Award Recipients: 2024 NordForsk-led International Joint Initiative on Sustainable Development of the Arctic

Climate-driven ‘losses and damages’ describe the negative effects of climate change that occur despite mitigation and adaptation efforts. For Arctic communities, warming three to four times faster than the rest of the planet, some of the most important losses and damages are non-economic in nature, including impacts on culture, language, ways of life, and biodiversity. Against this backdrop, in partnership with communities in Finland, Sweden, Norway, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, USA, and Canada, evidence will be co-

produced in five interactive and interrelated phases of research: (1) Partner with communities. Meaningful community leadership, engagement, and partnership will underpin all elements of the project. (2) Characterize locally important non-economic loss and damage (NELD). We will gather diverse evidence about the biophysical, socio-economic, cultural, and political contexts within which NELD manifests. (3) Create case- specific projections for different global warming scenarios. We will estimate the biophysical impacts of climate change in each location, and explore direct and indirect impacts to economic, social, and cultural activities. (4) Characterize the determinants of losses and damages. We will mobilize participatory and Indigenous research methods, including storytelling, to explore NELD response options in a 1.5, 2, and 4°C warmer world. (5) Identify responses to climate impacts. For different global warming scenarios, communities will identify adaptation strategies that privilege Indigenous Knowledges to reduce NELD outcomes.

Within this larger international project, two case stories will take place in Canada: the Qikiqtani region (Nunavut case story) and Tłı̨chǫ in Behchokǫ̀, Whatì, Wekweètì, and Gamètì communities (Northwest Territories (NWT) case story). Following principles of Indigenous self-determination in research, the Canada portion of the project is led by Northerners and prioritizes Indigenous Knowledges to co-produce knowledge about climate change NELDs and response options related to Indigenous food systems and sovereignty. Taken together, Nunavut and NWT communities will lead the co-production of knowledge and self-determine climate change response options that are urgently needed. At the same time, this project unites Nunavut and NWT communities with communities from across the Circumpolar North to bring their knowledges, wisdom, and voices into international policy arenas.

The Arctic is becoming an increasingly favorable environment for both toxic and/or harmful algae (HA). HA can release phycotoxins that can pose a significant threat to ecosystems, wildlife and human health, as they can bioaccumulate in higher trophic level organisms. This emerging climate-driven threat is particularly important in Inuit coastal communities, which face high prevalence of food insecurity and where traditional harvesting and marine food sources are central to diet, nutrition, culture and well-being. In Nunavik, significant levels of saxitoxins were found in mussels, and to a lesser extent in urchins and sculpin, collected in 2023, underlining the urgent need for an Inuit-led research and monitoring program to maintain safe access to country food. Assessing the effects of HA requires a multi-faceted approach including understanding the influence of largescale ocean processes coupled with phytoplankton dynamics and trophic interactions, as well as downscaled models capturing local ecosystems and socio-economic perspectives. The overarching objective of this project is to assess the risk from HA blooms in the Arctic, and develop strategies to monitor, predict, manage and adapt to their impacts. The Canadian component of the project will specifically leverage collaborative efforts across the North Atlantic-Arctic region to help implement a locally adapted operational framework for detecting and predicting HA blooms, help building risk management and prevention strategies, clinical practice and community resilience in Nunatsiavut and Nunavik. The project will i) monitor the past and present presence of toxigenic species using imaging systems, remote sensing and genomic techniques that can serve as early detection of HA blooms, and transfer technologies and protocols for community implementation, ii) study the accumulation of phycotoxins in marine organisms and transfers within the food web, and iii) develop risk management and prevention strategies for public health and clinical practice. The project was co-designed through early engagement with partners from Nunatsiavut and Nunavik to ensure that it is conducted with and by Inuit. Our team is committed to regularly consulting with and prioritizing data sharing and co-interpretation with communities that are directly impacted by the research and in line with Inuit research authorities and ethics bodies. All data will be shared in accordance with the principles developed by the communities.

Sustainable use of the Arctic Marine Environment (SustainME) aims to co-produce new knowledge that supports the identification and evaluation of adaptation solutions that will mitigate the impacts and risks associated with the dual effects of sea ice loss and human use pressures on the Arctic marine environment. We focus specifically on areas of concern that were co-identified with Inuit and Sámi partners based on their relevance for local culture, economy and livelihoods- all of which revolve around the cascading impacts of sea ice and ocean change. To address these issues, a greater understanding of cascading risks, adaptation options, and residual risks that are relevant at a decision-making scale is urgently needed. The complexity of interactions, potentially divergent perspectives on risks and benefits, and potential for unanticipated cascading effects of change further underscores the need for a holistic approach. SustainME transcends traditional approaches to knowledge creation by employing both scientific and Indigenous research methodologies, and is guided by the Aajiiqatigiingniq Research Methodology Framework. This inclusive approach produces policy and locally relevant knowledge to support fiscally responsible and effective decision making for climate change adaptation and sustainable development in the Arctic. To address concerns flowing from sea ice change and human pressures and to achieve the goals of the Nordforsk/NFRF call, our diverse team has co-designed five interconnected, interdisciplinary, iterative, and self-reinforcing Work Packages (WP). These are: Sea ice change (WP1), Travel and transport (WP2), Living marine resources (WP3) and Well-being and food security (WP4). The final WP (WP5) synthesizes SustainME’s outputs to co-produce adaptation solutions that are effective, feasible, and relevant for local to global decision making in support of a sustainable future for people and the Arctic marine system. Each of these WPs is designed to support relevant United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and a socially and economically resilient Arctic. SustainME’s communications and dissemination activities directly link our aim, objectives and expected outcomes and will reach a broad range of stakeholders and rightsholders. They are designed to comprehensively communicate complex topics in an understandable, dynamic, targeted, and timely way and to create both academic and practical impacts from the local to global scale.

Arctic lakes are a valued natural, aesthetic, and cultural resource for Indigenous communities and other northern residents who depend on them for life supporting services such as food and water. Local voices have pushed that advancing knowledge of how Arctic lake ecosystems change and affect northern nutritional resource security and human health, requires integrative approaches, with broad considerations of the predominant winter season, emotions and cultural practices associated with lakes, whole food webs, and nutritional and contaminant-related measures linking lakes and people. This holistic research project responds to research priorities driven by Inuit organisations that have reported fish kills under lake ice due to low oxygen, changes in fish taste and diminished access to ice-based cultural activities. We will expand the scope of traditionally summer-focused Arctic research to year-round assessments connected to impacts on socioecological systems in five key Inuit regions. Our main objectives are to better understand the consequences of warming winters on lakes, to identify adaptation and mitigation options to ensure access to fishing sites, and to produce an improved, integrated understanding on fish health and its socioeconomic implications in the North. We will undertake detailed studies on ice cover and under ice light, temperature, flows and oxygen that directly affect survival, and the transfer of energy, health-determining essential fats, contaminants and parasites within lake food webs. These variables influence abundance and health of top predators such as Arctic char, a key circumpolar species of cultural, economic, and nutritional importance in inland fisheries. This research also aims to contribute to identifying safe ways to access other resources when declining lake ice leads to decreasing local fish stocks. Our project engages Inuit organisations, Elders, youth,socially engaged researchers, biologists and engineers in (i) instrumental interdisciplinarity where we bring knowledge systems, local observations, and science and community experts together to co-create solutions; and (ii) critical interdisciplinarity, where existing models and frameworks for conducting Arctic aquatic research are reimagined with local participation and bolstered by intersectoral communication strategies. Through these practices, this project will lead to a co-designed resilience plan to sustain local food economies and traditional ways of fishing.