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Co-management and the co-production of knowledge: Learning to adapt in Canada's Arctic
... An urban commons is produced and reproduced through the encounter of the city ecosystem's elements (Borch and Kornberger, 2015). Such encounters contribute to the creation of shared understandings through repeated interactions and practices (Wessendorf, 2014), which induce social learning (Wenger, 2010a); a key element to adaptation (Armitage et al., 2011). ...
... Such repeated interactions help forming a foundation of shared norms and patterns of reciprocity, called social capital, on which institutional arrangements can be established (Ostrom, 1990). These contribute to social learning (Armitage et al., 2011). Based on the evolutionary resilience framework of Davoudi, Brooks andMehmood, 2013and additional research from Mehmood, 2016, the learning capacity of communities triggers preparedness, one of the four pillars of the evolutionary resilience framework. ...
... Communities involved in the care of the urban commons potentially play a significant role in urban system resilience (Chan, DuBois and Tidball, 2015;Petrescu, Petcou and Baibarac, 2016;Shaw et al., 2016). They have the capacity to learn through uncertainty and system changes, which is key to enable their adaptability (Armitage et al., 2011;Mehmood, 2016;Quigley, Blair and Davison, 2018). Such learning can emanate from knowledge co-production, a well-described driver of urban resilience (Camps-Calvet et al., 2015;Elmqvist et al., 2019;Folke, Colding and Berkes, 2003;Schauppenlehner-Kloyber and Penker, 2016). ...
Environmental, socio-economical, or sanitary crises constantly question our adaptability as individuals within a community. How can we overcome the present situation? How to mitigate future crises? What role can we, citizens, play in this collective effort? More and more research and international reports point to the key role of human communities, especially at the level of cities, to increase our societal resilience. In this thesis, I therefore investigate some of the mechanisms leading to more community resilience in cities.
This thesis focuses a broadly spread collective action practice which occurs in the urban space, extensively described from the point of view of individual cases or from specific disciplines, with yet no significant attempt to generate a loosely constrained overview of this practice, called the urban commons.
... Not only must any top-down innovation be adjusted for local conditions but knowledge diffusion through farming communities relies on networks of trusted local practitioners who are strongly grounded in local knowledge traditions. Viable solutions are therefore most likely to be developed by drawing on and fusing multiple knowledge traditions (Barnett, 2010;Armitage et al., 2011;Norström et al., 2020). In particular, the rich insights emanating from local knowledge and perceptions can be combined with formal scientific knowledge through a process of knowledge co-production to identify problems and frame research for effective adaptation and decision-making (Alessa et al., 2015). ...
... Co-production should ideally be context-based, pluralistic, goaloriented, interactive (Norström et al., 2020) and encourage multiple ways of learning to improve adaptive capacity of communities and stakeholders against climatic change and other stressors (Kerkhoff and Lebel, 2015;Colloff et al., 2017). In this study we adopted the conceptual framework of Armitage et al. (2011), who categorised the knowledge co-production process into five steps: knowledge gathering, sharing, integration, interpretation and application. This framework was augmented with three other process-steps: community consultation and mobilization (to initiate the project), and monitoring and evaluation (as a final step after application of the co-produced knowledge), as these steps are considered critical if co-produced knowledge is to be adopted (Kristjanson et al., 2009;Wamsler, 2017). ...
Poor farmers are particularly vulnerable to environmental stressors and often rely on traditional knowledge and grassroots creativity to help them to adapt. Such adaptation can be enhanced using other knowledge sources, but this requires greater understanding of the processes of knowledge co-production among scientists, local communities and state actors. In this study we undertook knowledge co-production on an experimental basis with two contrasting communities: smallholder farmers in Jind (Haryana) and Adi women in East Siang district (Arunachal Pradesh). We found that the Jind farmers displayed grassroots creativity in coping with salinity induced stresses to rice-wheat cropping systems, while Adi women applied their traditional knowledge of food based on namdung (Perilla ocymoides, a local plant species) to cope with climate variability that affected fermentation. Jind farmers perceived the process of knowledge co-production as moderately credible and salient, but the legitimacy of the exercise was compromised by the relatively low level of participation by state actors. The farmers rated the practical outcomes of the co-produced zero-till wheat as low to moderate for combating salinity-induce risks but as high for a community rice nursery. The knowledge co-production process was considered more credible and salient among younger Adi women than older women, and the utility of the Adi women's co-produced adaptive practices were rated as moderate to high for reducing the impacts of climate variability on namdung based foods. In both cases, an emergent property of the knowledge co-production exercise was creation of a knowledge network that has the potential to lead to ongoing enhanced adaptation to environmental change. Insights from the study could help improve knowledge co-production in similar social-ecological systems, and can be integrated with environmental change policies.
... Therefore local and regional administrations need to take additional steps on the process of integrating this knowledge system in the management of the territory. Indeed, co-management, i.e., management involving local communities and administration, is becoming a common practice growingly implemented in protected areas and indigenous territories (Krupnik et al. 2010;Armitage et al. 2011;Danielsen et al. 2014;Reed et al. 2016). The co-management approach would imply that the local population of Sierra Nevada should be a fundamental stakeholder, involved in all the decisions about the future of their territory becoming more involved in the management of the territory and natural resources. ...
... Finally, academia is also in a process of increasingly valuing LEK, in some cases promoting the co-production of new actionable knowledge that brings together scientific knowledge and LEK to address current sustainability challenges (Tengö et al. 2017;Norström et al. 2020). Currently, researchers are working on the co-production of knowledge in fields like agroecology, biodiversity conservation, or natural resources management (Altieri 2002;Armitage et al. 2011). Nowadays, there is also a great concern about the need to also include the LEK of IPLC in climate change research (Krupnik et al. 2010;Berkes 2017;. ...
Understanding the effects ofClimateclimate changeClimate change and human activities on fragile mountain ecosystems is necessary to successfully managing these environments under future climateClimate scenarios (e.g., global warming, enhanced aridity). This can be done through the study of paleoecological records, which can provide long paleoenvironmental databases containing information on how ecosystems reacted toClimateclimate changeClimate change and human disturbances before the historical record. These studies can be particularly interesting when focusing on especially warm and/or dry past climatic phases. Biotic (pollen, charcoal) and abiotic (physical, geochemistry) analyses from wetland sediment records from the Sierra NevadaSierra Nevada, southern SpainSpainrecordSouthern spain changes in vegetation, fire historyHistory and lake sedimentation since ~11,700 years (cal yr BP). This multiproxy paleoecological study indicates that maxima in temperatureTemperature and humidity occurred in the area in the Early and Middle HoloceneHolocene, with a peak in precipitationPrecipitation between ~10,500 and 7000 cal yr BP. This is deduced by maxima in water runoff, the highest abundance of tree species and algae and high total organic carbon values recorded in the alpine wetland’s sedimentary records of the Sierra NevadaSierra Nevada during that time period. In the last 7000 cal yr BP, and especially after a transition period between ~7000 and 5000 cal yr BP, a progressive aridification process took place, indicated by the decrease in tree species and the increase in xerophytic herbs in this region and a reduction in water runoff evidenced by the decrease in detritic input in the wetland sedimentary records. An increasing trend inSaharan dustSaharan dust depositionSaharan dust deposition in the Sierra NevadaSierra Nevada wetlands is also recorded through inorganic geochemical proxies, probably due to a coetaneous loss of vegetation cover in North Africa. The process of progressive aridification during the Middle and Late HoloceneHolocene was interrupted by millennial-scale climatic oscillations and several periods of relative humid/droughty conditions and warm/cold periods have been identified in different temperatureTemperatureand/or precipitationPrecipitation proxies. Enhanced human impactHuman impact has been observed in the Sierra NevadaSierra Nevada in the last ~3000 cal yr BP through the increase in fires, grazing, cultivation, atmospheric pollution as well as reforestation by Pinus and the massive cultivation of Olea at lower altitudes.
... Therefore local and regional administrations need to take additional steps on the process of integrating this knowledge system in the management of the territory. Indeed, co-management, i.e., management involving local communities and administration, is becoming a common practice growingly implemented in protected areas and indigenous territories (Krupnik et al. 2010;Armitage et al. 2011;Danielsen et al. 2014;Reed et al. 2016). The co-management approach would imply that the local population of Sierra Nevada should be a fundamental stakeholder, involved in all the decisions about the future of their territory becoming more involved in the management of the territory and natural resources. ...
... Finally, academia is also in a process of increasingly valuing LEK, in some cases promoting the co-production of new actionable knowledge that brings together scientific knowledge and LEK to address current sustainability challenges (Tengö et al. 2017;Norström et al. 2020). Currently, researchers are working on the co-production of knowledge in fields like agroecology, biodiversity conservation, or natural resources management (Altieri 2002;Armitage et al. 2011). Nowadays, there is also a great concern about the need to also include the LEK of IPLC in climate change research (Krupnik et al. 2010;Berkes 2017;Díaz et al. 2019). ...
Local ecological knowledge systems have been the basis of Sierra Nevada’sSierra Nevadasocial-ecological systemSocial-ecological system, which has co-evolved over more than ten centuries until nowadays, based on the knowledge, practices, and innovations deriving from the relationship between people and the ecosystems on which they depend. In Sierra NevadaSierra Nevada, this co-evolution is greatly influenced by the traditional water managementTraditional water management system, generating a “cultural landscapeCultural landscape.” However, during the twentieth-century Sierra NevadaSierra Nevada’s social-ecological systemSocial-ecological system was affected by diverse drivers of changeDrivers of change such as climateClimatechangeClimate change, rural exodus, land-use change, and conservationConservation government policies, which are threatening its stability and the transmission of the related local ecological knowledge. Local ecological knowledge on water management, traditional agricultural systems, and knowledge related to grazing and cattle raising should be included in the co-managementAdaptive co-management of the territory and representatives of this knowledge should be involved and collaborate with administration and researchers developing adaptive plants to reduce negative impacts of global changeGlobal change.
... In planning literature, extensive public participation, improved interaction and trust-building have been proposed as remedies for conflicts especially by consensus building approaches grounded in negotiation theory (Forester, 2009;Innes, 2004;Lederach, 2014) as well as analyses of specific environmental planning processes and conservation conflicts (Madden & McQuinn, 2014;Olvera-Garcia & Neil, 2019;Parés et al., 2015;Petersson et al., 2012b;Redpath et al., 2013;Reed, 2008;Saarikoski et al., 2012;Suškevičs, 2019;Young et al., 2013). Furthermore, co-management (Armitage et al., 2011;Berkes, 2009;Dale, 2018), co-governance (Kooiman, 2003) and collaborative governance frameworks (Emerson & Nabatchi, 2015;Wondolleck, 1985;Wondolleck and Yaffee, 2000) bring the process of co-creating plans to the forefront. Adaptive management frameworks, in turn, consider plans as a tool for setting the management goals from a broader perspective that takes into account the plan's implications for people's lives (e.g., Madsen et al., 2017;Scarlett, 2013). ...
... Reflection on the goals of planning, participation and the underlying power relations is therefore crucial (Owens, 2000). It has also been proposed that the more controversial the problems are, the more important it is to open up the plan to co-managerial processes where power is shared between authorities and stakeholder groups (Armitage et al., 2011;Berkes, 2009;Kooiman, 2003;Leong et al., 2009). The notion of uncomfortable planning calls for a deeper understanding of the impact of management plans and planning processes on the underlying power relations in planning situations, and hence, the ability of plans to respond to contested planning issues. ...
This article examines the capacity of management plans to respond to conflicts arising in conservation planning and management. As a widely adopted policy tool for nature conservation, management plans are often prepared in situations with diverging interests. Our starting point is that these plans inevitably influence planning situations, and the conflicts emerging in these situations, even though conflict resolution may not be their primary purpose. Inspired by Lucy Suchman's work on plans in technology development, we analyse the situated effects of four management plans dealing with wildlife and land‐use conflicts. Based on the analysis, we identify features that increase the sensitivity of management plans to power asymmetries in planning situations. We suggest that attentiveness to power effects is a step towards ‘uncomfortable planning’, a principle identified by Rafael Ramirez and Jerome Ravetz to be key in responding to the possibility that plans in uncertain, complex and controversial situations make things worse. Uncomfortable planning seeks to involve the peripheral voices and experiences that plans tend to neglect and that often form the roots of conflicts in planning. Adhering to uncomfortable planning is thus a way to enhance the aptitude of management plans as tools in contentious conservation planning situations.
