FutureArcticLives investigates the impacts of climate change and biodiversity shifts on small-scale Arctic resource users, including Inuit hunters and fishermen in Greenland, Saami reindeer herders in Sweden and Norway, and sea Saami communities in Norway. The project aims to assess welfare and adaptation possibilities, integrating cultural, economic, and ecological perspectives. It develops ecosystem service assessments, bio-economic models, and policy analyses to understand and mitigate the challenges facing these communities.
Read more about the project here
IN THE COMIC >
In Forest of Forgotten Futures, Åsa introduces Leo to the idea of afforestation, or poorly planned reforestation (especially with fast-growing monocultures), and how it can decrease lichen availability and that these landscapes provide critical resources, especially ground lichen, which is vital for certain species, such as reindeer, in winter. Lichen-rich forests require long recovery periods and are highly sensitive to disturbance.
Together, they work for 10 years, protecting traditional migration routes and grazing areas, planting trees along taiga forest, reindeer migration routes, and blending cultural traditions with ecological restoration. Protecting old-growth forests and implementing ways to sustain biodiversity within the Arctic areas help people such as reindeer herders and Indigenous hunters/fishers.
FutureArticLives provides biological and economic forecasts and scenario assessments to assess in collaboration with local and indigenous people the impacts of climate and biodiversity change on the welfare and well-being of Arctic communities. Their studies will generate common and local-specific recommendations revealing commonalities as well as differences in how policies can be adjusted to facilitate adaptation to climate change at national and international levels and how local nature-based solutions and agents of change can be promoted.
