Environmental Peacebuilding in the Arctic: Reinforcing Indigenous Peoples’ roles in securing a sustainable, just, and peaceful North

art by Sonya Montenegro (USA) of The Far Woods

Ruth Miller (Native Movement); Michaela Stith (Polar Institute, Wilson Center)

Arctic Indigenous Peoples are crucial to all peacekeeping and environmental protection efforts in the Arctic. As climate change rapidly and drastically affects the region, Traditional Knowledge and Indigenousleadership provide clear pathways towards a sustainable just transition.

Context

Across Inuit homelands, the story of Sassuma Aarna—the mother of the sea—exemplifies an Indigenous ethos of care for the environment. Many elements of her story span the Arctic: a young woman in conflict is thrown from her umiak (kayak), her fingers are cut off, and those fingers become fish, seal, walrus, beluga, bowhead, and other relatives who sustain life.  Sassuma Aarna guards her creations so hunters cannot find food when humans pollute the land and seas. Only when her oceans are cleansed does she release the animals from her protective grasp. Today, young people across the Arctic are healing the trauma of colonization and forced assimilation by returning the tattoo markings of Sassuma Aarna to their fingers and recommitting to the preservation of Arctic lands and waters.

In Indigenous cultural practices, traditional stories hold millennia-long histories, encyclopedic knowledge, and advanced Indigenous sciences. Most importantly, they convey deep relationships to place and teach about reciprocity with lands and waters—lessons that preserve cultures and inspire action against anthropogenic climate change.

In the Arctic, average annual temperatures have risen at rates three times the global average.[i]  At 1.5°C of global warming, one sea ice-free Arctic summer is projected per century.[ii] This likelihood increases to at least one per decade at 2°C of global warming. These changes—melting sea ice, thawing permafrost, changing weather patterns—transcend national borders and undermine the political stability of the region, providing access to waters that were previously frozen and inaccessible but to their first Indigenous Peoples.

 Indigenous Peoples make up at least 1/8th of the region’s population and maintain approximately 80 languages. Though Indigenous Peoples are the least responsible for historic carbon emissions and globally guard 80 per cent of the world’s biodiversity,[iii] Arctic Indigenous Peoples are on the frontlines of drastic environmental change. For example, food insecurity rises as whale migration patterns shift due to changing sea ice and warmer temperatures. Increased shipping traffic, sonar interference, and greater potential for pollutants and toxic spills are poised to further endanger their traditional, international routes.[iv][v] Disruptions to animal migrations force people in remote villages to choose between food and other expensive commodities. More than 40 primarily Indigenous villages in Alaska must be relocated due to coastal erosion and storm surges caused by sea level rise. Indigenous Peoples will be the first to suffer these losses, and their traditions, ways of lives, and cultures may follow.

This challenging reality necessitates collaborative solutions among nations, as well as the deep integration of Indigenous leadership. However, the ice-reduced Arctic Ocean has emerged as a new geopolitical battleground of regional security interests, increased trade, and militarization. The Russian Federation and China have already procured vast fleets of icebreakers,[vi] and military exercises have increased in the Bering Strait and the North Atlantic. Despite peace in the Arctic since the Cold War’s end, climate change and rising global tensions now exacerbate the potential for conflict.[vii]

But the active participation of Indigenous Peoples’ organizations has grounded and maintained cooperation between the Arctic Council’s members in past instances of geopolitical tension. Arctic Indigenous communities are therefore at the nexus of regional peacebuilding, economic development via maritime trade, human rights, and climate justice.

What’s been done

Arctic Indigenous Peoples are already taking effective action to promote a sustainable future for the region. The six Indigenous organizations with Permanent Participant status in the Arctic Council have held six international “Arctic Leaders’ Summits” since 1991.[viii] The Declarations of the VI Arctic Leaders’ Summit and the I Arctic Youth Leaders’ Summit, signed in Roavvenjárga (Rovaniemi, Finland) in 2019, guide the path forward for emergent Arctic policy.

Arctic youth have continued to iterate their recommendations for security, sustainability, and cooperation. At The Arctic in 25 Years: First Annual International Youth Symposium, the Wilson Center’s Polar Institute virtually gathered 21 emerging Arctic leaders from the Permanent Participants and all eight Arctic states to inform and influence potential Arctic policy for the next generation in May 2021.[ix]

Looking ahead

A number of recommendations emerged from the proceedings of The Arctic in 25 Years, including the wholescale adoption of Free, Prior and Informed Consent of Indigenous Peoples (as guaranteed by the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) when considering development in the Arctic Region. Similarly, the delegates said Indigenous Peoples must be integrated into bottom-up policy approaches founded in healthy relationship-building. They said co-production of knowledge, including science and Indigenous knowledge, must be elevated in international action addressing Arctic environmental change. In this way, research and decision-making can be informed by marginalized communities who face the greatest impacts.

International forums and peacekeeping operations, as well as climate research, mitigation, and adaptation, can improve Indigenous diplomatic representation by using these recommendations as a baseline for equitable, just, and inclusive policy. International fora should replicate and further investigate collaborative models for Indigenous representation in environmental peacebuilding. Arctic states should fund the operational work of Indigenous organizations in environmental peacebuilding. Overall, policymakers must remove any barriers to effective community-based solutions.

By learning from the Indigenous ethos and traditions of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and profound respect, Arctic nations may avoid pervasive regional conflict. As Sassuma Aarna reminds us, we in the Arctic must return to balance.

Footnotes

[i] AMAP (2021) Arctic Climate Change Update 2021: Key Trends and Impacts. Summary for Policy-makers, Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP): Tromsø, Norway. 16.

[ii] Dunne, D.  (2019) Interactive: When Will the Arctic See Its First Ice-Free Summer? CarbonBrief (https://interactive.carbonbrief.org/when-will-the-arctic-see-its-first-ice-free-summer/.)

[iii]Garnett, S.T. et al. (2018) ‘A spatial overview of the global importance of Indigenous lands for conservation,’ Nature Sustainability 1(7): 369-374.

[iv]Kay, J. (2010) ‘How Will Climate Change Affect Arctic Migrations?’ Scientific American, (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/whales-head-north/)

[v] Patel, K.J. and Fountain, H. (2018) As Arctic Ice Vanishes, New Shipping Routes Open, New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/05/03/science/earth/arctic-shipping.html)

[vi] Raspotnik, A. and Østhagen, A. (2021) No. 3: A Global Arctic Order under Threat? an Agenda for American Leadership in the North, Wilson Center (https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/no-3-global-arctic-order-under-threat-agenda-american-leadership-north)

[vii] Oliva, M.  (2018) Arctic Cold War: Climate Change Has Ignited a New Polar Power Struggle. The Conversation (http://theconversation.com/arctic-cold-war-climate-change-has-ignited-a-new-polar-power-struggle-107329)

[viii] The Arctic Leaders’ Summit (2021) Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat. (https://www.arcticpeoples.com/arcticleaderssummit#als6)

[ix] Four panels were held that collected recommendations from diverse interests and sectors: 1) “Arctic Council Permanent Participant Youth”; 2) “Infrastructure and Sustainable Development”; 3) “Climate Change and Biodiversity Action and Research”; 4) “Political Leadership and Governance.” https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/arctic-25-years-first-annual-international-youth-symposium.