Arctic Peoples

The eight states that make up the Arctic Council are meeting along with Arctic Indigenous Leaders this week in [GP:Salekhard], Russia. Much of the discussion to date has focused on what is maybe the biggest issue in the Arctic at the moment, climate change. Indigenous Peoples had hoped that the release of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment would lead to immediate action on climate change by the Arctic states. However, much of the two years since the ACIA was released has been taken up with discussing what to do next. Chief Gary Harrison, from Chickaloon Village in Alaska, is the Chair of the Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat, the organization that helps to coordinate the work of the Indigenous Peoples at the Arctic Council . He says that he is particularly concerned that the states should take actions that reduce the production of climate change.

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An Arctic Council Assessment of shipping in Arctic Waters is taking note of the historic use of those waters by Indigenous Peoples. There had been some concern among Indigenous Peoples, particularly those who traditionally use the sea forSaami Council )" alt="Gunn-Britt Retter (Sámeráđđi/ Saami Council )" src="http://www.arcticpeoples.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/gunnbritt_update.jpg" align="right" /> travelling, fishing and hunting, that the assessment would only concentrate on modern use of Arctic waters. Arctic indigenous peoples’ organizations, including the Saami Council and the Inuit Circumpolar Council , have been working hard to ensure that the assessment looks further back in history. Gunn-Britt Retter, Head of the Arctic and Environmental Unit with the Saami Council , says that looking at the historic indigenous use of Arctic waters is important for Saami.

“The Saami have been using the fjords on the Barents Sea for fishing and for subsistence for millennia. In the last twenty years Norwegian commercialisation of the fisheries have put pressure on the traditional fisheries, it has been pressured by commercialisation. That has implications for indigenous rights, the rights of Saami on the coast.”

The organization conducting the Assessment is a working group of the Arctic Council called PAME (Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment).

It intends to not only include indigenous use in its assessment, but also intends to hold “town hall’ meetings in different parts of the Arctic to get information and opinions from Arctic Indigenous Peoples who live on the coast.