... Context factors were viewed as broader attributes, such as characteristics of the environmental resource challenge at hand and structural influences on decision making. These factors were: balancing power asymmetries; crises, such as climate change (e.g., Armitage et al. 2011;Plummer and Baird 2013;Baird et al. 2014), that trigger learning and action; allowing sufficient time for learning effects to become evident; embracing the complexity of social-ecological systems; and addressing identity differences. ...
... Environmental Management such as acceptance of social-ecological complexity and power asymmetries (e.g., Armitage et al. 2011;Plummer and Baird 2013). The social learning bundle includes fundamental process factors (e.g., Rist et al. 2007;Pahl-Wostl et al. 2013) that can generate outcomes at different levels of social organization spanning individual, group, organizational and societal changes (e.g., Reed et al. 2010;Ensor and Harvey 2015). ...
The impact of climate-related changes on northern Canada’s renewable resource sectors makes bolstering adaptive capacity an urgent imperative throughout the region. Although social learning is a key ingredient of adaptive capacity, our understanding of the relationships among social learning, adaptive capacity, and climate change adaptation is limited. Building on previous conceptual and empirical studies, this paper develops a framework that clarifies the interactions among social learning, adaptive capacity and climate change adaptation pertinent to a regional scale of analysis. The framework is multi-layered and consists of different levels of governing variables, units of analysis, learning outcomes and climate change adaptations. It is also integrative in that it encompasses social learning motivations, context and process factors, and outcomes, along with key determinants of adaptive capacity. A post hoc assessment of two climate change disturbances in northern boreal resource systems reveals the applicability of the framework to a regional scale analysis.
... Fourhundred years of colonialism in the region that exploited the islands for their strategic military value, resources, trade location, and other extractive purposes resulted in communities with limited capacity and a culture of drop-in consultants and researchers (Finau et al., 2000;Braun, 2021;Lett et al., 2022). These complex issues require a different approach to co-producing useable climate information that is nonextractive, culturally cognizant, flexible enough to incorporate different modes of interaction, centered around relationships and storytelling, transparent, iterative, and inclusively co-developed with resource managers and local governments to foster collective ownership and shared understanding (Amitage et al., 2011;Daly and Dilling, 2019;Aguon, 2021). In fact, assessments anywhere must consider the unique geographical, historical, and cultural contexts if they are to make useful contributions to decision making. ...
... Even in regions where relatively more published literature and data exist, the inclusion of local and traditional knowledge can imbue assessments with greater legitimacy and credibility among local stakeholders and allow frontline communities to enter policy discussions by bringing their own words, experiences, and forms of knowledge into decision-making spaces where they are often absent (Daly and Dilling, 2019;Davis and Ramirez-Andreotta, 2021). The PIRCA use-cases further demonstrate that bringing together various actors who hold different knowledges can promote social learning, shared understandings, and "collective ownership" (Amitage et al., 2011). Subnational assessment efforts, in their participatory development, can foster these critical functions, which are needed across all U.S. regions if adaptation is to increase. ...
As the impacts and risks from climate change increase, the climate assessment landscape has expanded in scope and application, resulting in the desire for more information relevant to local decision-making. Some regions lack detailed climate projections and a body of consensus findings about sector-specific impacts, and there is a need for actionable, culturally cognizant, translated climate information suitable for integration into operations and management, budgeting, funding proposals, and domestic and international policy. The Pacific Islands Regional Climate Assessment, or PIRCA, is the subject of this decade-long case study illustrating the need, development, and benefit of creating and sustaining a nuanced, collaborative, and deliberately inclusive climate assessment effort among researchers and practitioners in Hawai‘i and the US-Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI). Using external evaluations done in 2013 and 2021, and our observations as participants in the process, we describe regional adaptive capacity challenges—an important component of the decision context for PIRCA stakeholders—and analyze the role of the PIRCA network in accelerating climate adaptation. We also examine how regional and national assessments complement each other, and how assessment processes can aid in translation to sub-national decision making across the climate science-policy interface. Results reveal components of the PIRCA that are foundational to its effectiveness: framing climate information in human and decision-centric ways; use of inclusive and non-extractive methods; willingness to shift approaches to meet stakeholder objectives; leveraging the resources of the Pacific Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) and other boundary organizations; taking the time to build relationships; and creating a dedicated position to sustain collaborations and relationships within the region and at larger assessment scales. Our experience and the feedback received through the evaluation suggest that these lessons are transferable to other regions and scales, and that sustained and collaborative regional climate assessments can serve a key function in complementing major national and international assessments, by translating and more effectively targeting information to meet local needs in support of regional climate adaptation and policymaking.
... There are increasing efforts by scientists and decision-makers to implement strategies that support KE in marine governance to facilitate evidence-informed decision-making (Bremer and Glavovic, 2013;Cvitanovic et al., 2016). While numerous approaches for achieving KE have been put forward in the literature, they are united by a common focus on interactive, collaborative, non-linear and two-or multidirectional approach to linking, mediating, exchanging, translating and integrating context-specific knowledge and diverse actors (e.g., Guston, 2001;Lomas, 2007;Feldman and Ingram, 2009;Armitage et al., 2011;Fazey et al., 2013;Cvitanovic et al., 2017b;Bednarek et al., 2018;Norström et al., 2020). Strategies that are most commonly used to enhance knowledge exchange in relation to marine systems include: (i) knowledge co-production, (ii) knowledge brokerage, (iii) boundary organisations, and (iv) social connections and networks (Cvitanovic et al., 2015b;Karcher et al., 2021). ...
... Stakeholder participation in -and their satisfaction with -KE activities have been shown to bring social benefits such as learning and capacity building (Armitage et al., 2011;Evely et al., 2011;de Vente et al., 2016;Schmid et al., 2016;Reed et al., 2018b). Through the process of KE, individuals may also experience increased motivation, job satisfaction and reflectivity skills (Moser, 2016;Cvitanovic et al., 2018b). ...
The ever-increasing pressure on marine environments is leading to a growing demand for evidence-informed decision-making, which is supported via interactive knowledge exchange among marine researchers and decision-makers. While there is increasing guidance on how to undertake effective knowledge exchange at the interface of science and policy, there is little information on the monetary and non-monetary costs of such endeavours. As a first step to filling this gap we undertake a narrative review of the literature and illustrate it with individual experiences from four case studies, each of which has implemented a common knowledge exchange strategy within a marine context: knowledge co-production, knowledge brokerage, boundary organisation or social connections/network. Our aim is to: (i) identify the range of costs associated with knowledge exchange activities; (ii) investigate whether the benefits outweigh the costs; and (iii) provide practical considerations to aid planning and budgeting for knowledge exchange projects in the future. We highlight direct (e.g., budget for training, labour, administration, events) and indirect, monetary and non-monetary costs (e.g., emotional effort, trust building) and risks that can occur before, during, and after projects, bearing much invisible effort. We find that the costs and benefits of knowledge exchange efforts are often intangible, hard to measure, underappreciated and insufficiently budgeted for within research projects. Researchers considering knowledge exchange activities must adequately account for preconditions of the research activity (e.g., context and scale) and invest in pre-project effort to make it work (e.g., time and costs involved in building relationships, recruitment/writing proposals), which may need institutional funding. We also recommend that funded project leaders include contingency funds to capitalise on emergent and unforeseen activities, while unfunded project leaders consider an interaction (e.g., a meeting or online conference) to maintain links for future opportunities.
... Long-term monitoring and adaptive co-management (Armitage et al., 2011) approaches are recommended to understand the effectiveness of human interventions (e.g. management or regulatory policies) and to develop an understanding of trajectories of change. ...
... management or regulatory policies) and to develop an understanding of trajectories of change. Knowledge co-production with local communities involved is a mechanism to enable learning and adaptation to environmental change (Armitage et al., 2011). Nearly two-thirds of the Arctic region is covered by ocean waters, but, unlike Antarctica, there is no single comprehensive legal regime governing the entire Arctic region. ...
The rapid evolution of science compels renewal of a knowledge-based policy, particularly in cold regions. In the Arctic and Himalayas, which have undergone a significant climate change, there is a disconnect between scientific knowledge and the practices of policy. The rising air temperatures, decreasing ice and snow, increasing precipitation and
plastic waste pollutants and the Atlantification of the Arctic Ocean by receiving warmer and saltier water from the Atlantic Ocean call for scientific research questions to strengthen the linkage between science and policy. The Arctic amplification can have remote impacts on other parts of the globe through oceanic and atmospheric teleconnections. Hence, researchers need to push the frontiers of scientific discoveries
through multidisciplinary and collaborative approaches in the Arctic Ocean along with connections to the Third Pole – Himalayas. The overall objectives of this paper are to explore how a comparison of the Arctic and the Third Pole is valuable for understanding the Arctic and global biogeophysical processes in this epoch of anthropogenic climate change; provide a strong linkage between the Arctic scientific research and its relevance to society; and help advance a more sustainable future for the Arctic, the Third Pole and the globe.
... Long-term monitoring and adaptive co-management (Armitage et al., 2011) approaches are recommended to understand the effectiveness of human interventions (e.g. management or regulatory policies) and to develop an understanding of trajectories of change. ...
... management or regulatory policies) and to develop an understanding of trajectories of change. Knowledge co-production with local communities involved is a mechanism to enable learning and adaptation to environmental change (Armitage et al., 2011). Nearly two-thirds of the Arctic region is covered by ocean waters, but, unlike Antarctica, there is no single comprehensive legal regime governing the entire Arctic region. ...
The rapid evolution of science compels renewal of a knowledge-based policy, particularly in cold regions. In the Arctic and Himalayas, which have undergone a significant climate change, there is a disconnect between scientific knowledge and the practices of policy. The rising air temperatures, decreasing ice and snow, increasing precipitation and plastic waste pollutants and the Atlantification of the Arctic Ocean by receiving warmer and saltier water from the Atlantic Ocean call for scientific research questions to strengthen the linkage between science and policy. The Arctic amplification can have remote impacts on other parts of the globe through oceanic and atmospheric teleconnections. Hence, researchers need to push the frontiers of scientific discoveries through multidisciplinary and collaborative approaches in the Arctic Ocean along with connections to the Third Pole – Himalayas. The overall objectives of this paper are to explore how a comparison of the Arctic and the Third Pole is valuable for understanding the Arctic and global biogeophysical processes in this epoch of anthropogenic climate change; provide a strong linkage between the Arctic scientific research and its relevance to society; and help advance a more sustainable future for the Arctic, the Third Pole and the globe.
... Furthermore, the results of this research corroborate with cross-cutting topics in sustainability literature such as complexity, adaptiveness or uncertainty. For example, the detected relevance of flexibility in JKP processes with adaptivity as an important aim of JKP, as outlined by Armitage et al. (2011), provides space for further conceptual elaboration. Also, the identification of anticipatory project planning in the case studies as an additional success factor relates well with the findings from Luthe (2017) that suggest a thorough time investment before the actual project start. ...
... Also, the identification of anticipatory project planning in the case studies as an additional success factor relates well with the findings from Luthe (2017) that suggest a thorough time investment before the actual project start. The potential contextual barriers mentioned in the expert workshop suggest the need to build up trustful collaboration, a crucial theme also faced by Armitage et al. (2011) when analysing JKP in the artic region. ...
Facing complex, urgent and dangerous sustainability challenges such as climate change or water scarcity, productive science-policy interactions are seen as one way to generate much needed knowledge for appropriate solutions. Aiming for a meaningful contribution to the existing debate on how to realise a fruitful interaction between scientific and societal perspectives by applying JKP, this research was driven by the question: Which generalisable factors that increase the likelihood of successful joint knowledge production for sustainability can be developed from the empirical context of wastewater reuse projects in Germany?
... Some literature suggests that better outcomes can be achieved for all (e.g., decision-makers and the public) by empowering stakeholders in decision-making processes as opposed to outcomes from top-down decisions alone (e.g., Arnstein 1969;Watson 2014) (and see also Gagnon et al. (2022) who discuss power distribution through participatory decision-making that enables equal participation by using a shared language). When knowledge is co-produced, it is more likely to be used in policy decisions (e.g., approving plans, restricting practices, implementing incentives) (Armitage et al. 2011(Armitage et al. , pp. 1002(Armitage et al. -1003Lemos et al. 2018;Norström et al. 2020, pp. 188-189) and increase policy support (Lemos and Morehouse 2005, p. 61). ...
