Understanding the need for adaptation in a natural resource dependent community in Northern Norway : issue salience, knowledge and values

Paid Open Acces

Cross-scale Adaptation Challenges in the Coastal Fisheries: Findings from Lebesby, Northern Norway

Cross-scale adaptation challenges in the coastal fisheries in Lebesby municipality, Finnmark County, northern Norway are examined on the basis of fieldwork conducted there. Although fishery actors in Lebesby are aware of, experience, and describe a number of connections between climate variability and coastal fishing activities, they do not characterize their livelihoods as being particularly vulnerable to climate change. Nevertheless, they identify a range of social factors that shape the flexibility of coastal fishing activities and livelihoods to deal with changing environmental conditions. We argue that these factors, and actors' perceptions of their own resilience, constitute important aspects of adaptive capacity and may challenge local responses to climate variability and change. We identified four adaptation arenas: local perceptions of vulnerability and resilience to climate change, Lebesby's social and economic viability, national fishery management and regulations, and the markets and economy of coastal fishing. The adaptation arenas arise and interact across geographic and temporal scales, creating specific barriers and opportunities for local adaptation. Our findings suggest the need to pay close attention to the cross-scale adaptation challenges facing Arctic communities that depend on natural resources. The concept of adaptation arenas helps to illustrate these challenges and should be applied more widely.Les défis d'adaptation à plusieurs échelles dans le secteur des pêches côtières de la municipalité de Lebesby dans le comté de Finnmark, nord de la Norvège, sont examinés en fonction des études sur le terrain qui y ont été réalisées. Bien que les parties prenantes du secteur des pêches de Lebesby soient conscientes de l'existence d'un certain nombre de liens entre la variabilité du climat et les activités de pêche côtière, elles n'affirment pas que leur gagne-pain est particulièrement vulnérable au changement climatique. Elles dénotent néanmoins une série de facteurs sociaux qui exercent une influence sur la flexibilité des activités de pêche côtière et le gagne-pain afin de faire face aux conditions environnementales en pleine évolution. Nous soutenons que ces facteurs, de même que les perceptions des parties prenantes quant à leur propre résilience, constituent des aspects importants de la capacité d'adaptation et qu'ils peuvent mettre au défi les réactions locales en matière de variabilité et de changement climatique. Nous avons repéré quatre sphères d'adaptation, soit les perceptions locales de la vulnérabilité et de la résilience au changement climatique, la viabilité économique et sociale de Lebesby, l'administration et la réglementation nationales concernant les pêches de même que les marchés et l'économie de la pêche côtière. Les sphères d'adaptation se manifestent et interagissent à la grandeur des échelles géographiques et temporelles, ce qui crée des obstacles et des occasions d'adaptation locale spécifiques. Nos constatations laissent entendre qu'il faut porter une attention particulière aux défis d'adaptation à plusieurs échelles auxquelles font face les collectivités de l'Arctique qui dépendent des ressources naturelles. Le concept des sphères d'adaptation aide à illustrer ces défis et devrait être appliqué à plus grande échelle

Climate change in Northern Norway: Toward an understanding of socio-economic vulnerability of natural resource- dependent sectors and communities

The work in this report is a contribution from CICERO to Theme 4 of the NorACIA project, a Norwegian follow-up to the Arctic Council’s Arctic Climate Impact Assessment: http://acia.npolar.no/ It has been recognized that there is an urgent need for better and integrated knowledge of the social, economic and environmental conditions that underpin vulnerability to climate change at the local level. Such knowledge is necessary in order to develop credible vulnerability and adaptation assessment methodologies that can in turn inform local, regional and national planning processes and adaptation strategies. We examine two indicators of socio-economic vulnerability to climate change in climate- sensitive sectors in Northern Norway: share of employment and gross value added. Using these two indicator examples, we show that vulnerability to climate change in different economic sectors varies depending on the scale at which analysis is undertaken, the unit of analysis and the indicators employed. Given the identified limitations of applying a top-down approach to assessing socio-economic vulnerability, we suggest elements of a strengthened methodology for vulnerability studies that incorporates stakeholders’ own information on their exposure-sensitivities and adaptive capacity to climate change. We conclude that a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches for assessing the vulnerability of climate-senstitive sectors is waranted

Climate Change and Norwegian Arctic Aquaculture : Perception, Relevance and Adaptation

Publisher's note: The Arctic Yearbook is open access. Readers may download, distribute,photocopy, cite or excerpt this Arctic Yearbook material provided it is properly and fully credited; however, we do not allow commercial use or the making of derivatives.publishedVersio

Gender and Climate Change Research : Moving Beyond Transformative Adaptation

Publisher's note: The Arctic Yearbook is open access. Readers may download, distribute, photocopy, cite or excerpt this Arctic Yearbook material provided it is properly and fully credited; however, we do not allow commercial use or the making of derivatives.Research on how communities in the Arctic can overcome the challenge of climate change have traditionally employed adaptation frameworks. The ability of these groups to continue thriving in the Arctic is complicated by historical, social, economic, and political complexities - issues thoroughly addressed through the postcolonial feminist concept of transformation. This article critically examines contemporary research on climate and gender, and the extent to which feminist transformative concerns are addressed, thereby challenging systems and promoting power structures that recognize or benefit all segments of society. The article adopts an analytical strategy which combines two parallel instances of critical reflection on climate research, specifically, a systematic literature review of climate and gender studies in the Canadian Arctic, and the results of a round-table workshop of international climate experts and researchers on the state of climate change, adaptation and gender research in the Arctic. The article explores the results of these analyses and distinguishes those strategies that represent a continuation of status-quo power relations and climate adaptation processes from those that account for current economic and socio-political factors.publishedVersio