LOCAL PARTNER: Saami Council
The project goal is to enhance both social and ecosystem resilience. The project will through interviews, questionnaires, and land use mapping in two reindeer husbandry communities in Swedish Sápmi improve knowledge of indigenous wetlands uses and approaches to stewardship. It will synthesize knowledge across natural and social sciences and indigenous knowledge, and strengthen links between knowledge holders, policymakers, and practitioners. It will be a pilot project developing co-production of knowledge methodology in an Arctic Council context.
This project is part of a broad three-year project consortium led by Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI) titled “Arctic Wetlands Ecosystems – Resilience through Restoration and Stewardship”. SEI, Saami Council and Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) and Arctic Council Working Group Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) are in charge of work package 1 (WP1): Indigenous uses and stewardship of wetlands ecossytems.
Documentation on how the herders have used the wetlands within their herding communities and understand why they are crucial to forest reindeer herding. The next step is to discuss further possible actions connected to a follow-up initiative.
Local Partner: Saami Council will coordinate the Saami activities in this work package and work closely with Sámiid Riikkasearvi (SSR), who will oversee the field work. Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI) and Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) will be the scientific partners. The project will produce scientific articles together with the knowledge holders identified by the reindeer husbandry communities. The project will test a co-production of knowledge methodology, where traditional indigenous knowledge and science co-produce new knowledge. The Saami Council was established in 1956 with Saami member organizations in the four countries the Saami people inhabit: Finland, The Russian Federation, Norway, and Sweden. The Saami Council participates in international processes on topics such as indigenous peoples, human rights, culture, EU and arctic and environment.
