Investigating Local Definitions of Sustainability in the Arctic: Insights from Post-Soviet Sakha Villages

Contemporary survival for post-Soviet Russia’s indigenous communities is complicated both by a Soviet legacy that undermined local ecological knowledge, kinship settlement patterns, land and resource rights, and robust ecosystems, and by the contemporary effects of globalization and modernity. Efforts to achieve sustainability lack a focus on local contexts, although recent research, especially in anthropology, underscores the need to develop sustainability criteria that are both flexible and adaptable to local contexts. Community-based research in post-Soviet Viliui Sakha indigenous communities of northeastern Siberia, Russia, has shown that inhabitants define sustainability as the building of local diversified economies, communities, and health via strong local leadership, a shared vision to work toward common goals, the reinstatement of local knowledge, and rights to land and resources. Realization of these ideas may be achieved by continued collaboration between circumpolar researchers and communities to facilitate the influx of ideas and models of success from other Arctic regions and by potential outcomes of intergovernmental action between the Russian Federation and its circumpolar neighbors through Russia’s chairing of the Arctic Council. Implementation of flexible, locally adaptable sustainability criteria is central to these efforts.La survie contemporaine des collectivités indigènes russes post-soviétiques est rendue complexe par un patrimoine soviétique qui minait le savoir écologique local, les tendances en matière de parenté, les droits à la terre et aux ressources, et les écosystèmes robustes, de même que par les effets contemporains de la mondialisation et la modernisation. Les efforts en matière d’atteinte de la durabilité ne portent pas suffisamment sur les contextes locaux, bien que des recherches récentes, notamment en anthropologie, fassent ressortir la nécessité d’élaborer des critères de durabilité qui sont à la fois souples et adaptables aux contextes locaux. Des recherches communautaires réalisées au sein des collectivités indigènes post-soviétiques de Viliui Sakha dans le nord-est de la Sibérie, en Russie, ont permis de constater que les habitants définissent la durabilité comme l’édification d’économies et de collectivités locales diversifiées et en santé grâce à un bon leadership local, à une vision partagée visant des objectifs communs, au rétablissement du savoir local et aux droits à la terre et aux ressources. La concrétisation de ces idées peut être rendue possible par une collaboration continue entre les chercheurs et les collectivités circumpolaires et ce, dans le but de faciliter l’apport d’idées et de modèles de réussites provenant d’autres régions de l’Arctique ainsi que par les résultats éventuels de mesures intergouvernementales entre la Fédération de Russie et ses voisins circumpolaires au moyen de la présidence du Conseil de l’Arctique par la Russie. Ces efforts reposent principalement sur la mise en oeuvre de critères de durabilité souples et adaptables à l’échelle locale

A Methodological Model for Exchanging Local and Scientific Climate Change Knowledge in Northeastern Siberia

This paper analyzes findings from “Knowledge Exchanges,” which engaged communities of Viliui Sakha, native horse and cattle agropastoralists of northeastern Siberia, Russia, with regional scientific specialists, a cultural anthropologist, and a permafrost scientist. Our process of knowledge exchange involved first gathering ethnographic data from affected communities, through focus groups, interviews, and surveys, and analyzing how people perceived, understood, and responded to local change. Next we documented the community results and compared them with regional climate change data. Lastly, we discussed these results during community knowledge exchange events, facilitating an increased understanding across knowledge systems and stakeholder groups. The knowledge exchange method documented in this article provides an adaptable model for integrating local and scientific knowledge systems that allows participants to reach understanding more quickly at global and local levels of how climate change is affecting places and peoples.Cette communication vient analyser les constatations émanant de l’échange de connaissances auquel ont participé les collectivités de Viliui Sakha, des agropasteurs indigènes s’occupant de chevaux et de bétail dans le nord-est de la Sibérie, en Russie, des spécialistes scientifiques régionaux, un anthropologue des cultures et un scientifique spécialisé en pergélisol. Notre échange de connaissances a commencé par la collecte de données ethnographiques auprès des collectivités concernées, données qui ont été recueillies au moyen de groupes de discussion, d’entrevues et de sondages. Cette collecte de données a été suivie de l’analyse de la manière dont les gens percevaient les changements qui se produisent à l’échelle locale, de la manière dont ils comprenaient ces changements et de la manière dont ils y réagissaient. Ensuite, nous avons consigné les résultats obtenus au sein des collectivités et les avons comparés aux données sur le changement climatique régional. En dernier lieu, nous avons discuté de ces résultats à l’occasion de séances d’échanges de connaissances organisées dans les collectivités, puis nous avons favorisé une plus grande compréhension à l’échelle des systèmes de connaissances et au sein des groupes d’intervenants. La méthodologie de l’échange de connaissances dont il est question dans le présent article présente un modèle adaptable d’intégration des systèmes de connaissances locales et de connaissances scientifiques, modèle qui permet aux participants de comprendre plus rapidement, mondialement et localement, comment le changement climatique influe sur les lieux et les gens