... 188-189) and increase policy support (Lemos and Morehouse 2005, p. 61). In the research context, co-production processes can improve research outcomes due to the utilization of diverse knowledge, skill sets, and networks (Armitage et al. 2011(Armitage et al. , pp. 999-1000Lemos et al. 2018, p. 722;Ostrom 1996), while making the outputs generated by the process more likely to be used (Kirchhoff et al. 2013;Lemos and Morehouse 2005, pp. 65-66;Lu et al. 2022, p. 258;Prokopy et al. 2017). ...
Co-production of knowledge (through project design or research) is viewed as an effective approach to solving environmental problems, which may also increase community adaptive capacity in the face of climate change. However, the reality is that little is known about long-term impacts of co-production on researchers, communities, and outputs. We qualitatively analyzed case studies to understand co-production processes and related adaptive capacity outcomes. These 13 case studies were developed to identify impacts of the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture water (2001-2013) and climate (2010-2015) portfolios, which funded projects focused on research, education, and extension related to climate and water issues on working lands. Case study data included interviews, survey responses, and analysis of reports and publications related to a single project. We found that projects which were responsive to specific needs and assets of stakeholders had strong connections to adaptive capacity outcomes, but that these projects did not necessarily entail highly interactive practices of co-production of knowledge (e.g., stakeholder-driven research with continuous interactions between academic and non-academic partners). Our research provides evidence to suggest that, in some contexts, engagement approaches that are less time-and resource-intensive for stakeholders may be as effective at building adaptive capacity as highly interactive co-production efforts.
... Effective and systemic changes are required to inspire fundamental changes at the individual, community, and societal levels. How institutions adapt by creating the conditions for social learning is rarely emphasized (Armitage et al., 2011). Emphasis on changes in the way actors interact is also required (Clark et al., 2020), especially on how humans interact with nature in the context of socio-ecological systems through consistent practice and collective action within certain geographical concern (Anderies et al., 2004). ...
What transforms society? Using the quintuple helix model (QHM) of social innovation, this study examines how the Okayama Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) project has transformed the local community and its people, and how this has led to global recognition. Okayama is known as a world leader in ESD and their unique approach is called the Okayama Model of ESD. This study further looks at the institutional configuration on the elements contributed to knowledge co-creation and how the key actors interacted to contribute to societal transformation through knowledge, social innovation, and institutional setting. The goal of this study is to outline the Okayama Model of ESD using the QHM lens constituted of five helices; education, politics, society, economy, and the natural environment. This study applies a qualitative research method, in which key actors who contribute most to the development of the Okayama Model of ESD are identified by content analysis and semi-structured interviews that are conducted using the life history method. The result shows that the firm ground of the political subsystem facilitates the interaction among the stakeholders in the three subsystems–education, social, and natural environment, which ultimately contributes to the joining of the economic subsystem and the initiation of the knowledge circulation process. Transformation necessitates a city-wide approach involving a network of multiple actors to collaborate for knowledge co-creation and circulation, and the establishment of a new social values system. The study revealed several key points of local action that accelerated the transformation process by helping in value creation, knowledge convergence, and system interaction, which was instilled early through all forms of education—multiple actors' interaction that shapes through the ESD project that stimulates the triangulation of mind, hearts, and hands. This way, the city of Okayama functions as a living laboratory for the Okayama Model of ESD. This situation naturally promotes Mode 3 of the knowledge co-creation system, and the principles of civic collaboration and citizen engagement developed through the Okayama Model of ESD have been elaborated in the prefecture-wide vision statement.
... Through ties such as kinship, affinity and collaboration, individuals or groups build and maintain social networks. As such, social networks can enable people to build mutual trust, share knowledge and economic or social support, and thus enable them to address and solve problems or adapt to change together (Armitage et al. 2011). ...
This volume offers a holistic understanding of the environmental and societal challenges that affect reindeer husbandry in Fennoscandia today.
Reindeer husbandry is a livelihood with a long traditional heritage and cultural importance. Like many other pastoral societies, reindeer herders are confronted with significant challenges. Covering Norway, Sweden and Finland – three countries with many differences and similarities – this volume examines how reindeer husbandry is affected by and responds to global environmental change and resource extraction in boreal and arctic social-ecological systems. Beginning with an historical overview of reindeer husbandry, the volume analyses the realities of the present from different perspectives and disciplines. Genetics, behavioural ecology of reindeer, other forms of land use, pastoralists’ norms and knowledge, bio-economy and governance structures all set the stage for the complex internal and externally imposed dynamics within reindeer husbandry. In-depth analyses are devoted to particularly urgent challenges, such as land-use conflicts, climate change and predation, identified as having a high potential to shape the future pathways of the pastoral identity and productivity. These futures, with their risks and opportunities, are explored in the final section, offering a synthesis of the comparative approach between the three countries that runs as a recurring theme through the book. With its richness and depth, this volume contributes significantly to the understanding of the substantial impacts on pastoralist communities in northernmost Europe today, while highlighting viable pathways to maintaining reindeer husbandry for the future.
This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of both the natural and social sciences who work on natural resource management, global environmental change, pastoralism, ecology, social-ecological systems, rangeland management and Indigenous studies.
... As described above, combining knowledges from different sources and knowledge systems has potential to give a more diverse input to AMAP assessments and thereby make them more relevant as well as robust in meeting new challenges for predicting Arctic change. Co-production of knowledge feeding into co-management processes in the Arctic may also facilitate conditions that allow for adaptation in a rapidly changing environment (Ådnøy et al., 2003;Armitage et al., 2011;Eira et al., 2018;Frainer et al., 2020). While co-production may imply a need for transformative changes in translation between knowledge systems (Norström et al., 2020;Robards et al., 2018;Wheeler et al., 2020), in this case between natural sciences and Indigenous Knowledge and Traditional and Local Knowledge, data from different systems may be combined and compared for instance by using a mixed method framework (Maxwell, 2016;Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2009), or by semi-quantitative methods such as fuzzy cognitive mapping (e.g. ...
... In the NBS projects there has been intensive interaction between science and practice, leading to co-production of knowledge which transgress both disciplinary and/or departmental boundaries. Transdisciplinary knowledge co-production has potential to overcome departmental siloes and diverging practices and trigger learning (Armitage et al., 2011), but depends on supportive structures that contribute towards creating a safe space that promotes trust and legitimacy (Palmer et al., 2020;cf. Wamsler et al., 2020). ...
Nature-based solutions (NBS) attract a growing interest in research and practice due to their potential to address climate change while improving human health and well-being and safeguarding biodiversity. The integration of the NBS concept in urban governance, however, is still emerging and it faces regulatory, political, financial and cognitive barriers. While the literature acknowledges an increase in NBS experimentation in cities and documents new governance approaches for NBS, academic knowledge on transformative learning to advance the potential of NBS is scarce. This article unpacks enabling and constraining factors for transformative learning through interpretative case study analysis of two NBS projects in Malmö, Sweden: BiodiverCity and EcoCity Augustenborg. To map instances of learning and investigate conditions for transformative learning in NBS implementation, this article draws on the concepts of experimenting, governing and learning and uses an analytical framework resting on three pillars: visionary ideas and strategies; stakeholder participation; and institutional arrangements. The article identifies seeds of transformative learning and argues that cross-boundary collaboration, action-oriented knowledge production, reflexive governance and citizen involvement are key enablers for transformative learning, which requires supporting structures, evaluation, continuity and relational capacities to thrive. To advance the implementation of NBS and increase urban sustainability, transformative learning should be acknowledged as a key strategic component of change. This, however, requires transformative learning to be more seriously considered in research and practice related to nature-based urban transformations.
... Nesse sentido, as atividades dialogadas e interativas das duas versões do "Caminhos Participativos" reforçam a premissa de que todos têm contribuições e colaboram para construir juntos novos conhecimentos, numa coprodução de conhecimentos que modifica profundamente as práticas de pesquisa convencionais e conhecimentos prévios, assim como os papéis dos pesquisadores (Pohl et al., 2010). Ela se realiza por meio de um processo colaborativo que reúne fontes e tipos de conhecimento diversos para abordar um problema definido e construir um entendimento integrado ou orientado desse problema (Armitage et al., 2011). ...
Resumo A extensão universitária é o espaço-tempo propício para a articulação direta entre conhecimento científico e sociedade, vinculando inovação e compromisso social da Universidade. Com foco na temática urgente da Redução de Riscos e Desastres (RRD), este trabalho analisou e sistematizou conteúdos e métodos utilizados em quatro projetos de extensão desenvolvidos pelo Laboratório de Gestão de Riscos da Universidade Federal do ABC (LabGRis-UFABC) entre 2012 e 2021. Verificou-se um processo de evolução na abordagem teórico-metodológica sobre redução de risco e desastre (RRD) e a inserção de processos participativos de aprendizagem, que corroboram a linha evolutiva de quatro marcos internacionais em RRD: Yokohama (1994), Hyogo (2005), Sendai (2015) e os Objetivos do Desenvolvimento Sustentável (2015). Os resultados apontam o papel da Universidade em fazer a crítica ao fracasso das metodologias tradicionais, expresso na trágica persistência dos desastres a que se assiste, bem como o protagonismo dos atores locais por meio de processos de coprodução dos conhecimentos e compartilhamento das tomadas de decisões sobre os riscos, que são potencializados pela extensão universitária, como o caminho a seguir para comunidades seguras, resilientes e socialmente justas.
... Their members have contextualized and updated knowledge of the marine environment that can complement scientific data. It should not be forgotten that much of the basic knowledge of the resource and the motivations to use it sustainably resides with the fishers themselves [48][49][50]. ...
The fisheries sector is making significant changes by specifically addressing coastal management and tackling the socio-environmental crisis it is currently facing. Notably, a fundamental change in the attitude and behavior of fishers and their institutions is observed, where sustainability of the environment and marine resources is becoming a priority issue.
Focusing on the Fisher's Guilds of the Spanish Mediterranean, this work analyses the scope of these changes in the management of natural resources through their concrete actions, the factors that enhance or limit such actions, as well as any lingering resistance. For this, we have combined quantitative techniques, through a closed questionnaire, and qualitative techniques, through semi-structured interviews.
We can confirm that the guilds play a growing and active role in the environmental management of their territory of influence. However, it is necessary to equip them with greater human and material resources, to support a strong, determined leadership committed to the environment and, above all, to build a framework of joint collaboration in decision-making that goes beyond mere appearances.
... Nutrition North, today a failed policy, could implement the multidimensional food values model (Figure 1) to help address fundamental flaws embedded in a food-as-commodity approach. Research across the North suggests that developing co-management agencies and nutritional monitoring, promoting knowledge exchange on how northern Aboriginal peoples adapt to consumption of alternative species, and fostering regional sharing networks (which are currently excluded from the NNC Program) together preserve nutritional integrity and cultural survival (Armitage et al., 2011;Berkes & Jolly, 2002;LeBlanc, 2014;Rosol et al., 2016). Yellowhead Institute's 2019 Red Paper states "as food sources dwindle and face extinction due to the long-term impacts of industrial infrastructure, extraction, habitat loss, and human settlement" it is crucial for Canadians to recognize "Traditional foods are not just about sustenance, but medicine and education as well" (King et al., 2019, pp. ...
