Tourism and Arctic Observation Systems : exploring the relationships

The Arctic is affected by global environmental change and also by diverseinterests from many economic sectors and industries. Over the last decade,various actors have attempted to explore the options for setting up integratedand comprehensive trans-boundary systems for monitoring and observing theseimpacts. These Arctic Observation Systems (AOS) contribute to the planning,implementation, monitoring and evaluation of environmental change andresponsible social and economic development in the Arctic. The aim of thisarticle is to identify the two-way relationship between AOS and tourism. On theone hand, tourism activities account for diverse changes across a broad spectrumof impact fields.Onthe other hand, due to its multiple and diverse agents and farreachingactivities, tourism is also well-positioned to collect observational dataand participate as an actor in monitoring activities. To accomplish our goals, weprovide an inventory of tourism-embedded issues and concerns of interest toAOS from a range of destinations in the circumpolar Arctic region, includingAlaska, Arctic Canada, Iceland, Svalbard, the mainland European Arctic andRussia. The article also draws comparisons with the situation in Antarctica. Onthe basis of a collective analysis provided by members of the International PolarTourism Research Network from across the polar regions, we conclude that thepotential role for tourism in the development and implementation of AOS issignificant and has been overlooked

Scenarios thinking for the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort Region

A number of biophysical and socio-economic drivers will have a significant influence on future vulnerability, risk, resilience, and adaptation planning in the Bering-Chuckchi-Beaufort (BCB) region ( Chapters 4-7). The trajectories of some of those drivers are amenable to modeling, forecasting, or projection. However, the future is inherently uncertain, particularly over long time horizons. Scenarios have been used for over 50 years as a tool for exploring such uncertainty in order to identify key driving forces and critical unknowns, as well as to generate shared understanding among stakeholders regarding the potential for, and implications of, alternative futures (van Notten et al., 2003; Bishop et al., 2007; Avango et al., 2013). This chapter provides a general overview of scenarios and their value for understanding the implications of a changing climate within the broader context of global change. The chapter includes a review of how scenarios have been used previously to understand climate change vulnerability, risk, and resilience, with a particular emphasis on the Arctic. It also introduces a new series of qualitative regional and subregional socio­economic scenarios for the BCB region, peering into the future to 2050, and discusses their implications for climate change impacts as well as adaptation planning and implementation

Nature-based tourism, resource dependence, and resilience of Arctic communities: framing complex issues in a changing environment

This is an original manuscript / preprint of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Sustainable Tourism on 16 May 2019, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/ https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2019.1612905.Current research on tourism in the Arctic has focused largely on the extent, location, and type of tourism activities that occur in the region. Recently, challenges have been identified that the tourism industry is likely to face in the wake of global changes, including climate change. Related research, conducted within and outside of the Arctic, suggests that rural communities can become economically dependent on natural resource extraction (e.g. oil, gas, timber harvesting, and mining of minerals) and non-extractive resources (e.g. nature-based recreation and tourism), limiting diversification and potentially threatening resilience of rural communities. In the western USA, communities have become dependent on both extractive and non-extractive natural resource activities including nature-based tourism; however, it is less clear whether a similar situation is occurring in Arctic communities. In this article, we propose a framework and indicators to analyze the potential dependence of Arctic communities on nature-based tourism and the resilience of Arctic communities to potential boom–bust cycles of nature-based tourism. To do so, we examine the current state-of-knowledge about tourism and nature-based tourism in the Arctic through the lens of boom–bust dynamics and social-ecological systems