Framing and Context of the Report

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the leading international body for assessing the science related to climate change. It provides policymakers with regular assessments of the scientific basis of human-induced climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation. This IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate is the most comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the observed and projected changes to the ocean and cryosphere and their associated impacts and risks, with a focus on resilience, risk management response options, and adaptation measures, considering both their potential and limitations. It brings together knowledge on physical and biogeochemical changes, the interplay with ecosystem changes, and the implications for human communities. It serves policymakers, decision makers, stakeholders, and all interested parties with unbiased, up-to-date, policy-relevant information. Chapter 1: This special report assesses new knowledge since the IPCC 5th Assessment Report (AR5) and the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5ºC (SR15) on how the ocean and cryosphere have and are expected to change with ongoing global warming, the risks and opportunities these changes bring to ecosystems and people, and mitigation, adaptation and governance options for reducing future risks. Chapter 1 provides context on the importance of the ocean and cryosphere, and the framework for the assessments in subsequent chapters of the report. All people on Earth depend directly or indirectly on the ocean and cryosphere. The fundamental roles of the ocean and cryosphere in the Earth system include the uptake and redistribution of anthropogenic carbon dioxide and heat by the ocean, as well as their crucial involvement of in the hydrological cycle. The cryosphere also amplifies climate changes through snow, ice and permafrost feedbacks. Services provided to people by the ocean and/or cryosphere include food and freshwater, renewable energy, health and wellbeing, cultural values, trade and transport. {1.1, 1.2, 1.5} Sustainable development is at risk from emerging and intensifying ocean and cryosphere changes. Ocean and cryosphere changes interact with each of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Progress on climate action (SDG 13) would reduce risks to aspects of sustainable development that are fundamentally linked to the ocean and cryosphere and the services they provide (high confidence1 ). Progress on achieving the SDGs can contribute to reducing the exposure or vulnerabilities of people and communities to the risks of ocean and cryosphere change (medium confidence). {1.1} Communities living in close connection with polar, mountain, and coastal environments are particularly exposed to the current and future hazards of ocean and cryosphere change. Coasts are home to approximately 28% of the global population, including around 11% living on land less than 10 m above sea level. Almost 10% of the global population lives in the Arctic or high mountain regions. People in these regions face the greatest exposure to ocean and cryosphere change, and poor and marginalised people here are particularly vulnerable to climate-related hazards and risks (very high confidence). The adaptive capacity of people, communities and nations is shaped by social, political, cultural, economic, technological, institutional, geographical and demographic factors. {1.1, 1.5, 1.6, Cross-Chapter Box 2 in Chapter 1} Ocean and cryosphere changes are pervasive and observedfrom high mountains, to the polar regions, to coasts, and intothe deep ocean. AR5 assessed that the ocean is warming (0 to700 m: virtually certain2; 700 to 2,000 m: likely), sea level is rising(high confidence), and ocean acidity is increasing (high confidence).Most glaciers are shrinking (high confidence), the Greenland andAntarctic ice sheets are losing mass (high confidence), sea ice extent inthe Arctic is decreasing (very high confidence), Northern Hemispheresnow cover is decreasing (very high confidence), and permafrosttemperatures are increasing (high confidence). Improvementssince AR5 in observation systems, techniques, reconstructions andmodel developments, have advanced scientific characterisationand understanding of ocean and cryosphere change, including inpreviously identified areas of concern such as ice sheets and AtlanticMeridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). {1.1, 1.4, 1.8.1}Evidence and understanding of the human causes of climatewarming, and of associated ocean and cryosphere changes,has increased over the past 30 years of IPCC assessments (veryhigh confidence). Human activities are estimated to have causedapproximately 1.0ºC of global warming above pre-industrial levels(SR15). Areas of concern in earlier IPCC reports, such as the expectedacceleration of sea level rise, are now observed (high confidence).Evidence for expected slow-down of AMOC is emerging in sustainedobservations and from long-term palaeoclimate reconstructions(medium confidence), and may be related with anthropogenic forcingaccording to model simulations, although this remains to be properlyattributed. Significant sea level rise contributions from Antarctic icesheet mass loss (very high confidence), which earlier reports did notexpect to manifest this century, are already being observed. {1.1, 1.4}Ocean and cryosphere changes and risks by the end-of-century(2081?2100) will be larger under high greenhouse gas emissionscenarios, compared with low emission scenarios (very highconfidence). Projections and assessments of future climate, oceanand cryosphere changes in the Special Report on the Ocean andCryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) are commonly basedon coordinated climate model experiments from the Coupled ModelIntercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) forced with RepresentativeConcentration Pathways (RCPs) of future