knowledge about different types of change.Moreover, indigenous peoples and minority groups throughout the Barents area have often been kept from expressing their culture and language and thus eroding the capacity to communicate traditional knowledge (Chapter 7). The situation began to improve in the 1970s, but the effects of the old policies and practices are still felt today (Chapters 5, 6 and 7).Another challenge is to assess cumulative and interacting impacts of different types of change (Chapter 6).Ways of making

(Chapters 7 and 9). Loss of land and forage to other land uses (e.g. forestry and mines), increasing predation pressure due to national conservation policies (Chapter 5), increasing costs, poorly recognized indigenous land rights, and limited influence over other land uses and in governance systems all limit the opportunities of reindeer herders to adapt to the changing condition (Chapters 2, 7, 8 and 9). Many of the challenges that the reindeer herders are facing are not new, and result from long-standing conflicts of interest and power relations. If development is not undertaken in collaboration with reindeer herders, it may lead to serious barriers to being able to adapt reindeer herding to future change (Chapter 7). Although reindeer husbandry provides only a minor contribution to the national and regional economy and labor force, it is an important part of the regional culture (Chapters 2, 6, 7 and 8), and some of the Barents area nations are bound by the ILO 169 Convention to protect indigenous rights to livelihoods (see Chapter 7 for further details). Conflicting interests regarding land use rights and their effects on the livelihoods of indigenous peoples is a recurring theme throughout the Barents area. Although countries govern the situation through laws and regulations, land use conflicts remain (Chapters 2, 6, 7, 8 and 9).While conflicting interests are difficult to avoid completely, unresolved conflicts or solutions that are perceived to be unfair can negatively affect trust in social relations and governance processes, including those related to adaptation.They can also divert limited financial and human resources that might otherwise be used for adaptation actions and processes. 10.2.1.3 Decision-making authority and capacity While most adaptation decisions are made at the local level, local and regional decision-making in the Barents area is heavily integrated into national political structures, connected to the global economy and governance structures, and in the case of Sweden and Finland directly (Norway indirectly) subject to EU regulatory systems. Furthermore, the increasing role of transnational corporations, particularly in the primary sectors, leads to less local power over decisions with major local implication.Municipalities are thus highly exposed to priorities and decisions by actors outside the region. At the same time, profits are often transferred out of the region, which affects the financial capacity of regional and local governments (Chapter 3). Power over decision-making was raised as a concern at several scenario workshops (Chapter 5) and is also a major issue in relation to self-organization as a key feature of resilience (Chapter 8). The issues concern the relative power between national government versus regional and local governments, as well as between corporate actors versus local decision-makers. Another issue is related to indigenous rights and the extent to which they are respected, not least in relation to conflicts over land use (Chapter 7). Some changes in the Nordic part of the Barents area are tending toward increasing the role of regional self-government, potentially providing more regional power over decisions that affect adaptation over the long term.However, as highlighted in Chapter 9, responsibilities for developing adaptation measures are often unclear and major challenges exist in translating