Expressions of Intent for International Polar Year 2007-2008 Activities

Expression of Interest Details

PROPOSAL INFORMATION

CANADA #37: Human Environmental and Political Adaptation North of the Arctic Circle in the Last Millennium and Into The Next.  (People, Environmental Change, and Self-determination (PECS))

Outline
This research has three related streams: 1) to examine human perception of and adaptation to environmental change, specifically global warming in the polar regions; 2) to examine circumpolar peoples’ perceptions of and response to the environmental change wrought by industrial resource extraction; 3) to work with circumpolar peoples in designing and supporting self-government for local and ‘downstream’ monitoring and response to environmental change. Canadian examples where both natural and industrial impacts may or will be significant include an all-weather road in the western Northwest Territories to Coronation Gulf, required to import industrial materials and export raw materials from the Barrenlands through a seaport open much of the year; and a Mackenzie Valley pipeline.The opening of both the Northwest and Northeast Passages and their potential as commonly used shipping lanes (already seasonally common tourist destinations) will affect Scandinavian, Russian, Siberian, Chukotkan, Alaskan, Canadian and Greenlandic people. Most indigenous circumpolar peoples have inhabited the land and seascape of their traditional territories for at least the last millennium. They possess both contemporary and historical data that bear on interpretation and prediction of the effects of global warming. These data are part of natural science studies of global warming. Because ice has been essential to northerners for infrastructure, transportation, and animal habitat, its disappearance at a relatively rapid rate is very important to their present and future lives. Indigenous peoples’ experience is also important for the rest of the world, because their observation and response to global warming has and will continue to inform people at more southerly latitudes. Much previous research has attempted to keep separate the analysis of global warming (‘natural’ in a local sense) impacts from local industrial development impacts (human-induced change.) For northerners, however, these are inextricably linked because northerners lack, for the most part, effective self-governance and thus any effective control over either development or adaptive response to environmental change, no matter its cause. For continued human life in the circumpolar regions, a political agenda for greater self-determination is inextricably linked to human adaptation to the changing environment. Thus social and natural factors must be integrated in the human dimensions of International Polar Year research. Outcomes, research product, and perhaps a legacy of this international project will include: • An holistic, international database, accessible to northern communities as well as to researchers, matching categories of both historical and traditional environmental knowledge with categories of scientific observation, including a search engine making access and use of data efficient; • Increased local capacity to monitor and respond to circumpolar environmental change, specifically the variability in annual ice cover, marine, riverine and lacustrine; • Increased capacity for environmental monitoring and regulation within indigenous governance and among governments for circumpolar peoples.

What significant advance(s) in relation to the IPY themes and targets can be anticipated from this project?
This research integrates themes 2 (Change) and 6 (Human Dimension) most directly. Significant advances will also result for themes 1 (Status) through the establishment of the international database of traditional environmental knowledge; 3 (Global Linkages) and 5 (Vantage Point.) Increased indigenous, local capacity to monitor and regulate the environment and human impacts on it will be highly significant, measurable both in the effectiveness of local monitors and regulators and in the number of indigenous people participating in research.

What international collaboration is involved in this project?
Chukotka – initial contact made with local people and researchers on coast and on Wrangel Island; relationships in place with Alaskan communities and researchers; initial contact with Sámi Studies Centre, University of Tromso, and Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo.

FIELD ACTIVITY DETAILS

Geographical location(s) for the proposed field activities:
Bering Strait and Arctic coast of Chukotka, Siberia and Alaska; Arctic coast and archipelago; Coppermine River Drainage, Barrens to Coast; Mackenzie Valley; Greenland; Northern Norway and Sweden

Approximate timeframe(s) for proposed field activities:
Arctic: Present - 1 March 2009            
Antarctic: n/a

Significant facilities will be required for this project:
Most work will be community-based and rely on local transportation. Access will be commercial or in conjunction with other IPY research activities, i.e. travel by research icebreaker or aircraft.

Will the project leave a legacy of infrastructure?
No, except for the database, likely to be run out of one or more northern research centres. The other legacy will be in human capacity.

How is it envisaged that the required logistic support will be secured?
National agency
Commercial operator
Other sources of support

Transportation and accommodation may be available from commercial ship operators in exchange for results dissemination.

Has the project been "endorsed" at a national or international level?
This pre-proposal is the first attempt to bring together the international parts of this research. This pre-proposal has been reviewed and is being submitted by the Canadian Steering Committee (CSC). Ongoing discussions will integrate this pre-proposal into a larger network of related national and international initiatives. The CSC has initially sorted this pre-proposal into: Healthy and Sustainable Communities: Policy and Governance

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND STRUCTURE

Is the project a short-term expansion (over the IPY 2007-2008 timeframe) of an existing plan, programme or initiative or is it a new autonomous proposal?
New

Will build on the work of the Arctic Council and the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment

How will the project be organised and managed?
School of Native Studies, University of Alberta, will take the project lead. U of A International will assist with organizing and supporting the international education and research partnerships. Other resources of the University of Alberta, such as the IPY Secretariat, the Canadian Circumpolar Institute, and the Office of the Vice-President – Research, will support the research. Partnerships with indigenous self-government and environmental organizations (one in place) will be developed.

What are the initial plans of the project for addressing the education, outreach and communication issues outlined in the Framework document?
Because we will be working with community partners, education and outreach will be embedded in the conduct of the research. Additionally, specific Indigenous Peoples will be supported to engage with peers internationally within and beyond the circumpolar region.

What are the initial plans of the project to address data management issues (as outlined in the Framework document?
The resulting database will be accessible in whole or at appropriate levels to both northern communities and northern researchers. The initial plan is to develop partnerships supporting database development and access. The Arctic Council will be the initial primary means to begin the work.

How is it proposed to fund the project?
None secured. Initial development proposal pending with Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council – Aboriginal Research Programme. The project will attempt to access international relations, natural science, social science, community health and economic development funding.

Is there additional information you wish to provide?
Indigenous research typically reads as far more general than natural science proposals, because northern indigenous worldviews do not typically separate people from nature. This research, and other projects of this nature, will provide an essential integrating mechanism to the IPY as a whole.

PROPOSER DETAILS

Dr  Ellen Bielawski
5-182 Education North, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta


T6G 2G5
Canada

Tel: 780 492 4330
Mobile: 780 504 4861
Fax: 780 492 0527
Email:

Other project members and their affiliation