Jack Kruse

Modeling sustainability of Arctic communities: an interdisciplinary collaboration of researchers and local knowledge holders.

How will climate change affect the sustainability of Arctic villages over the next 40 years? This question motivated a collaboration of 23 researchers and four Arctic communities (Old Crow, Yukon Territory, Canada; Aklavik, Northwest Territories, Canada; Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories, Canada; and Arctic Village, Alaska, USA) in or near the range of the Porcupine Caribou Herd. We drew on existing research and local knowledge to examine potential effects of climate change, petroleum development, tourism, and government spending cutbacks on the sustainability of four Arctic villages. We used data across eight disciplines to develop an Arctic Community Synthesis Model and a Web-based, interactive Possible Futures Model. Results suggested that climate warming will increase vegetation biomass within the herd’s summer range. However, despite forage increasing, the herd was projected as likely to decline with a warming climate because of increased insect harassment in the summer and potentially greater winter snow depths. There was a strong negative correlation between hypothetical, development-induced displacement of cows and calves from utilized calving grounds and calf survival during June. The results suggested that climate warming coupled with petroleum development would cause a decline in caribou harvest by local communities. Because the Synthesis Model inherits uncertainties associated with each component model, sensitivity analysis is required. Scientists and stakeholders agreed that (1) although simulation models are incomplete abstractions of the real world, they helped bring scientific and community knowledge together, and (2) relationships established across disciplines and between scientists and communities were a valuable outcome of the study. Additional project materials, including the Web-based Possible Futures Model, are available at http://www.taiga.net/sustain.

Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic (SLiCA)

Major findings of the Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic (SLiCA) are: (1) A combination of traditional activities and cash employment is the prevailing lifestyle of Arctic indigenous peoples; (2) family ties, social support of each other, and traditional activities have a lot to do with why indigenous people choose to remain in Arctic communities; (3) well-being is closely related to job opportunities, locally available fish and game, and a sense of local control. Well-being and depression (and related problems like suicide) are flip sides of the same coin. Improving well-being may reduce social problems; and, (4) health conditions vary widely in the Arctic: three-in-four Greenlandic Inuit self-rate their health as at least very good compared with one-in-two Canadian and Alaska Inuit and one-in-five Chukotka indigenous people. Findings are based on 7,200 interviews in a probability sample of Inupiat settlement regions of Alaska, the four Inuit settlement regions of Canada, all of Greenland, and the Anadyrskij, Anadyr, Shmidtovs, Beringovskij, Chukotskij, Iujl’tinskij, Bilibinskij, Chaunskij, Providenskij, Uel’Kal’ districts of Chukotka. Indigenous people and researchers from Greenland, Russia, Canada, the United States, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland collaborated on all phases of the study.

The Importance of a Mixed Cash- and Harvest Herding Based Economy to Living in the Arctic – An Analysis on the Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic (SLiCA)

Subsistence” is both a highly disputed theoretical concept within several social sciences’ disciplines, an often used term in international debates and conventions on indigenous peoples’ traditional hunting rights, and an integral part of indigenous peoples’, communities’ and organisations’ campaigns for their rights to maintain traditional lifestyles. The domestic and cash economies of the north are highly interrelated. As Wolfe and Walker (1987) reported, “a family’s subsistence production is augmented and supported by cash employment of family members. The money generated in the commercial-wage sector of the economy enables families to capitalize in the subsistence sector. The combination of subsistence and commercial-wage activities provides the economic basis for the way of life so highly valued in rural communities.” The international core questionnaire applied in the Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic, SliCA, offers opportunities to examine the importance of a mixed cashand harvest herding based economy to living in the Arctic, relationships between traditional hunting, fishing and herding activities and activities in the market economy sector, the respondents’ satisfaction with the actual composition of the various activities as well as the preferred composition and the relationship to the overall well-being and the individual. This theme the importance of a mixed cashand harvest herding based economy to living in the Arctic is one of five international analysis themes suggested by the indigenous peoples’ representatives participating in SLiCA. The analysis is based on more than 7,000 personal interviews with Inuit adults in Greenland, Canada, Chukotka, and Alaska. B. Poppel Ilisimatusarfik, University of Greenland, P.O. Box 1061, 3905 Nuussuaq , Greenland J. Kruse Institute of Social & Economic Research , University of Alaska Anchorage , 117 N Leverett Rd , Leverett , MA 01054 , USA E-mail: bipo@uni.gl E-mail: afjak@uaa.alaska.edu V. Møller and D. Huschka (eds.) Quality of Life and the Millennium Challenge, 27

Design and methods in a survey of living conditions in the Arctic – the SLiCA study