This paper interrogates the role of the dominant narrative of “food-as-commodity” in framing food systems policy in Canada. Human values shape policies, usually privileging those policies that are aligned with dominant values and neglecting others that confront dominant values. In that sense, valuing food as a commodity privileges specific market-based policy goals, regulations, and public subsidies that aim to enlarge market coverage. This prioritizes both corporate profit over societies´ common good and private enclosures of commons resources over universal access to food for all. Conversely, the normative shift this paper proposes—valuing and governing food as a commons—could enable socio-ecologically based policy goals and regulations, and redirect public subsidies to support customary and contemporary practices that produce and distribute food differently. Such a normative shift, scholars have argued, is a prerequisite for developing legal frameworks that lead to more and better 1) self-production; 2) stewardship of natural commons; and 3) civic participation in the governance of a resource that is essential for everybody´s survival. Valuing food as a commons can provide a complementary narrative to alternative civic claims such as food sovereignty, agro-ecology, or food justice. In this paper, we begin by outlining the theoretical basis for our investigation into the role of food valuation in the critical food guidance shaping public policy. Next, we provide an overview of the concept of food as commons through the multidimensional food values framework and offer a tri-centric governance model to frame the analysis. Following a brief policy context for Indigenous food initiatives in Canada, we then provide three case studies involving Anishnaabek food systems to explore valuation of food beyond commodity in customary and contemporary food systems. Finally, we discuss how valuing food as a commons offers critical food guidance for addressing multiple socio-ecological issues connected with food systems policy in the Canadian settler colonial context.
... Through ties such as kinship, affinity and collaboration, individuals or groups build and maintain social networks. As such, social networks can enable people to build mutual trust, share knowledge and economic or social support, and thus enable them to address and solve problems or adapt to change together (Armitage et al. 2011). ...
... Through ties such as kinship, affinity and collaboration, individuals or groups build and maintain social networks. As such, social networks can enable people to build mutual trust, share knowledge and economic or social support, and thus enable them to address and solve problems or adapt to change together (Armitage et al. 2011). ...
... Over the past decade, co-creative approaches have been implemented widely in the Arctic (e.g. Armitage et al., 2011;Castleden et al. 2012;Cooke et al. 2020;Nilsson et al., 2021). Greenhalgh et al. (2016) define the 'co-creation' process as "the collaborative generation of knowledge by academics working alongside stakeholders from other sectors'' (p.393). ...
Truly transdisciplinary approaches are needed to tackle the complex problems that the Arctic is facing at the moment. Collaboration between Indigenous rights holders and researchers through co-creative research approaches can result in high-quality research outcomes, but crucially also address colonial legacies and power imbalances, enhance mutual trust, and respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples. However, to be successful, collaborative research projects have specific requirements regarding research designs, timeframes, and dissemination of results, which often do not fit into the frameworks of academic calendars and funding guidelines. Funding agencies in particular play an important role in enabling (or disabling) meaningful collaboration between Indigenous rights holders and researchers. There is an urgent need to re-think existing funding-structures. This article will propose a new paradigm for the financing of Arctic research, which centres around the inclusion of Indigenous partners, researchers, and institutions from the initial planning stages of funding programmes to the final stages of research projects. These findings and recommendations have been contextualized based on critical reflections of the co-authors, a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners, who have practiced their own collaborative work process, the challenges encountered, and lessons learned.
... In anthropology, there is an increasing tendency to argue that the future of anthropological research is and should be collaborative and decolonial (cf. Armitage et al. 2011;Voorberg et al. 2014;Saxinger & First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun 2018). 'True' collaboration between academics and nonacademics would be the best way to prevent ontologically one-sided research projects or perpetual colonial power relations when working with and in Indigenous contexts. ...
In this paper, we explore the methodical, methodological, epistemological and outreach potential – and related challenges – of cartographic storytelling in ethnographic research, based on the online portal Life of BAM. Our extensive literature review highlights the need for deep self-reflection in the cartographic production of manifold realities and the way in which visualised stories can be co-produced by local people and researchers. It also describes cartography’s conceptual turns and its role in anthropology and ethnography. As an outreach tool, the Life of BAM portal conveys knowledge about social and infrastructural configurations in the greater area of the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) and Amur-Yakutsk Mainline (AYaM) railroads in Eastern Siberia, through a series of lay-language and visualised ‘episodes’ built into the ArcGIS StoryMaps online tool. Interlinking qualitative and quantitative data in the cartographic visualisation of manifold realities can trigger better comprehension of complex matters, through multimodal forms of representing stories in space. Cartographic storytelling, as a means of knowledge and science communication, supports – in our case – civil society, education, heritage work and policy making, and is a way of making local concerns more tangible for state officials and corporate actors. By engaging with cartographic storytelling and building the Life of BAM portal, we affirm that a reflective attitude towards the multiplicity of stories’ ontologies in narration, collection, comprehension and representation is of key importance if we want to do justice to a decolonial approach towards Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and research partners in the field.
... Processes supportive of social learning outcomes include bringing together differing perspectives, addressing identity differences, balancing power asymmetries, and embracing the complexity of social-ecological systems (e.g., Rist et al. 2007;Leys and Vanclay 2011;Pahl-Wostl et al. 2013;Suškevičs et al. 2019). Helpful methods include facilitative leadership, practice-based dialogues, intentional experimentation, and boundary objects (e.g., Armitage et al. 2011;Plummer and Baird 2013;Baird et al. 2014;Suškevičs et al. 2019). Much of the evidence about social learning comes from environmental governance contexts other than IA, such as climate change adaptation, watershed management, and community-based forestry (see reviews by Suškevičs et al. 2018Suškevičs et al. , 2019, although an early leading study was based on IA experiences. ...
In this chapter, we contextualize meaningful public participation in relation to next-generation IA, describe its key features, principles and benefits, and canvas innovative and promising approaches and tools for achieving such participation.
... This finding is in line with previous studies that found that using Fig. 2. Attributes preferences. Oliva et al. co-production processes serve as a mechanism for learning and lead to adaptation (Armitage et al., 2011;Zarei et al., 2020). ...
Climate change will impose high costs on different societal actors, including firms and organizations, forcing them to adapt to this new situation. Although the relevance of implementing adaptation strategies is widely recognized, studies on firms' adaptation to climate change are still in their infancy, especially regarding small and medium enterprises. Following a multi-stage approach, we analyze how small and medium enterprises in the marine food industry could adapt to climate-induced ocean acidification through product innovation. First, we use a co-production process with the firms' representatives to gain insights into the industry's adaptation opportunities, in which product innovation arises as the preferred strategy. Second, using a Discrete Choice Experiment, we test if consumers value both the mussels' attributes likely affected by ocean acidification (sensory and nutritional) and the proposed new products developed to adapt to it. We also analyze preferences' heterogeneity through a latent class model. Our results show that consumers value the attributes potentially affected by ocean acidification. We found high heterogeneity in consumer preferences regarding product types, disentangled into two classes (non-innovative consumers and consumers willing to innovate). We suggest that the industry could base its adaptation strategy on two pillars: 1) maintain the traditional format, thus satisfying 21% of the market (non-innovative consumers); 2) direct the innovation efforts towards the canned format, thus satisfying those consumers willing to innovate (79% of the market). Although consumers willing to innovate are prone to try new formats, the preferred alternatives are not radical innovations.
... Until relatively recently, the prevailing academic attitude was that this knowledge was unscientific, imprecise, and too embedded within social and cultural practice to be of substantial management use (Berkes, 2018). This attitude changed as recognition grew among a wide variety of scholars and practitioners that TEK held relevance to the achievement of management and sustainability goals (Armitage et al., 2011). The potential for TEK to aid in these goals, as a complement to Western science, is now well established (Berkes, 2004;Bohensky and Maru, 2011;Davis, 2006;Folke, 2004), particularly in natural resource management and climate change adaptation contexts (Rarai et al., 2022). ...
In ecosystem governance, due to the ecological, social, and jurisdictional complexity of these systems, pluralities of knowledge are increasingly necessary for informed decision-making. However, there are frictions between different kinds of knowledges, whether scientific, bureaucratic, or local. The bringing together of Indigenous and Western knowledge systems is an especially intractable challenge. Indigenous knowledge is frequently incommensurable with dominant scientific frameworks, particularly in how many Indigenous Peoples conceptualize the social roles of nonhumans. Nonetheless, Indigenous and scientific knowledges are regularly brought together in contexts ranging from wildlife co-management to global environmental assessments, and this can involve Indigenous knowledge being selectively adopted, integrated, translated, or just ignored to fit within those frameworks. In this literature review we suggest that Actor-Network Theory—a way of accounting for the webs of relations constituting and generating social and natural worlds—has the potential to help researchers and practitioners challenge the ontological boundaries that make this work difficult. ANT, as well as other approaches under the wider umbrella of posthumanism, could fit within existing pluralist frameworks like Two-Eyed Seeing which strive to address entrenched power dynamics in work involving Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples, and help inspire new participatory methods for understanding and enhancing knowledge pluralism in governance.
... Since many local government agencies, personnel and resources are involved in planning for and response to emergencies, local governments must incorporate the prediction and management of emergencies into their overall development and management plans. Local government officials must deal with the immediate consequences of disasters, coordinate the formulation and execution of comprehensive disaster response plans, respond to citizen demands and provide additional resources and personnel, showcasing their commitment to promoting public interest and improving professional standards [49]. Additional resources based on emergency management plans and protocols may add more stringent requirements. ...
Environmental emergency management is an important practical subject for local governments. Understanding the different dimensions of environmental emergency management capability is crucial for enabling a well-informed governance performance. Based on the crisis management 4R theory (comprising four stages: reduction, readiness, response and recovery), PPRR emergency management theory (emergency management is categorized into four stages: prevention, preparation, response and recovery), crisis life cycle theory and ISO 22320, this paper divided local government environmental emergency management capability into four dimensions of a dynamic pre–during–post process: preparedness, early warning, response and recovery. This paper applied a confirmatory factor analysis model to confirm the classification standards of the four capabilities, which are strongly correlated within environmental emergency management. We found that China’s local government environmental emergency management capability is generally at an upper-middle level, according to the empirical data. We also analyzed the regional differences in local government environmental emergency management capability across China and concluded that the environmental emergency management capability of local governments in the eastern region is higher than those in other regions. The capability levels in the central, western and northeastern regions are more similar to each other and show a decreasing distribution in the east–central–west–northeast region.
... For example, indicators used to track coastal and marine change or outcomes of coastal management interventions often reflect dominant systems of knowledge (i.e., Western science), institutionalized forms of power (i.e., centralized government agencies), and particular experiences of managers and decision makers (Silver et al. 2022). To frame our analysis and to reflect on power/knowledge relations, we draw in particular from the literature on knowledge coproduction, defined here as the collaborative process of consciously bringing a plurality of knowledge sources and types together to address a defined problem and build an integrated or systems-oriented understanding of that problem for an actionable outcome (Armitage et al. 2011;Nordstrom et al. 2020). Specifically, we use experiences with knowledge co-production as a way to think about what is needed to disrupt one-way flows of information, and place more emphasis on the social-relational dimensions (Bodin and Prell 2011; Alexander and Armitage 2015) that can influence indicator processes. ...
In many environment and resource management contexts (e.g., integrated coastal management, ecosystem-based fisheries management), indicator selection and development are perceived as a largely technical, bureaucratic, and scientific challenge. As such, choices about indicators and their application are often treated as external from everyday politics and dynamics of social power. Our aim here is to highlight the value of a relational perspective that weaves power and knowledge together in the context of indicator development and implementation. We highlight four critical dimensions of this relational perspective that may lead to better indicator process outcomes: 1) centering identity and positionality to reflect power differentials; 2) emphasizing the importance of indicator ‘fit’ and the politics of scale; 3) engaging rather than erasing social-ecological complexity; and 4) reflecting on social norms and relationships to foster adaptation and learning. These four dimensions are rarely considered in most indicator initiatives, including those that are more participatory in design and implementation. The dimensions we outline here emerge from the grounded experience of managers and practitioners, including indicator processes in which we are currently engaged, as well as a scoping review of the literature on indicators for coastal and marine governance and conservation specifically. However, the four dimensions and relational focus are relevant to a wide range of resource and environmental management contexts and provide a pathway to catalyze more effective indicator processes for decision-making and governance more generally.
... Working across disciplines (interdisciplinarity; Strang, 2009), and/or engaging multiple stakeholders (transdisciplinarity; Klenk and Meehan, 2015;Crate et al., 2017), are approaches used to bridge knowledge systems. The use of all knowledge relevant to a specific challenge can involve approaches such as: scenario building across stakeholder groups to capture the multiple ways people perceive their environment and act within it (Klenk and Meehan, 2015); knowledge co-production to achieve collaborative management efforts (Armitage et al., 2011); and working with communities to identify shared values and perceptions that enable context-specific adaptation strategies (Grunblatt and Alessa, 2017). Broad stakeholder engagement, including affected communities, Indigenous Peoples, local and regional representatives, policy makers, managers, interest groups and organisations, has the potential to effectively use all relevant knowledge (Obermeister, 2017) and produce results that reduce the disproportionate influence that formally educated and economically advantaged groups often exert in scientific assessments (Castree et al., 2014). ...