radiative forcing. Currentemissions continue to grow at a rate consistent with a high emissionfuture without effective climate change mitigation policies (referredto as RCP8.5). The SROCC assessment contrasts this high greenhousegas emission future with a low greenhouse gas emission, highmitigation future (referred to as RCP2.6) that gives a two in threechance of limiting warming by the end of the century to less than 2oC above pre-industrial. {Cross-Chapter Box 1 in Chapter 1} Characteristics of ocean and cryosphere change include thresholds of abrupt change, long-term changes that cannot be avoided, and irreversibility (high confidence). Ocean warming, acidification and deoxygenation, ice sheet and glacier mass loss, and permafrost degradation are expected to be irreversible on time scales relevant to human societies and ecosystems. Long response times of decades to millennia mean that the ocean and cryosphere are committed to long-term change even after atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and radiative forcing stabilise (high confidence). Ice-melt or the thawing of permafrost involve thresholds (state changes) that allow for abrupt, nonlinear responses to ongoing climate warming (high confidence). These characteristics of ocean and cryosphere change pose risks and challenges to adaptation. {1.1, Box 1.1, 1.3} Societies will be exposed, and challenged to adapt, to changes in the ocean and cryosphere even if current and future efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions keep global warming well below 2ºC (very high confidence). Ocean and cryosphere-related mitigation and adaptation measures include options that address the causes of climate change, support biological and ecological adaptation, or enhance societal adaptation. Most ocean-based local mitigation and adaptation measures have limited effectiveness to mitigate climate change and reduce its consequences at the global scale, but are useful to implement because they address local risks, often have co-benefits such as biodiversity conservation, and have few adverse side effects. Effective mitigation at a global scale will reduce the need and cost of adaptation, and reduce the risks of surpassing limits to adaptation. Ocean-based carbon dioxide removal at the global scale has potentially large negative ecosystem consequences. {1.6.1, 1.6.2, Cross-Chapter Box 2 in Chapter 1} The scale and cross-boundary dimensions of changes in the ocean and cryosphere challenge the ability of communities, cultures and nations to respond effectively within existing governance frameworks (high confidence). Profound economic and institutional transformations are needed if climate-resilient development is to be achieved (high confidence). Changes in the ocean and cryosphere, the ecosystem services that they provide, the drivers of those changes, and the risks to marine, coastal, polar and mountain ecosystems, occur on spatial and temporal scales that may not align within existing governance structures and practices (medium confidence). This report highlights the requirements for transformative governance, international and transboundary cooperation, and greater empowerment of local communities in the governance of the ocean, coasts, and cryosphere in a changing climate. {1.5, 1.7, Cross-Chapter Box 2 in Chapter 1, Cross-Chapter Box 3 in Chapter 1} Robust assessments of ocean and cryosphere change, and the development of context-specific governance and response options, depend on utilising and strengthening all available knowledge systems (high confidence). Scientific knowledge from observations, models and syntheses provides global to local scale understandings of climate change (very high confidence). Indigenous knowledge (IK) and local knowledge (LK) provide context-specific and socio-culturally relevant understandings for effective responses and policies (medium confidence). Education and climate literacy enable climate action and adaptation (high confidence). {1.8, Cross-Chapter Box 4 in Chapter 1} Long-term sustained observations and continued modelling are critical for detecting, understanding and predicting ocean and cryosphere change, providing the knowledge to inform risk assessments and adaptation planning (high confidence). Knowledge gaps exist in scientific knowledge for important regions, parameters and processes of ocean and cryosphere change, including for physically plausible, high impact changes like high end sea level rise scenarios that would be costly if realised without effective adaptation planning and even then may exceed limits to adaptation. Means such as expert judgement, scenario building, and invoking multiple lines of evidence enable comprehensive risk assessments even in cases of uncertain future ocean and cryosphere changes.Fil: Abram, Nerilie. Australian National University; AustraliaFil: Gattuso, Jean Pierre. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; FranciaFil: Prakash, Anjal. Teri School Of Advanced Studies; IndiaFil: Cheng, Lijing. Chinese Academy Of Science; ChinaFil: Chidichimo, María Paz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Servicio de Hidrografía Naval. Departamento Oceanografía; ArgentinaFil: Crate, Susan. George Mason University; Estados UnidosFil: Enomoto, H.. National Polar Agency; JapónFil: Garschagen, M.. Technische Universitat München; AlemaniaFil: Gruber, N.. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich; SuizaFil: Harper, S.. University Of Alberta. Faculty Of Agricultural, Life And Environmental Sciences. Departament Of Agricultural, Food And Nutritional Science.; CanadáFil: Holland, Elisabeth. University Of South Pacific; FiyiFil: Kudela, Raphael Martin. University of California at San Diego. Scripps Institution of Oceanography; Estados UnidosFil: Rice, Jake. University of Toronto; CanadáFil: Steffen, Konrad. Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research; SuizaFil: Von Schuckmann, Karina. Mercator Ocean International; Franci

