[It shouldn't] rain at Arctic Frontiers

By GRID-Arendal

February 14^th, 2016

It’s not supposed to rain 350 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. In January. But the first day of this year’s Arctic Frontiers Conference was greeted by grey skies and showers. The snow – and howling wind – came at the end of the week.

Tromsø, of course, is Norway’s major northern city. It boasts a vibrant university with a medical school, great arts and culture, and good if very expensive restaurants. It’s also home to a number of Norwegian Arctic institutions including the Arctic Council Secretariat.

The Arctic Council is a political body of eight Arctic states, six Indigenous Peoples organizations, and about 30 observer countries, intergovernmental bodies and NGOs. This year marks the council’s 20th anniversary and much has changed since it was founded.

In 1996 an annual event like Arctic Frontiers — attended by the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Norway, political leaders from other countries, researchers, students and a sizeable connection of journalists – would have been hard to imagine. The difference is climate change has put the Arctic on the global agenda.

The Arctic is changing more rapidly than most other parts of the planet. It’s population of some 4 million people, Indigenous and non-indigenous, is grappling with how to adapt now, not at some future date. In the last decade there has been much discussion about the future role of the Arctic in supplying oil and gas, minerals, fish and other resources to the rest of the world. Melting sea ice will eventually make transpolar shipping a reality.

The Arctic Council was designed in a period when these rapid changes were not on the radar. It is a political body that operates by consensus. There is no international treaty underlying its mandate. However, one of the things that has always made it interesting and unique is the role Indigenous Peoples play in it.

Called “Permanent Participants” representatives of these six circumpolar organizations sit at the table with the eight Arctic States. Over the years, Indigenous Peoples have had a major role in shaping the policies of the Arctic Council, and they have been “the human face” of Arctic issues in a number of global arenas, such as the negotiations that led to the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants, a major problem in the Arctic.

GRID-Arendal was in Tromsø to interview people who know about this history as part of a project with the Indigenous Peoples Secretariat, which works for the six Permanent Participant organizations. The interviews and other material will go into an interactive story map that will tell the story of Arctic change, and the role of Indigenous Peoples in Arctic environmental cooperation.