Framing and Context of the Report
Chapter 1
Executive Summary
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 observed from high mountains, to the polar regions, to coasts, and into the deep ocean. AR5 assessed that the ocean is warming (0 to 700 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 and Antarctic ice sheets are losing mass (high confidence), sea ice extent in the Arctic is decreasing (very high confidence), Northern Hemisphere snow cover is decreasing (very high confidence), and permafrost temperatures are increasing (high confidence). Improvements since AR5 in observation systems, techniques, reconstructions and model developments, have advanced scientific characterisation and understanding of ocean and cryosphere change, including in previously identified areas of concern such as ice sheets and Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). {1.1, 1.4, 1.8.1}
Evidence and understanding of the human causes of climate warming, and of associated ocean and cryosphere changes, has increased over the past 30 years of IPCC assessments (very high confidence). Human activities are estimated to have caused approximately 1.0oC of global warming above pre-industrial levels (SR15). Areas of concern in earlier IPCC reports, such as the expected acceleration of sea level rise, are now observed (high confidence). Evidence for expected slow-down of AMOC is emerging in sustained observations and from long-term palaeoclimate reconstructions (medium confidence), and may be related with anthropogenic forcing according to model simulations, although this remains to be properly attributed. Significant sea level rise contributions from Antarctic ice sheet mass loss (very high confidence), which earlier reports did not expect 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 emission scenarios, compared with low emission scenarios (very high confidence). Projections and assessments of future climate, ocean and cryosphere changes in the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) are commonly based on coordinated climate model experiments from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) forced with Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) of future radiative forcing. Current emissions continue to grow at a rate consistent with a high emission future without effective climate change mitigation policies (referred to as RCP8.5). The SROCC assessment contrasts this high greenhouse gas emission future with a low greenhouse gas emission, high mitigation future (referred to as RCP2.6) that gives a two in three chance of limiting warming by the end of the century to less than 2oC above pre-industrial. {Cross-Chapter Box 1 in Chapter 1}
1
1
2
In this report, the following summary terms are used to describe the available evidence: limited, medium, or robust; and for the degree of agreement: low, medium or high. A level of confidence is expressed using five qualifiers: very low, low, medium, high and very high, and typeset in italics, for example, medium confidence. For a given evidence and agreement statement, different confidence levels can be assigned, but increasing levels of evidence and degrees of agreement are correlated with increasing confidence (see Section 1.9.2 and Figure 1.4 for more details).
In this report, the following terms have been used to indicate the assessed likelihood of an outcome or a result: Virtually certain 99–100% probability, Very likely 90–100%, Likely 66–100%, About as likely as not 33–66%, Unlikely 0–33%, Very unlikely 0–10%, and Exceptionally unlikely 0–1%. Additional terms (Extremely likely: 95–100%, More likely than not >50–100%, and Extremely unlikely 0–5%) may also be used when appropriate. Assessed likelihood is typeset in italics, for example, very likely (see Section 1.9.2 and Figure 1.4 for more details). This Report also uses the term ‘likely range’ to indicate that the assessed likelihood of an outcome lies within the 17–83% probability range.
75
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. {1.8.1, 1.9.2; Cross-Chapter Box 5 in Chapter 1}
... The KNSM serves as a bridging tool that blurs boundaries internal and external to the agency (Lemos & Morehouse, 2005;Varady et al., 2013), links diverse expertise and experience (Chapman et al., 2017), transforms data and information into knowledge (Armitage et al., 2011;Crona & Parker, 2012;Nel et al., 2016), and transparently guides knowledge into practice (Chapman et al., 2017). ...
This paper incorporates systems thinking in the design of a knowledge networked systems model (KNSM) for supporting knowledge‐to‐action in conservation organizations. It assumes that organizations are complex entities with properties that should be considered normatively. The synthesis of these properties into a KNSM revolves around the most common question many conservation practitioners are asked by the public: how is X doing? X typically reflects a concept easily grasped by the public such as a species or ecosystem. To operationalize a KNSM, one should consider that (1) information, not authority, empowers the network, (2) structural or bureaucratic impediments to maximizing utility of knowledge are minimized, (3) interacting agents direct the flow of information and knowledge and guide agency outputs, (4) boundaries between offices, programs, departments, and organizations are treated as porous, (5) transparency is fundamental to successful model operation, (6), most conservation problems are spatial, and (7) ecological and knowledge hierarchies organize the network. Benefits of this approach include facilitating research outcomes that support management decisions, a tool for strategic planning and implementation, greater transparency and operational clarity, foundation for team building, means for identifying knowledge gaps, a platform for organizational in‐reach and public outreach, facilitated communication in general, and an important tool for collaborative conservation decision making. An example using a hypothetical listed species is presented to illustrate how a KNSM can be designed and implemented.
... Hence, co-production addresses the 'relevance gap' towards solving common problems (Durose et al., 2012). Therefore, research instruments such as living-labs and citizen science, which test innovative sustainability approaches with relevant societal actors, have become more common (Bergvall-Kareborn & Stahlbrost 2009;Dickinson & Bonney 2012;Armitage et al., 2011). ...
Climate change and biodiversity loss trigger policies targeting and impacting local communities worldwide. However, research and policy implementation often fail to sufficiently consider community responses and involve them. We present the results of a collective self-assessment exercise for eight case studies of communications regarding climate change or biodiversity loss between project teams and local communities. We develop eight indicators of good stakeholder communication, reflecting the scope of Verran (2002)'s concept of postcolonial moments as a communicative utopia. We demonstrate that applying our indicators can enhance communication and enable community responses. However, we discover a divergence between timing, complexity, and (introspective) effort. Three cases qualify for postcolonial moments, but scrutinizing power relations and genuine knowledge co-production remain rare. While we verify the potency of various instruments for deconstructing science, their sophistication cannot substitute trust building and epistemic/transdisciplinary awareness. Lastly, we consider that reforming inadequate funding policies helps improving the work in and with local communities.
... Further, it engages the community and resource users in both the research and decision-making process (McKinley et al., 2017). In co-management contexts, such as the co-managed shellfish fishery, monitoring and research conducted in collaboration with stakeholders provides opportunities for feedback on management and opportunities to improve and adapt management practices (Armitage et al., 2011). The process of collaborative and participatory monitoring can enhance SESs reliance through the social learning processes that come from these types of engagement (Berkes, 2009). ...
In the last two decades, there has been a shift towards more integrated, ecosystem-based approaches to marine management, including fisheries. At the same time, there have been calls for greater inclusion of diverse perspectives in conservation science and practice. For these reasons, there is renewed interest in the integration of indigenous and local knowledge into science, management, and environmental decision making. Despite these developments, local knowledge often is poorly integrated or treated as something of lesser value than knowledge generated or curated by professional researchers. Novel methods that integrate social and ecological data and prioritize local knowledge and community-based approaches are needed to meet this challenge. This thesis explores how linking local knowledge and community science approaches can bolster ecosystem-based management and coastal stewardship. Here I define community science as inquiry that is community-led, place-based, and aimed at improving governance processes with the goals of stewardship and social-ecological sustainability (after Charles et al., 2020). Together, local knowledge and community science can generate robust social and ecological data. I highlight the connections among these approaches and model how they can be applied to small-scale coastal fisheries. Using participatory mapping and interviews, I demonstrate how local knowledge can complement scientific knowledge by generating ecosystem hypotheses that can inform scientific inquiry and long-term monitoring. Local knowledge is critical because this holistic information is uniquely able to support actionable and responsive research and management by: (1) characterizing the social-ecological system at a fine spatial scale; (2) highlighting stakeholders’ priorities and observations; and (3) generating hypotheses about how and why the system is changing, and what drivers may be influencing these changes. I explore how local knowledge can inform the development of community science initiatives and examine the community science process through a case study in the Damariscotta River estuary, Maine, USA. I use a typology to assess the conditions for community science and how it can generate ecosystem-level information. The assessment revealed two primary conclusions: (1) community science can be an effective approach to studying co-managed fisheries and (2) community science is, by its nature, an ecosystem-scale approach to research. Integrating diverse knowledges and community partners can contribute to holistic understandings of dynamic marine coastal systems. These approaches can be applied to fisheries locally and regionally and have the potential to support ecosystem-based approaches to stewardship and management in marine coastal environments in Maine and beyond.
... The effectiveness of co-production investments can be assessed in multiple ways, including in terms of both process and products (Findlater et al. 2021;Norström et al. 2020) and impacts on both decision-makers and researchers (Hegger and Dieperdink 2015) and capacities and systems to cope with climate adaptation (Armitage et al. 2011). We can comment on effectiveness of the co-produced modellingchain with respect to model criteria set out by van Voorn et al. (2016). ...
Intensification of the hydrological cycle resulting from climate change in West Africa poses significant risks for the region’s rapidly urbanising cities, but limited research on flood risk has been undertaken at the urban domain scale. Furthermore, conventional climate models are unable to realistically represent the type of intense storms which dominate the West African monsoon. This paper presents a decision-first framing of climate research in co-production of a climate-hydrology-flooding modelling chain, linking scientists working on state-of-the-art regional climate science with decision-makers involved in city planning for future urban flood management in the city of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The realistic convection-permitting model over Africa (CP4A) is applied at the urban scale for the first time and data suggest significant intensification of high-impact weather events and demonstrate the importance of considering the spatio-temporal scales in CP4A. Hydrological modelling and hydraulic modelling indicate increases in peak flows and flood extents in Ouagadougou in response to climate change which will be further exacerbated by future urbanisation. Advances in decision-makers’ capability for using climate information within Ouagadougou were observed, and key recommendations applicable to other regional urban areas are made. This study provides proof of concept that a decision-first modelling-chain provides a methodology for co-producing climate information that can, to some extent, bridge the usability gap between what scientists think is useful and what decision-makers need.
... The SES model emphasises the inclusion of different ways of knowing and mutual learning to enable adaptive and collaborative management and governance of SES (e.g. Folke et al., 2005;Armitage et al., 2011;Schultz et al., 2011;Fabricius & Currie, 2015). It is based on the idea that technocratic top-down ways of governing do not adequately deal with the uncertainties, complexities, and unpredictability of SES. ...
Achieving just transformations towards sustainability requires the inclusion of diverse people and perspectives into ecosystem governance. Inclusivity can be approached through the concept of plurality, necessitating the development of techniques for eliciting and managing the different epistemic (knowledge related) understandings of human-nature connections and allowing for contestations of views.
Collaborative modes of knowledge production are increasingly used to navigate complex interactions between science, society and policy to create actionable knowledges. They can provide gateways into further understanding plurality in ecosystem governance. However, despite the proliferation of these approaches, there is currently little evidence about how to recognise and deal with the plurality of diverse knowledges and associated power structures held at different scales of ecosystem governance and knowledge production.
This thesis approaches the question of inclusivity in sustainability science by introducing the epistemic dimension of human-nature connections and studying it in different contexts and at scales including local and transnational ecosystem governance and international science-policy interfaces. The thesis consists of four scientific articles which employ qualitative and quantitative methods in a mixed method research design.
... Knowledge co-production has been offered as one approach to reduce this gap and increase application of information to societal issues (Norström et al., 2020). We define knowledge co-production as an iterative, collaborative process of building partnerships that bring together multiple sources and types of knowledge to develop a systems-oriented understanding of a problem and identify potential solutions (adapted from Armitage et al., 2011 andNorström et al., 2020). We adopt the term 'co-production' because it is widely used in the sustainability science literature and encompasses a solution-focused component, although a variety of terms exist for similar transdisciplinary and participatory research approaches (Hakkarainen et al., 2021). ...