The Permafrost-Agroecosystem Action Group: first results and future goals

Permafrost-agroecosystems encompass northern social-ecological systems which include both cultivation of arable permafrost-affected soils, and animal husbandry practices. These heterogeneous food and cultural systems are being affected by a warming climate. Examples include increasing opportunities for growing crops through longer growing seasons, as well as impacts on animals’ local and long-distance migratory movements and their food sources. Furthermore, climate change driven permafrost thaw and thaw accelerated by land clearance is rapidly changing the biophysical and socioeconomic aspects of these systems. Therefore, an international collaboration encompassing experts from North America, Europe and Asia is working on increasing our understanding of permafrost-agroecosystems and contributing to the adaptation, resilience, and sustainability strategy of these rapidly evolving systems. The International Permafrost Association Permafrost-Agroecosystem Action Group is composed of ~30 members from 7 countries. The objectives of our action group are to share knowledge and build networking capacities through meetings and webinar presentation as well as to collaborate on publications and produce the first geospatial dataset of permafrost-agroecosystems. Our poster presentation provides an overview of the group’s activities including providing case studies from a range of high-latitude and high-altitude areas as part of a group manuscript in preparation and an update on our mapping activities

Socioecological dynamics of diverse global permafrost-agroecosystems under environmental change

Permafrost-agroecosystems include all cultivation and pastoral activities in areas underlain by permafrost. These systems support local livelihoods and food production and are rarely considered in global agricultural studies but may become more relevant as climate change is increasing opportunities for food production in high latitude and mountainous areas. The exact locations and amount of agricultural production in areas containing permafrost are currently unknown, therefore we provide an overview of countries where both permafrost and agricultural activities are present. We highlight the socioecological diversity and complexities of permafrostagroecosystems through seven case studies: (1) crop cultivation in Alaska, USA; (2) Indigenous food systems and crop cultivation in the Northwest Territories, Canada; (3) horse and cattle husbandry and Indigenous hay production in the Sakha Republic, Russia; (4) mobile pastoralism and husbandry in Mongolia; (5) yak pastoralism in the Central Himalaya, Nepal; (6) berry picking and reindeer herding in northern Fennoscandia; and (7) reindeer herding in northwest Russia. We discuss regional knowledge gaps associated with permafrost and make recommendations to policy makers and land users for adapting to changing permafrost environments. A better understanding of permafrost-agroecosystems is needed to help sustainably manage and develop these systems considering rapidly changing climate, environments, economies, and industries

Investigating the Bottom-up Complexities and Adaptive Challenges of Contemporary Climate Change in Northeastern Siberia and Nunatsiavut, Canada

