10-14 February 1999
The Arctic Centre
Rovaniemi, Finland

The Need for the Workshop

Arctic residents face dramatic changes to the biological resources vitally important to their physical and cultural survival. The workshop will explore the impact of human activity on arctic caribou and reindeer systems and the role of those systems in the resilience of arctic communities. Caribou and reindeer are the most important land-based species for people living in the Arctic (Figure 1 shows the distribution of the species.) The International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), representing national science organizations in 17 countries, has adopted this project as a priority on the IASC science agenda. The workshop will be the world's first gathering of natural and social scientists and indigenous peoples to address changes in arctic caribou and reindeer systems. The goal is to develop and widely disseminate a comprehensive plan for scientific research that promotes the physical and cultural well-being of Arctic residents and reduces conflicts over resource use and the timing and scope of extractive development.

Caribou and reindeer (scientifically known as Rangifer tarandus play a crucial role in human habitation of the Arctic by providing food, shelter, and transportation. The animals are central to the cultures of many indigenous peoples, including the Chukchi, Cree, Dene, Even, Evenki, Gwi'chin, Innu, Inuit, Metis, Nenets, Saami, Sakha (Yakut), Yukagir, and Yupiit. Changes in caribou and reindeer systems that may adversely impact these and other arctic residents include reductions in grazing land and resources as a result of large-scale development by mining and hydrocarbon industries, habitat alteration due to global warming and pollution, and shifts from subsistence hunting and herding to commercial herding. Fundamental changes in economic, political, and legal structures also affect indigenous peoples and their use of natural resources. For example, the decline of state farms and the rise of privatization and a market economy in the former Soviet Union are changing arctic residents' roles. Recent land claims agreements, court decisions, and the establishment of co-management regimes across the North American Arctic have resulted in newly acknowledged rights and roles for indigenous peoples in managing wild and semi-domesticated herds. The effects of these changes on caribou and reindeer systems and their relationship to indigenous peoples are potentially extreme, but have received little scientific study. Conflicts between a traditional reindeer economy and an expanding globally oriented industrial system are particularly pronounced in the Russian North.

Figure 1. Reindeer/caribou distribution

This workshop will draw on a pool of knowledge from caribou and reindeer users as well as past and ongoing studies by the science community. Research sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Smithsonian Institution, and U.S. Man and Biosphere Program and international meetings such as the International Arctic Ungulate Conferences, World Reindeer Congresses, and North American Caribou Workshops provide a basis for sustainable land and resource management. Scientists are investigating ecosystem relationships of caribou and reindeer and the human connections to arctic grazing systems, including their cultural, social, and economic importance. They are expanding knowledge of the effectiveness of different management systems and the impact of political and legal issues on land use. These initiatives, while valuable, are specific to particular areas and communities. Thus, there is a critical need for a broad initiative that is comprehensive in scope, covers the entire arctic region, and represents all relevant scientific and resident communities.

A European Community Concerted Action group entitled the Arctic and Alpine Terrestrial Ecosystems Research Initiative (ARTERI) held a workshop in Inari, Finland, in October 1997 on human environment interaction in the north, with particular emphasis on the relationship between modern and traditional knowledge. ARTERI plans to contribute its funds the workshop in order to further its own initiatives on human/environment interactions at the landscape level, using reindeer management as a case study. ARTERI aims to arrive at common research agendas in northern Fennoscandia and Russia on the development of reindeer management policies through dynamic interaction between the research community and stakeholder groups. A focal point of their effort will be the identification of compatibilities between the modern scientific knowledge base and the traditional/indigenous knowledge base.

Coordination among research efforts is needed to assure complementarity of studies, comparability of findings, and a common understanding of the complexities and variations that characterize arctic grazing systems. The proposed conference will address research gaps identified by the working group on the dynamics of arctic populations at the International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP). These gaps include the need to understand ecosystem processes and relationships that characterize and influence grazing systems' productivity and sustainability. Such an understanding will require collaboration among resident user groups, biological and social scientists (e.g. biologists, ecologists, anthropologists, geographers, sociologists, economists, political scientists) and systems modelers, with physical scientists' input on climatology. The conference organizing committee includes academic and research scientists and indigenous leaders from six arctic nations: Canada, Finland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States.

The three-day workshop will address key science questions identified in the ICARP final report, including how humans respond to ecosystem changes in the quality or quantity of resources, and how the environment responds when humans alter the way they interact with the environment. Participants will consider to what extent we can predict the impact of external influences on northern resources and people, and how changing institutions, rights, rules, and regulations regarding arctic resources affect the health of native populations and ecosystems. The format will familiarize participants with current major research initiatives and the concerns and views of arctic residents. It will result in recommendations for institutional responses to management challenges including ways to protect caribou and reindeer habitats, ways to reduce conflicts between renewable resource based livelihoods and non-renewable resource extraction, and ways to minimize the environmental, social, and cultural impacts of industrial development.

Products

Three main products will result from the workshop:

(1) a comprehensive science plan which identifies the gaps in prior research and existing cooperative arrangements and proposes a strategy to fill the gaps;

(2) a book or a special issue of Polar Geography (or other peer-reviewed journal) with papers from the plenary speakers and contributing authors, and

(3) a network that combines scientists, the user community, and those engaged in managing and protecting reindeer/caribou systems.

Date and locale

The workshop is scheduled for February 10-14, 1999 in Rovaniemi, Finland. Situated on the Arctic Circle, Rovaniemi lies well within the reindeer herding economic region of northern Finland in which both Saami and non-indigenous herders are active. The Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland, a national institution devoted to multidisciplinary research on human-environment interactions within the circumpolar North, will host the workshop. This location was chosen to maximize participation from Russia and Fennoscandia, keep costs low for participants from Western countries, and accommodate optional excursions to the Finnish Reindeer Research Station in Kaamanen and the Saami museum in Inari.

Key Science Questions

The workshop will address the following key science questions identified by the working group on the dynamics of arctic populations and ecosystems at the International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP).

1) When there is a change within ecosystems in the quality or quantity of resources available to human users, how do humans respond?

2) When humans alter the way they interact with the environment, how does the environment respond? Can we predict the impact of this feedback on the various components of the ecosystem?

3) Can we predict the impact of external influences (ranging from pressures and constraints applied by outside authorities to long-range transport of pollutants into the reindeer and caribou/human food chain) on northern resources and people?

4) How do changing institutions, rights, rules, and regulations regarding access to, management of, and ownership of land, water, and other natural resources affect the health of populations and ecosystems?