Knowledge co-production offers a promising approach to design effective and equitable pathways to reach development goals. Fisheries Strategies for Changing Oceans and Resilient Ecosystems by 2030 (FishSCORE), a United Nations Ocean Decade programme, will co-produce knowledge that advances solutions for climate resilient fisheries through networks and partnerships that include scientists, stakeholders, practitioners, managers, and policy experts. FishSCORE will establish (1) a global network that will develop broadly relevant information and tools to assess and operationalize climate resilience in marine fisheries and (2) local and regional partnerships that will apply those tools to identify and forward context-specific resilience strategies. FishSCORE's activities will be guided by a set of core principles that include commitments to inclusivity, equity, co-leadership, co-ownership, and reciprocity. FishSCORE will focus on identifying solutions for climate resilient fisheries, and it will also advance goals associated with capacity, power, and agency that will support iterative, pluralistic approaches to decision-making in fisheries experiencing ongoing climate-driven changes. This process of co-producing knowledge and strategies requires considerable investments of time from all partners, which is well aligned with the Ocean Decade. However, secure funding must be prioritized to support and implement co-production activities over this long time horizon.
Climate change poses a significant threat to indigenous societies and cultures in the South Pacific. Within these societies, women and indigenous cultures need increased representation in climate change assessment and adaptation strategy development. To capture the diversity of effects and maximize creative approaches to address climate change we studied how gender influences perceptions of climate change in response to climate-related environmental change, adaptation strategies, and the perception of adaptation strategies that are currently in place. To explore diverse perceptions, we conducted semi-structured interviews in four villages in Savaii, Samoa. The interviews were analyzed and quantified around three main themes: climate-related environmental changes, adaptation strategies, and perceptions of existing adaptation approaches. Each participant's response was quantified based on perceived priority ranging from 0—no priority/no mention, to 3—highest priority/frequent mention. We found that each participant was aware of climate-related environmental changes and gender and village roles bring variation in perceptions of climate change. We found that men felt high temperatures and marine management were of greatest concern while women cared about storms and related danger and pollution control. Our results indicate that females and female village roles had significantly lower understanding and enthusiasm for in-place adaptation strategies due to a lack of involvement in the implementation and upkeep of adaptation strategies. This study argues that climate-related adaptation strategies should put village role and gender-based perceptions into consideration and increase representation in policymaking for sustainable climate change adaptation.
The quality of life is determined by approaches to its assessment, including analysis of the effectiveness of measures to improve it. Russia has accumulated empirical data on socio-economic factors of well-being and quality of life of the indigenous minorities of the North, Siberia and the Far East, however, there is a lack of knowledge about the degree of influence of educational policy in the field of preservation and development of national languages and culture on them. The purpose of the work is to assess the social situation related to the availability of education in the native language as a condition for the formation of well-being and quality of life of children and youth of the indigenous minorities of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation. The study included 2 parts: analysis of macro-level indicators of the quality of life of the indigenous minorities of the North, Siberia and the Far East based on data from ethnic statistics, general statistical indicators, educational statistics; a survey study in which young people of the indigenous minorities of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation from 8 regions of the Russian Federation participated. The study obtained reliable and representative data on the learning conditions and factors of subjective well-being of the youth of the indigenous minorities of the North, Siberia and the Far East living in different regions. The use of comparable indicators to assess the social situation in several subjects of the Russian Federation makes it possible to correctly compare the quality of life of the youth of the indigenous minorities of the North, Siberia and the Far East with their peers living in the same territories of the Russian Federation, but not belonging to these ethnic groups. The results of the study made it possible to fill in the lack of data on the potential for the preservation and development of native languages and cultures of the indigenous minorities of the North, Siberia and the Far East. Knowledge of the mechanisms of formation of attitudes and behavior of young people is important for Russian society, as it is associated with making decisions about potential risks for a special socially vulnerable and difficult-to-study part of the Russian population. The complex use of socio-psychological research and analysis of statistical data made it possible to triangulate various sources of information and identify significant factors of well-being and quality of life of the indigenous minorities of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation.
Small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) can have significant resources, capacities, and influence in their communities, suggesting they have the potential to be agents for transformative sustainability. However, SMEs will need to move beyond firm‐centered sustainable business practices towards strategic approaches that encompass and contribute to resilience‐building processes. Amid the unfolding COVID‐19 pandemic, we explored what types of sustainable business practices of SMEs can contribute to individual, organizational, and community resilience. We identified six clusters of practice that are important in this regard. The clusters are not solely technical or “environmental” but rather illustrative of deeper sustainable values shaped by organizational structure, culture, and behavior. This paper suggests that SMEs can pursue transformative approaches to sustainability that are more environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable and better able to withstand shocks like the COVID‐19 pandemic and can be significant contributors to community resilience. We conclude with a series of future research priorities critical to examine a largely unexplored nexus in the private sector, the linkages and dynamics between sustainability practice, resilience building, and broader community pathways.
Maladaptation to climate change is often portrayed as arising from the unjust exclusion of vulnerable people. In turn, analysts have proposed knowledge co-production with marginalized groups as a form of transformative climate justice. This paper argues instead that maladaptation arises from a much deeper exclusion based upon the projection of inappropriate understandings of risk and social identity that are treated as unquestioned circumstances of justice. Drawing on social studies of science, the paper argues that the focus on co-production as an intentional act of inclusion needs to be considered alongside “deep” or “reflexive” co-production, which instead refers to the non-cognitive and unavoidable simultaneous generation of knowledge and social order. These processes have linked visions of planetary justice with an understanding of climate risk based on global atmospheric change, and an assumption that community forms an antidote to individualism. The paper uses a discussion of adaptation in western Nepal to illustrate how such deep forms of co-production have significantly reduced understandings of “what” adaptation is for, and “who” is included. Maladaptation, therefore, is not simply unjust implementations of an essentially fair model of adaptation, but also the allocation of exclusionary visions of what and for whom adaptation is for. Debates about transformative climate justice therefore need to understand how their critiques of classical liberal justice generate exclusions of their own, and to engage vulnerable people in reframing, rather than just receiving, circumstances of justice. There is also a need to examine how these circumstances remain unchallenged within environmental science and policy.
The cumulative effects of multiple stressors are a pressing global concern for marine ecosystems. The effectiveness of marine management can be improved by considering three key elements that can affect their impacts: stressor interaction types, non-linear stressor–effect relationships, and ecosystem tipping points. Little is known about the degree to which cumulative effects, or these key elements, are considered in marine management in Canada. We surveyed Canadian federal government managers involved in managing either marine conservation areas or commercial fisheries, and asked (1) if they currently assess cumulative effects in decision-making, (2) if so, how and which elements are considered, and (3) the perceived importance of considering the three key elements. We also compared approaches among federal departments, management type, oceans, experience levels, and position types. We found that most managers (84%, n = 80) consider cumulative effects in decision-making. Responses clustered into either a structured approach, which included using an assessment framework and considering the three key elements of cumulative effects, or an intuitive approach, characterized by the absence of a formal framework or consideration of key elements. Neither was strongly linked with demographic categories. Despite most managers (97%, n = 37) believing that the three key elements of cumulative effects are important to consider, only 21% actually did so in decision-making. This discrepancy appears to be underpinned by barriers such as a lack of guidelines for assessing cumulative effects and data quality, quantity, and availability. We provide recommendations to overcome these challenges.
There is a general agreement within the wildfire community that exclusively top–down approaches to policy making and management are limited and that we need to build governance capacity to cooperatively manage across jurisdictional boundaries. Accordingly, the concept of co-management has grown in popularity as a theoretical lens through which to understand cooperative multi-jurisdictional response to wildland fires. However, definitional ambiguity has led to on-going debates about what co-management is. Further, there is limited understanding about the nature of co-management during crisis events. This had led to scholars posing the question: what is co-management in the context of jurisdictionally complex wildfire? In this paper, we seek to address this question based on interviews with leaders engaged in the management of jurisdictionally complex wildfire incidents. We propose a multi-level framework for conceiving co-management as strategic efforts of individual actors to cooperatively manage perceived interdependencies with others through one or more formal or informal institutional arrangements. We then demonstrate the value of the proposed framework in its ability to organise a series of questions for diagnosing co-management situations within the context of jurisdictionally complex wildfires.
The U.S. Gulf of Mexico Coastal Region encompasses a diverse suite of ecological and cultural characteristics unique to North America. There are unprecedented opportunities for land conservation in the region, but challenges associated with non-complimentary ecological and socioeconomic priorities and access to scientific data can complicate acquisition and stewardship decisions. Thus, land conservation decisions have often been made based on willing sellers and cost of acquisition, rather than scientifically informed and stakeholder-driven conservation priorities. The Strategic Conservation Assessment of Gulf Coast Landscapes (SCA) project co-produced three land conservation decision support tools with over 650 conservation stakeholders in the region to help inform strategic, science-based land conservation decisions. Stakeholders were included in the design and development of all three tools from project initiation through execution. Transparent and frequent communication, full-time coordination staff, and sequential stakeholder design charrettes were vital in building trust and facilitating bidirectional information flow among stakeholders and the SCA Team. The co-production process, stakeholders involved, outputs, and final outcomes are described herein. The result was a suite of decision support tools that inform strategic land conservation decisions.
While the Arctic is often perceived as a pristine environment, it is exposed to local as well as globally transported contaminants and is undergoing severe changes in environmental conditions. Major oceanic currents and wind systems transport contaminants from distant sources, with the Arctic acting as a ecosystems and ways of life «sink» for harmful substances. Likewise, climate warming in the Arctic is happening more than twice as fast as at lower latitudes, causing changes in ecosystems as well as ways of life for many Indigenous people living in the Arctic.
A prerequisite for managing and mitigating the impacts of both pollution and climate change in the Arctic is the acquisition of knowledge of conditions, with adequate geographical coverage and sufficiently high spatial resolution, as well as mechanisms for communicating such knowledge for policymaking. The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) was initiated to fulfill such a role in 1991, later becoming a working group of the Arctic Council at its establishment in 1996. AMAP focuses its work on the interface between science and policy. Due to the nature of the origins of pollution in the Arctic, such work requires a focus on both contributing with a knowledge base for policy making among the Arctic states, as well as to international bodies outside the Arctic. The contribution made by AMAP to the establishment of the Stockholm and Minamata Conventions are examples of science and policy development in the Arctic successfully feeding into global international processes.
While long-term research facilities in the vast Arctic region are scarce, Indigenous groups represent a source of knowledge which may contribute significantly to understanding the changing environmental conditions in the Arctic. Therefore, from the start, AMAP has included Indigenous groups – Permanent Participants to the Arctic Council – both in its decisionmaking structures as well its expert groups. Co-development of knowledge has informed understanding of climate change and ensured relevance in efforts addressing adaptation and resilience, as discussed in the Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic (AACA) reports.
Still, combining Indigenous, traditional and local knowledge and conventional science remains a challenge, both due to their different origin and nature, the diverse spatial diversity across the Arctic, and also due to the speed of change which challenges the predictive power of all knowledge-based systems. Methods to address these challenges need to be discussed.
Indigenous cultural fire management is being renewed in many parts of the world. This research considered how cross-cultural knowledge can support this renewal. Indigenous rangers and Western scientists worked together to co-produce fire and seasons calendars to inform cultural burning and adaptive management of Indigenous Protected Areas. Quantitative studies compared the impact of cultural burning with hazard reduction and wildfire, on the culturally significant echida, threatened Backwater grevillea and dry sclerophyll forest. We found that Indigenous cultural fire management provides cultural, social, ecological and wildfire management benefits. This study co-produced collective knowledge that is transdisciplinary, dynamic and adaptive, and is well-suited to the increasingly complex, volatile and unpredictable conditions of the Pyrocene.
Vibrant rural communities are an integral component of sustainable societies due to their ability to nurture and sustain ecological and cultural diversity. Yet changing social and economic processes have led to the break-down of rural communities. This paper demonstrates how collaborative forms of governance contribute to policy learning and so rural sustainability. An analysis of a case study on rural revitalisation using the Advocacy Coalition Framework and narrative analysis reveal how common misconceptions can hinder revitalisation efforts. The role of a policy broker is shown to be vital in the dissolution of these policy misconceptions. Emphasis is on policy brokering strategies, particularly the use of venue creation, issue (re)framing and knowledge co-production, which resulted in changing policy believes and so policy learning. As a result of stakeholder coalitions being inspired to reconsider their beliefs, the alignment of policy goals became possible and the effects of imbalanced power relations mitigated.
