Arctic Peoples

by Clive Tesar

Reindeer herders from countries around the Arctic are meeting to trade knowledge and strategies for dealing with warming temperatures. The workshops are one branch of the Ealát Project, an initiative to look at the vulnerabilities of reindeer herders, and conduct research on how herders might adapt to climate change. Anders Oskal, Director of the International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry says,

“Independent of what’s causing climate change, it’s happening now so while others may be discussing the causes, reindeer husbandry and indigenous societies need to work out strategies on how to cope with this issues. This project is supposed to be a contribution to that.”

Oskal hopes that at least six workshops will be held, covering the main herding regions: The Saami region (northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula); the four reindeer herding areas in Russia (Nenets, Yamal, Sakha/Yakutia, Chukotka) and Alaska (United States). The meetings will include people from a variety of different regions, so that they may share knowledge between them.
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by Clive Tesar

A young polar bear is now back on the Canadian Arctic coast after wandering 300 kilometres inland. The bears typically do not stray far from the shores of the Arctic Ocean. Duane Smith, President of Inuit Circumpolar Council (Canada), suspects the bear wandered inland to search for food because the ice in the Arctic has receded so far offshore. The bears typically eat a diet high in marine life, especially seals. After being spotted near a community, the bear was lured into a cage by a muktuk (whale blubber) bait, and transported back to the coast.