A list of distinguished and accomplished speakers made up the panels during the day, among them ministers, permanent secretaries, ambassadors, and senior arctic officials of the Nordic and Arctic countries, as well as Arctic Indigenous representatives, administrators, industrialists, and scientists.
Around 150 Attendants were given presentations on a variety of issues associated with governing, extracting resources, and living in the Arctic. The conference was skillfully moderated by journalist and former TV news anchor Martin Breum.
Presentations on the issue of Arctic governance gave rise to discussions on existing regimes and the possible need for additional governance instruments in the Arctic, the Arctic Council versus the 5 Arctic Coastal states, non-Arctic and civil society stakeholders, and the EU ban on seal products.
All speakers emphasized the importance of incorporating Indigenous and Arctic residents in initiatives related to governance, research, environmental protection, and sustainable development in the Arctic. However, not very many Arctic indigenous residents were actually at the conference, since no funds had been allocated to secure their participation.
As if spurred by the conspicuous lack of indigenous attendance, toward the closing of the conference, moderator Martin Breum asked the audience if the traditional knowledge of Indigenous people does in fact play a role in Nordic and Arctic co-operations, or if lip service is merely being paid to an unattained ideality.
Answering this question would have represented a step beyond and serious added value to earlier discourses on the topic of the Arctic and its inhabitants. As it were, the question was left unanswered at the end of the day.
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