We co-designed an agent-based model of an Afroalpine grassland in Ethiopia that is experiencing unwanted shrub encroachment. The goal was to enable managers of a community conservation area to better understand the drivers of shrub encroachment and to test possible management actions for controlling shrubs. Due to limited site-specific data, we parameterized this model using insights from published literature, remote sensing, and expert opinion from scientists and local managers. We therefore sought to explore potential future scenarios rather than make highly accurate predictions, focusing on facilitating discussions and learning among the diverse co-management team. We evaluated three social-ecological scenarios with our model, examining: (1) the impact of changing precipitation regimes on vegetation, (2) whether changing the frequency of guassa grass harvests would improve the long-term sustainability of the grassland, and (3) whether the combination of grass harvest and shrub removal would affect shrub encroachment. We found that the model was highly sensitive to the amount of grass harvested each year for local use. Our results indicate that the guassa grass was more resilient than shrubs during persistent dry climatic conditions, whereas a reduction in only the early spring rains (known as the “belg”) resulted in considerable loss of grass biomass. While our modeling results lacked the quantitative specificity desired by managers, participants in the collaborative modeling process learned new approaches to planning and management of the conservation area and expanded their knowledge of the ecological complexity of the system. Several participants used the model as a boundary object, interpreting it in ways that reinforced their cultural values and goals for the conservation area. Our work highlights the lack of detailed scientific knowledge of Afroalpine ecosystems, and urges managers to reconnect with traditional ecological management of the conservation area in their pursuit of shrub encroachment solutions. The decline or absence of the belg rains is becoming increasingly common in the Ethiopian highlands, and our results underscore the need for more widespread understanding of how this changing climatic regime impacts local environmental management. This work lays a foundation for social-ecological research to improve both understanding and management of these highly threatened ecosystems.
In this introductory chapter, the editor of the volume introduces some key considerations related to the Indigenous environmental stewardship and governance in an era of unprecedented environmental change. The emergence of global environmental challenges like climate change and its many regional manifestations has presented new threats to Indigenous land and water resources the world over. Despite these new challenges, which compound the impacts of colonial legacies on traditional stewardship practices and governance frameworks, Indigenous Peoples continue to demonstrate formidable resilience and an unwavering “responsibility-based” approach to water and drought management. In many instances, Indigenous groups from Peru to New Zealand continue to lead a spiritual resistance to dominant environmental and resource management structures that stem from narrow economistic imperatives. This chapter sets the stage for the volume by first providing a brief overview of some key considerations regarding the resurgence of Indigenous knowledge (IK)-based water and drought management, in the face of intensifying climate-related changes. In the second part of the chapter, the author provides an overview of the format of the remainder of the volume, along with a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the various case studies contained therein.
Developing and enhancing societal capacity to understand, debate elements of, and take actionable steps toward a sustainable future at a scale beyond the individual are critical when addressing sustainability challenges such as climate change, resource scarcity, biodiversity loss, and zoonotic disease. Although mounting evidence exists for how to facilitate individual action to address sustainability challenges, there is less understanding of how to foster collective action in this realm. To support research and practice promoting collective action to address sustainability issues, we define the term “collective environmental literacy” by delineating four key potent aspects: scale, dynamic processes, shared resources, and synergy. Building on existing collective constructs and thought, we highlight areas where researchers, practitioners, and policymakers can support individuals and communities as they come together to identify, develop, and implement solutions to wicked problems. We close by discussing limitations of this work and future directions in studying collective environmental literacy.
Building trust through collaboration, institutional development, and social learning enhances efforts to foster
ecosystem management and resolve multi-scale society–environment dilemmas. One emerging approach
aimed at addressing these dilemmas is adaptive co-management. This method draws explicit attention to the
learning (experiential and experimental) and collaboration (vertical and horizontal) functions necessary to
improve our understanding of, and ability to respond to, complex social–ecological systems. Here, we identify
and outline the core features of adaptive co-management, which include innovative institutional arrangements
and incentives across spatiotemporal scales and levels, learning through complexity and change, monitoring
and assessment of interventions, the role of power, and opportunities to link science with policy.
Social learning is increasingly becoming a normative goal in natural resource management and policy. However, there remains little consensus over its meaning or theoretical basis. There are still considerable differences in understanding of the concept in the literature, including a number of articles published in Ecology & Society. Social learning is often conflated with other concepts such as participation and proenvironmental behavior, and there is often little distinction made between individual and wider social learning. Many unsubstantiated claims for social learning exist, and there is frequently confusion between the concept itself and its potential outcomes. This lack of conceptual clarity has limited our capacity to assess whether social learning has occurred, and if so, what kind of learning has taken place, to what extent, between whom, when, and how. This response attempts to provide greater clarity on the conceptual basis for social learning. We argue that to be considered social learning, a process must: (1) demonstrate that a change in understanding has taken place in the individuals involved; (2) demonstrate that this change goes beyond the individual and becomes situated within wider social units or communities of practice; and (3) occur through social interactions and processes between actors within a social network. A clearer picture of what we mean by social learning could enhance our ability to critically evaluate outcomes and better understand the processes through which social learning occurs. In this way, it may be possible to better facilitate the desired outcomes of social learning processes.
Building trust through collaboration, institutional development, and social learning enhances efforts to foster ecosystem management and resolve multi-scale society-environment dilemmas. One emerging approach aimed at addressing these dilemmas is adaptive co-management. This method draws explicit attention to the learning ( experiential and experimental) and collaboration ( vertical and horizontal) functions necessary to improve our understanding of, and ability to respond to, complex social-ecological systems. Here, we identify and outline the core features of adaptive co-management, which include innovative institutional arrangements and incentives across spatiotemporal scales and levels, learning through complexity and change, monitoring and assessment of interventions, the role of power, and opportunities to link science with policy.
Relations between external researchers and indigenous communities have been increasingly strained by differences in understanding and in expectation about the relevance of research. In the field of resource management, the potential for conflict over research is increased by the politics surrounding control over the resource management decision making processes. In this article, we propose the creation of dialogic networks that engage researchers and indigenous people as collaborators in a process of knowledge production. Such an applied research process can produce context-specific knowledge networks that support management and planning decisions by indigenous people; these networks we refer to as place-based learning communities. We present a researcher's perspective on this approach through our experience with the Shoal Lake Resource Institute of Iskatewizaagegan No. 39 Independent First Nation located in northwestern Ontario.
Co-production of knowledge between academic and non-academic communities is a prerequisite for research aiming at more sustainable
development paths. Sustainability researchers face three challenges in such co-production: (a) addressing power relations;
(b) interrelating different perspectives on the issues at stake; and (c) promoting a previously negotiated orientation towards
sustainable development. A systematic comparison of four sustainability research projects in Kenya (vulnerability to drought),
Switzerland (soil protection), Bolivia and Nepal (conservation vs. development) shows how the researchers intuitively adopted
three different roles to face these challenges: the roles of reflective scientist, intermediary, and facilitator of a joint
learning process. From this systematized and iterative self-reflection on the roles that a researcher can assume in the indeterminate
social space where knowledge is co-produced, we draw conclusions regarding training.
Processes of decentralization characterize much of the developing world's natural resource sectors (e.g., forestry). At the heart of decentralization processes lies the question of power, given that most decentralization efforts involve some transfer of authority from a central agency to downwardly accountable groups, or some claim to “empower” local-level actors. These processes often involve organizations such as the state, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and local communities, who may have divergent interests. The question thus arises, how is power reflected in various approaches to natural resources conservation and management? In this article, we trace some theoretical understandings of the concept of power from disciplines such as critical theory, adult education, and development sociology. We then illustrate these conceptions of power with various examples from the field of natural resources. Our purpose is to shed light on how power can be understood with the aim of informing more deliberate, and perhaps more democratic, professional practice.
Adaptation is a process of deliberate change in anticipation of or in reaction to external stimuli and stress. The dominant research tradition on adaptation to environmental change primarily takes an actor-centered view, focusing on the agency of social actors to respond to specific environmental stimuli and emphasizing the reduction of vulnerabilities. The resilience approach is systems orientated, takes a more dynamic view, and sees adaptive capacity as a core feature of resilient social-ecological systems. The two approaches converge in identifying necessary components of adaptation. We argue that resilience provides a useful framework to analyze adaptation processes and to identify appropriate policy responses. We distinguish between incremental adjustments and transformative action and demonstrate that the sources of resilience for taking adaptive action are common across scales. These are the inherent system characteristics that absorb perturbations without losing function, networks and social capital that allow autonomous action, and resources that promote institutional learning.
This paper reviews scientific and gray literature addressing climate change vulnerability and adaptation in the Inuvialuit
Settlement Region (ISR) in the western Canadian Arctic. The review is structured using a vulnerability framework, and 420
documents related directly or indirectly to climate change are analyzed to provide insights on the current state of knowledge
on climate change vulnerability in the ISR as a basis for supporting future research and long-term adaptation planning in
the region. The literature documents evidence of climate change in the ISR which is compromising food security and health
status, limiting transportation access and travel routes to hunting grounds, and damaging municipal infrastructure. Adaptations
are being employed to manage changing conditions; however, many of the adaptations being undertaken are short term, ad-hoc,
and reactive in nature. Limited long-term strategic planning for climate change is being undertaken. Current climate change
risks are expected to continue in the future with further implications for communities but less is known about the adaptive
capacity of communities. This review identifies the importance of targeted vulnerability research that works closely with
community members and decision makers to understand the interactions between current and projected climate change and the
factors which condition vulnerability and influence adaptation. Research gaps are identified, and recommendations for advancing
adaptation planning are outlined.
KeywordsClimate change–Vulnerability–Adaptation–Arctic–Inuvialuit Settlement Region–Inuvialuit–Review–Critique
"This paper is a methodological contribution to emerging debates on the role of learning,particularly forward-looking (anticipatory) learning, as a key element for adaptation and resilience in the context of climate change. First, we describe two major challenges: understanding adaptation as a process and recognizing the inadequacy of existing learning tools, with a specific focus on high poverty contexts and complex livelihood-vulnerability risks. Then, the article examines learning processes from a dynamic systems perspective, comparing theoretical aspects and conceptual advances in resilience thinking and action research/learning (AR/AL). Particular attention is paid to learning loops (cycles), critical reflection, spaces for learning, and power. Finally, we outline a methodological framework to facilitate iterative learning processes and adaptive decision making in practice. We stress memory, monitoring of key drivers of change, scenario planning, and measuring anticipatory capacity as crucial ingredients. Our aim is to identify opportunities and obstacles for forward-looking learning processes at the intersection of climatic uncertainty and development challenges in Africa, with the overarching objective to enhance adaptation and resilient livelihood pathways, rather than learning by shock."
Recent UK government policy on climate change, and wider policy movement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, emphasise the building of adaptive capacity. But what are the institutional constraints that shape capacity to build adaptive organisations? The authors synthesise theory from social learning and institutional aspects of multilevel environmental governance to help unpack the patterns of individual and collective action within organisations that can enhance or restrict organisational adaptive capacity in the face of abrupt climate change. Theoretical synthesis is grounded by empirical work with a local dairy farmers group and two supporting public sector bodies that are both local actors in their own rights and which also shape the operating environment for other local actors (the Environment Agency and the Welsh Assembly and Assembly-sponsored public bodies). Providing space within and between local organisations for individuals to develop private as well as officially sanctioned social relationships is supported as a pathway to enable social learning. It is also a resource for adaptation that requires little financial investment but does call for a rethinking of the personal skills and working routines that are incentivised within organisations.
Ecosystems are complex adaptive systems that require flexible governance with the ability to respond to environmental feedback. We present, through examples from Sweden and Canada, the development of adaptive comanagement systems, showing how local groups self-organize, learn, and actively adapt to and shape change with social networks that connect institutions and organizations across levels and scales and that facilitate information flows. The development took place through a sequence of responses to environmental events that widened the scope of local management from a particular issue or resource to a broad set of issues related to ecosystem processes across scales and from individual actors, to group of actors to multiple-actor processes. The results suggest that the institutional and organizational landscapes should be approached as carefully as the ecological in order to clarify features that contribute to the resilience of social-ecological systems. These include the following: vision, leadership, and trust; enabling legislation that creates social space for ecosystem management; funds for responding to environmental change and for remedial action; capacity for monitoring and responding to environmental feedback; information flow through social networks; the combination of various sources of information and knowledge; and sense-making and arenas of collaborative learning for ecosystem management. We propose that the self-organizing process of adaptive comanagement development, facilitated by rules and incentives of higher levels, has the potential to expand desirable stability domains of a region and make social-ecological systems more robust to change.