Dr. Susan A. Crate (associate professor of anthropology at George Mason University) discusses the complexities and challenges of climate change. Humanity’s chances of adapting to large scale changes now underway must always be anchored in close understanding of how people actually deal with complex adaptive challenges on the ground. If people move their focus to local contexts and reframe the objective of sustainability as a dialogue within those contexts, then the concept itself takes on a life and a power. This lecture is the 12th annual anthropology lecture at Linfield College. The annual anthropology lecture showcases diverse perspectives from all four subfields of anthropology

Once Upon the Permafrost

Once Upon the Permafrost is a longitudinal climate ethnography about “knowing” a specific culture and the ecosystem that culture physically and spiritually depends on in the twenty-first-century context of climate change. The author, anthropologist Susan Alexandra Crate, has spent three decades working with Sakha, the Turkic-speaking horse and cattle agropastoralists of northeastern Siberia, Russia. Crate reveals Sakha’s essential relationship with alaas, the foundational permafrost ecosystem of both their subsistence and cultural identity. Sakha know alaas via an Indigenous knowledge system imbued with spiritual qualities. This counters the scientific definition of alaas as geophysical phenomena of limited range. Climate change now threatens alaas due to thawing permafrost, which, entangled with the rural changes of economic globalization, youth out-migration, and language loss, make prescient the issues of ethnic sovereignty and cultural survival. Through careful integration of contemporary narratives, on-site observations, and document analysis, Crate argues that local understandings of change and the vernacular knowledge systems they are founded on provide critical information for interdisciplinary collaboration and effective policy prescriptions. Furthermore, she makes her message relevant to a wider audience by clarifying linkages to the global permafrost system found in her comparative research in Mongolia, Arctic Canada, Kiribati, Peru, and Chesapeake Bay, Virginia. This reveals how permafrost provides one of the main structural foundations for Arctic ecosystems, which, in turn, work with the planet’s other ecosystems to maintain planetary balance. Metaphorically speaking, we all live on permafrost

Once Upon the Permafrost

Once Upon the Permafrost is a longitudinal climate ethnography about “knowing” a specific culture and the ecosystem that culture physically and spiritually depends on in the twenty-first-century context of climate change. The author, anthropologist Susan Alexandra Crate, has spent three decades working with Sakha, the Turkic-speaking horse and cattle agropastoralists of northeastern Siberia, Russia. Crate reveals Sakha’s essential relationship with alaas, the foundational permafrost ecosystem of both their subsistence and cultural identity. Sakha know alaas via an Indigenous knowledge system imbued with spiritual qualities. This counters the scientific definition of alaas as geophysical phenomena of limited range. Climate change now threatens alaas due to thawing permafrost, which, entangled with the rural changes of economic globalization, youth out-migration, and language loss, make prescient the issues of ethnic sovereignty and cultural survival. Through careful integration of contemporary narratives, on-site observations, and document analysis, Crate argues that local understandings of change and the vernacular knowledge systems they are founded on provide critical information for interdisciplinary collaboration and effective policy prescriptions. Furthermore, she makes her message relevant to a wider audience by clarifying linkages to the global permafrost system found in her comparative research in Mongolia, Arctic Canada, Kiribati, Peru, and Chesapeake Bay, Virginia. This reveals how permafrost provides one of the main structural foundations for Arctic ecosystems, which, in turn, work with the planet’s other ecosystems to maintain planetary balance. Metaphorically speaking, we all live on permafrost

Cows and kin: innovations and issues in post-Soviet indigenous communities

In the wake of communism's fall, the majority of rural Russia's inhabitants were left without the state farm agricultural infrastructure that fed and employed them. Most adapted by innovating to create new forms that combined pre-Soviet subsistence practices with contemporary modes. This paper explores one group's innovation, 'cows-and-kin'. Viliui Sakha, the highest latitude horse and cattle breeders in contemporary times, inhabit western Sakha, northeastern Siberia, Russia. Their cows-and-kin innovation is based on household-level cow keeping with interdependence of kin households. In addition to describing this post-soviet community-level innovation, this paper also explores relevant issues about the capacity for continued innovation such as: (1) what is the future of the cows-and-kin innovation, considering that many youth are out-migrating from the rural villages? (2) how is the cows-and-kin innovation affected by the forces of globalisation and modernity? and lastly (3) how can the cows-and-kin innovation face the challenges posed by rapid climate change?innovation; climate change; adaptation; Viliui Sakha; post-Soviet; Arctic indigenous peoples; indigenous culture; rural Russia; globalisation; modernity; agricultural infrastructure.