Analyses of environmental governance in the Arctic often focused on state-to-state relations. The latter are currently experiencing dramatic turns with a variety of implications for regional cooperation and livelihoods. Over the past three decades, "the people of the North" were increasingly recognised in Arctic politics, but diverse local perspectives and living conditions in the pan-Arctic region still receive little attention. Recognition is called into question through the local consequences of heightened security tensions as well as by certain development projects, for instance in the wake of green transition policies. More strongly integrating diverse local perspectives into Arctic cooperation could advance trust in and democratic legitimacy of Arctic politics, and make it more resilient against green-painted neo-colonial tendencies and fallout of security and power competition.

The roundtable discussed this with a view to environmental governance and respective people-science-policy interactions. How can the articulation of local perspectives be strengthened, how could they be taken into account better in science as well as politics at different levels of governance, how can cooperative networks on the level of local actors and between actors across levels be established, maintained, and restored under current circumstances in the  Arctic. We brough together scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds who have conducted research in the Arctic for many years, and are engaged in concrete projects tackling these questions. Their presentations focused on how various Arctic actors engage in networking, and how they succeed (or fail) to bring the local perspectives to bear on Arctic environmental governance.

Chairs

• Christoph Humrich (University of Groningen)
• Dorothea Wehrmann (German Institute of Development and Sustainability, IDOS)

Speakers

• Daniela Sampaio Portella (Alfred-Wegener-Institut, AWI): “Constructing the Arctic: ‘Bringing Science to Politics”
• Jacqueline Götze (IDOS, University of Bonn): “Sámi-EU Relations: Sámi Participation in EU Policy-making as an Example of Indigenous Peoples’ Participation in Transnational Policy-Making”
• Charlotte Gehrke (Nord University, AWI): “Arctic Actors in Environmental Agenda-Setting: Perspectives from (Local) Journalists and Scientists”
• Arne Riedel (Ecologic Institute) & Dorothea Wehrmann (IDOS): “Localising Arctic cooperation: How to reconfigure frameworks and advance a pan-Arctic understanding of shared priorities?”
• Michael Karcher (AWI): “Making an Arctic Observing System more coherent, more useful, and more equitable - perspectives from the Arctic PASSION project”
• Jakob Schwörer (FES Stockholm): “Are national interests shifting away from environmental politics? Russia's war in Ukraine and the consequences for states' political priorities in the Arctic”