We review seven Arctic and four subarctic marine mammal species, their habitat requirements, and evidence for biological and demographic responses to climate change. We then describe a pan-Arctic quantitative index of species sensitivity to climate change based on population size, geographic range, habitat specificity, diet diversity, migration, site fidelity, sensitivity to changes in sea ice, sensitivity to changes in the trophic web, and maximum population growth potential (R(max)). The index suggests three types of sensitivity based on: (1) narrowness of distribution and specialization in feeding, (2) seasonal dependence on ice, and (3) reliance on sea ice as a structure for access to prey and predator avoidance. Based on the index, the hooded seal, the polar bear, and the narwhal appear to be the three most sensitive Arctic marine mammal species, primarily due to reliance on sea ice and specialized feeding. The least sensitive species were the ringed seal and bearded seal, primarily due to large circumpolar distributions, large population sizes, and flexible habitat requirements. The index provides an objective framework for ranking species and focusing future research on the effects of climate change on Arctic marine mammals. Finally, we distinguish between highly sensitive species and good indicator species and discuss regional variation and species-specific ecology that confounds Arctic-wide generalization regarding the effects of climate change.
Advocates of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) have promoted its use in scientific research, impact assessment, and ecological understanding. While several examples illustrate the utility of applying TEK in these contexts, wider application of TEK-derived information remains elusive. In part, this is due to continued inertia in favor of established scientific practices and the need to describe TEK in Western scientific terms. In part, it is also due to the difficulty of accessing TEK, which is rarely written down and must in most cases be documented as a project on its own prior to its incorporation into another scientific undertaking. This formidable practical obstacle is exacerbated by the need to use social science methods to gather biological data, so that TEK research and application becomes a multidisciplinary undertaking. By examining case studies involving bowhead whales, beluga whales, and herring, this paper describes some of the benefits of using TEK in scientific and management contexts. It also reviews some of the methods that are available to do so, including semi-directive interviews, questionnaires, facilitated workshops, and collaborative field projects.
How vulnerable are Arctic Indigenous peoples to climate change? What are their relevant adaptations, and what are the prospects for increasing their ability to deal with further change? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change makes little mention of Indigenous peoples, and then only as victims of changes beyond their control. This view of Indigenous peoples as passive and helpless needs to be challenged. Indigenous peoples, including the Canadian Inuit, are keen observers of environmental change and have lessons to offer about how to adapt, a view consistent with the Inuit self-image of being creative and adaptable. There are three sources of adaptations to impacts of climate change: 1) Indigenous cultural adaptations to the variability of the Arctic environment, discussed here in the context of the communities of Sachs Harbour and Arctic Bay; 2) short-term adjustments (coping strategies) that are beginning to appear in recent years in response to climate change; and 3) new adaptive responses that may become available through new institutional processes such as co-management. Institutions are related to knowledge development and social learning that can help increase adaptive capacity and reduce vulnerability. Two co-management institutions that have the potential to build Inuit adaptive capacity are the Fisheries Joint Management Committee (established under the Inuvialuit Final Agreement), and the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board.
This chapter summarizes learning processes at individual, action group, organizational, network, and societal levels of analysis,
and details connections linking learning outcomes across multiple levels. The discussion highlights how learning processes
may not adequately accommodate contested values, power imbalances, and socio-economic constraints. The chapter casts light
on adaptive capacity in multi-level governance by developing the concept of multi-level learning, suggesting ways to produce
complementarity across multiple organizational levels, and supporting the proposition that relational spaces enhance adaptive
capacity. The chapter also reveals the need for further theoretical development, including fully accounting for network and
societal levels of analysis, assessing promising linking institutions (such as community-based social marketing and adaptive
co-management), and addressing power asymmetries in learning dynamics. A promising avenue regarding the last point is giving
more attention in theory and practice to critical, non-formal education. Further, the chapter emphasizes the need for place-based
empirical studies of existing institutions.
Many adaptation strategies focus on improving short-term capacities to cope with environmental change, but
ignore the possibility that they might inadvertently increase vulnerability to unforeseen changes in the future. To
help develop more effective long-term strategies, we present a conceptual framework of adaptation. The framework
emphasizes that in order to ensure that existing problems are not exacerbated, adaptation must: (1) address
both human-induced and biophysical drivers of undesired ecological change; (2) maintain a diversity of future
response options; and (3) nurture the kinds of human capacities that enable the uptake of those response options.
These requirements are often not met when adaptation strategies rely on technological fixes, which tend to concentrate
on coping with the biophysical symptoms of problems rather than addressing human behavioral causes.
Furthermore, to develop effective, long-term adaptation, greater emphasis is needed on strategies that enhance,
rather than erode, the human values, skills, and behaviors conducive to sustainable activities. Participatory
approaches to environmental stewardship are part of the solution to this problem.
To promote sustainable forms of community-based resource management, advocates and analysts must examine not only how multiple participants act collectively, but how they respond to change and uncertainty in ways that foster learning and build capacity for management adaptation. In the community-based narwhal management context, a number of issues influence prospects for adaptation and learning. Among the issues examined, the integration of remote communities in Nunavut into the market economy and the subsequent demand for cash to purchase key commodities create new and diverse motivations (collective vs. individual), which increasingly influence natural resource management decisions. Also, the formalized nature of the community-based narwhal management framework, despite efforts to transfer more authority to communities, may still create barriers to local Inuit participation in decision making. Finally, resource mobility and complexity makes the clarification of resource rights difficult, thus inhibiting the collective action required to foster learning. This problem is compounded by the challenge of effectively integrating formal science and traditional knowledge to better understand resource complexity.
Editorial of Special Edition
Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgements Contributors 1. Introduction to the CAVIAR project and framework 2. Adaptation in Fisheries and Municipalities: Three communities in Northern Norway 3. Vulnerability and Adaptation in Two Communities in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region 4. Climate change, vulnerability and adaptation among Nenets reindeer herders 5. Vulnerability of community infrastructure to climate change in Nunavut: A case study from Arctic Bay 6. 'Translating' vulnerability at the community level: Case study from the Russian North 7. 'As long as the sun shines, the rivers flow and grass grows.' - Vulnerability, adaptation and environmental change in Deninu Kue Traditional Territory, Northwest Territories 8. Case Study Photographs 9.The Ivalo River and its people: There have always been floods - what is different now? 10. Climate Change and Institutional Capacity in an 'Arctic Gateway' City: a Case Study of Whitehorse, Yukon 11. Climate change vulnerability and food security in Qeqertarsuaq, Greenland 12. Vulnerability and adaptive capacity in a multi-use forest municipality in northern Sweden 13. Local effects of global climate change: Differential experiences of sheep farmers and reindeer herders in Unjarga/Nesseby, a coastal Sami community in Northern Norway 14. Integration of case study findings
Scholarship in the social studies of science has argued convincingly that what demarcates science from nonscience is not some set of essential or transcendent characteristics or methods but rather an array of contingent circumstances and strategic behavior known as "boundary work" (Gieryn 1995, 1999). Although initially formulated to explain how scientists maintain the boundaries of their community against threats to its cognitive authority from within (e.g., fraud and pseudo-science), boundary work has found useful, policy-relevant applications-for example, in studying the strategic demarcation between political and scientific tasks in the advisory relationship between scientists and regulatory agencies (Jasanoff 1990). This work finds that the blurring of boundaries between science and politics, rather than the intentional separation often advocated and practiced, can lead to more productive policy making. If it is the case, however, that the robustness of scientific concepts such as causation and representation are important components of liberal-democratic thought and practice (Ezrahi 1990), one can imagine how the flexibility of boundary work might lead to confusion or even dangerous instabilities between science and nonscience. These risks could be conceived, perhaps, as the politicization of science or the reciprocal scientification of politics. Neither risk should here be understood to mean the importation to one enterprise from the other elements that are entirely foreign; that is, science is not devoid of values prior to some politicization, nor politics of rationality, prior to any scientification. Rather, both should be understood to mean the rendering of norms and practices in one enterprise in a way that unreflexively mimics norms and practices in the other. These concerns have been central to the socalled science wars, and to the extent that they are implicated in public discussions of such policy issues as health and safety regulation, climate change, or genetically modified organisms, they are real problems for policy makers and publics alike.'
Although there are a number of distinct audiences (for example students, hunter and trapper organisations, and co-management agencies) for traditional environmental knowledge, little work has been done in analysing how indigenous knowledge can be best communicated to these different groups. Using examples mainly from northern Canada and Alaska, we explore the challenge of collecting and communicating different kinds of traditional environmental knowledge; the media types or communication modes that can be used; and the appropriateness of these kinds of media for communicating with different audiences. A range of communication options is available, including direct interaction with knowledge holders, use of print media, maps, DVD/video, audio, CD ROM, and websites. These options permit a mix-and-match to find the best fit between kinds of knowledge, the intended audience, and the media type used. This paper does not propose to replace traditional methods of communication with technology. Rather, we examine how technology can serve community and other needs. No single option emerges as a clear best choice for communicating indigenous knowledge. Nevertheless, various media types offer avenues through which northern people can meet their educational, cultural, and political needs, and build cross-cultural understanding.
This paper reviews the concept of adaptation of human communities to global changes, especially climate change, in the context of adaptive capacity and vulnerability. It focuses on scholarship that contributes to practical implementation of adaptations at the community scale. In numerous social science fields, adaptations are considered as responses to risks associated with the interaction of environmental hazards and human vulnerability or adaptive capacity. In the climate change field, adaptation analyses have been undertaken for several distinct purposes. Impact assessments assume adaptations to estimate damages to longer term climate scenarios with and without adjustments. Evaluations of specified adaptation options aim to identify preferred measures. Vulnerability indices seek to provide relative vulnerability scores for countries, regions or communities. The main purpose of participatory vulnerability assessments is to identify adaptation strategies that are feasible and practical in communities. The distinctive features of adaptation analyses with this purpose are outlined, and common elements of this approach are described. Practical adaptation initiatives tend to focus on risks that are already problematic, climate is considered together with other environmental and social stresses, and adaptations are mostly integrated or mainstreamed into other resource management, disaster preparedness and sustainable development programs.
This paper examines the challenge of knowledge co-production and the implications for learning and adapting in the context of a narwhal co-management in Nunavut, Canada. Knowledge co-production is the collaborative process of bringing a plurality of knowledge sources and types together to address a defined problem and build an integrated or systems-oriented understanding of that problem. The paper considers knowledge co-production by examining five interrelated dimensions: knowledge gathering, sharing, integration, interpretation, and application. Voices of hunters, community representatives, and managers engaged in co-management are highlighted to identify primary challenges and opportunities. The analysis reveals how compartmentalized views of knowledge continue to constrain adaptive and collaborative management. An understanding of knowledge co-production processes, however, may help to overcome the resilience of top-down management approaches.
Sea ice is influential in regulating energy exchanges between the ocean and the atmosphere, and has figured prominently in scientific studies of climate change and climate feedbacks. However, sea ice is also a vital component of everyday life in Inuit communities of the circumpolar Arctic. Therefore, it is important to understand the links between the potential impacts of climate change on Arctic sea ice extent, distribution, and thickness as well as the related consequences for northern coastal populations. This paper explores the relationship between sea ice and climate change from both scientific and Inuit perspectives. Based on an overview of diverse literature the experiences, methods, and goals which differentiate local and scientific sea ice knowledge are examined. These efforts are considered essential background upon which to develop more accurate assessments of community vulnerability to climate, and resulting sea ice, change. Inuit and scientific perspectives may indeed be the ideal complement when investigating the links between sea ice and climate change, but effective and appropriate conceptual bridges need to be built between the two types of expertise. The complementary nature of these knowledge systems may only be realized, in a practical sense, if significant effort is expended to: (i) understand sea ice from both Inuit and scientific perspectives, along with their underlying differences; (ii) investigate common interests or concerns; (iii) establish meaningful and reciprocal research partnerships with Inuit communities; (iv) engage in, and improve, collaborative research methods; and, (v) maintain ongoing dialogue.