Objectives: The main objective of this study is to describe the methods and design of the survey of living conditions in the Arctic (SLiCA), relevant participation rates and the distribution of participants, as applicable to the survey data in Alaska, Greenland and Norway. This article briefly addresses possible selection bias in the data and also the ways to tackle it in future studies. Study design: Population-based cross-sectional survey. Methods: Indigenous individuals aged 16 years and older, living in Greenland, Alaska and in traditional settlement areas in Norway, were invited to participate. Random sampling methods were applied in Alaska and Greenland, while non-probability sampling methods were applied in Norway. Data were collected in 3 periods: in Alaska, from January 2002 to February 2003; in Greenland, from December 2003 to August 2006; and in Norway, in 2003 and from June 2006 to June 2008. The principal method in SLiCA was standardised face-to-face interviews using a questionnaire. Results: A total of 663, 1,197 and 445 individuals were interviewed in Alaska, Greenland and Norway, respectively. Very high overall participation rates of 83% were obtained in Greenland and Alaska, while a more conventional rate of 57% was achieved in Norway. A predominance of female respondents was obtained in Alaska. Overall, the Sami cohort is older than the cohorts from Greenland and Alaska. Conclusions: Preliminary assessments suggest that selection bias in the Sami sample is plausible but not a major threat. Few or no threats to validity are detected in the data from Alaska and Greenland. Despite different sampling and recruitment methods, and sociocultural differences, a unique database has been generated, which shall be used to explore relationships between health and other living conditions variables.OBJECTIVES The main objective of this study is to describe the methods and design of the survey of living conditions in the Arctic (SLiCA), relevant participation rates and the distribution of participants, as applicable to the survey data in Alaska, Greenland and Norway. This article briefly addresses possible selection bias in the data and also the ways to tackle it in future studies. STUDY DESIGN Population-based cross-sectional survey. METHODS Indigenous individuals aged 16 years and older, living in Greenland, Alaska and in traditional settlement areas in Norway, were invited to participate. Random sampling methods were applied in Alaska and Greenland, while non-probability sampling methods were applied in Norway. Data were collected in 3 periods: in Alaska, from January 2002 to February 2003; in Greenland, from December 2003 to August 2006; and in Norway, in 2003 and from June 2006 to June 2008. The principal method in SLiCA was standardised face-to-face interviews using a questionnaire. RESULTS A total of 663, 1,197 and 445 individuals were interviewed in Alaska, Greenland and Norway, respectively. Very high overall participation rates of 83% were obtained in Greenland and Alaska, while a more conventional rate of 57% was achieved in Norway. A predominance of female respondents was obtained in Alaska. Overall, the Sami cohort is older than the cohorts from Greenland and Alaska. CONCLUSIONS Preliminary assessments suggest that selection bias in the Sami sample is plausible but not a major threat. Few or no threats to validity are detected in the data from Alaska and Greenland. Despite different sampling and recruitment methods, and sociocultural differences, a unique database has been generated, which shall be used to explore relationships between health and other living conditions variables.

Arctic Observing Network Social Indicators Project: overview

The Arctic Observing Network Social Indicators Project (NSF OPP0638408) is intended to contribute to the development of the Arctic Observation Network and to the science goals of SEARCH in two ways: (1) develop and make available to the science community relevant datasets and (2) identify gaps in the existing observation system and recommend appropriate actions to fill those gaps. The SEARCH Implementation Plan identified the following arenas of human activity likely to involve climate–human interactions: (1) subsistence hunting; (2) tourism; (3) resource development and marine transportation; and (4) commercial fishing. This project seeks to develop and assess datasets in these four areas. Again drawing from the SEARCH Implementation Plan priorities, the project also seeks to develop and assess datasets measuring social outcomes. This special issue of Polar Geography contains articles on each of the four arenas of human activity likely to involve climate–human interactions, an article on demographic indicators of social outcomes, an overview article, and a synthesis of recommendations for researchers and statistical agencies. The articles also introduce datasets now available to the research community.

Developing an arctic subsistence observation system

The goal of the Arctic Observing Network Social Indicators Project subsistence component is to assess the adequacy of existing subsistence harvest data to advance our understanding of arctic change and to serve as the basis for recommending steps that can improve the observation network. The assessment is based on a database developed to include 1521 place/year records for Alaska and northern Canada. Of these records, 641 include estimates of harvest of all resources. Separate harvest reports are available for 131 species. Annual harvests are expressed as kilograms of edible harvest per capita for years ranging from 1965 to 2007. One or more measures per decade of comprehensive harvest in the 1990s and 2000s exist for 50 of the 411 arctic North American communities. Based on these results, in most, but not all regions, available data on subsistence harvests in Arctic North America cannot support analysis of changes in harvest over time. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game Community Subsistence Information System continues to provide harvest data for communities and has developed several regional sets of community harvest data in response to actual and potential environmental changes. The past harvest surveys conducted in the Nunavik, Inuvialuit, and Nunavut regions offer valuable experience as well as baseline data. The Arctic Borderlands Ecological Cooperative is a model of community–researcher collaboration. These past and current initiatives provide a foundation for the design of an expanded arctic subsistence observation network. The paper concludes with a discussion of challenges and recommendations.

The Political Economy of Northern Regional Development : Vol. I

“….Taking the structure and functioning of the Arctic regional economies and the degree of economic dependence as a point of departure, these regions self-reliance and comparative ...

Assessing developmental impacts on subsistence fishing: Complications attributable to a mixed economic system

There is no all‐encompassing measure of quality of life that adequately reflects the psychological, sociocultural, environmental, and economic components of subsistence. Even if only the material aspects of quality are considered, impact assessment in rural areas of Alaska is complicated because communities have integrated three‐sector economies. Because both state and federal laws give the highest priority to subsistence users of fishery resources, reductions in fish populations may be manifested in reduced commercial and sport harvests rather than the subsistence take. Impact analysis is complicated because the same individuals may participate in each of these economic sectors. Nevertheless, quantifying material returns such as income and subsistence goods can provide useful insights, even though interpretation of values originating in different contexts are necessarily subjective. Furthermore, these measures are inputs to the quality of life rather than measures of it.

SLiCA: Arctic living conditions : Living conditions and quality of life among Inuit, Saami and indigenous peoples of Chukotka and the Kola Peninsula

The SLiCA anthology probes into the theoretical and methodological background of the SLiCA project, the research design, the ethical principles applied and introduces examples of the wealth of info ...