ECOTRAD

Aboriginal ecotourism, environmental and economic change, traditional livelihoods and knowledge: this project involved a comparative analysis between the caribou-hunting Inuit of Baker Lake in Nunavut and the Saami reindeer herders of Övre Soppero in Northern Sweden.

Both Inuit and Saami communities are facing major environmental and economic changes due to global warming, mineral exploration, hydroelectric development and timber harvesting. Disturbances caused by climate change are likely to increase in frequency and severity, having a major impact on Arctic and subarctic ecosystems in the future. In the face of these challenges, the two communities have similar concerns: to sustain their traditional lifestyle, generate new jobs for youths, preserve the knowledge of elders, and reinforce their culture and language.

In this context, the ECOTRAD project aimed to explore how Aboriginal tourism might contribute to the well-being of northern communities, preserve and enhance their traditional culture, sustain their natural resources, and help community members face the challenges of climate change and economic dependency. It was based on the hypothesis that northern communities in different geographic regions face comparable challenges and that a comparative analysis would provide new insights on the possible ways to face them

To this end, researchers worked in partnership with two communities, the inland Caribou Inuit from Baker Lake in Nunavut, and the Saami reindeer herders from Övre Soppero in Northern Sweden: communities that share a traditional livelihood based on the same species (Rangifer tarandus) and similar challenges, despite the differences in their ecological and socio-economic contexts.

The project employed collaborative research and social analysis systems (SAS) tools developed by Chevalier (www.sas2.net) to bridge scientific and community-based knowledge, to explore future scenarios and to develop an Arctic ecotourism network of practitioners. Direct collaboration and exchanges between Inuit and Saami communities were promoted with the objective of producing new strategies for Aboriginal tourism development based on lessons learned from the collective experiences of stakeholders and new Aboriginal research techniques and methodologies.

First phase

The project was funded by the French Polar Research Institute (IPEV, www.ipev.fr) for two years (2008–2009). It was approved by the Nunavut Research Institute (NRI) and the University of Montpellier III Research Council. A first field visit to the hamlet of Baker Lake took place from 2 to 18 July 2008. The Saami community field visit to Övre Soppero took place from 11 to 26 July 2009.

Baker Lake :

Project design

A Nunavut research collaborator (Vera Avaala) was hired for the duration of the project. She acted as translator, interpreter, coordinator, liaison and co-facilitator at the community meetings. During the initial 16-day field visit to Baker Lake, we:

Participants received a fee of CA$25 an hour. We used the “Negotiating research relationships with Inuit communities” guidelines developed by the NRI. A database of 50 articles, reports and books was compiled.

Methodology

Collaborative inquiry and social engagement techniques were used for the semi-structured interviews and the workshops. Techniques such as free listing, pile sorting, ranking, radar/ rainbow charts and participatory mapping were used to assess tourism options, evaluate the importance of caribou today in daily life compared with the situation in the past and the desired future. Participants listed their main concerns and the perceived threats and challenges to the community and the caribou due to the increase in mining activities (gold, uranium) in the nearby area. These became the priority questions to address in the research project. The participation of the elders was high; the SAS techniques were very appealing to them.

Results

The elders were very concerned about the future for youth, the generation gap, a lack of communication, the loss of traditional knowledge and experience of the land and the impact of mining on caribou as well as on human health. They expressed interest in organizing focus groups with youths in a second phase of the project.

Local stakeholders expressed interest in analysing and assessing past and existing tourism options to prepare future activities for the next decade, post-mining; they wished to develop tourism activities based on sharing their knowledge of the land and the Inuit culture.

All the people we encountered were concerned about the impact of mining on the caribou. They were interested in further exploring the potential threats, challenges, likely scenarios and future options facing their community, using the same participatory workshop format to address these concerns.

Following the project, the project lead, Sylvie Blangy, kept in touch with Vera Avaala, the research coordinator, who was in charge of translating some of the workshop notes and helping to prepare a second visit to the hamlet.

Övre Soppero :

In July 2010, a similar visit was made to a Saami community, with researchers spending 10 days in the reindeer-marking camp of Dividal on the High Norwegian Plateau. Sylvie Blangy worked with Britt-Marie Labba, a Saami research collaborator. Interviews and focus groups were organized in the lavvu, traditional Saami tents. Drawings and photos were collected to share these with the Inuit community at the next visit. The Sameby (Saami village) expressed interest in hosting Inuit representatives to share information about reindeer-centred livelihoods and adaptation strategies to global change.

A collaborative research workshop was organized in Ottawa in June 2010. Three Saami, two Inuit (from Baker Lake and Nunavik) and eight Cree from Eeyou Istchee met with academic research partners and exchanged ideas on lessons learned. A new research project was drafted and submitted to Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Aboriginal research pilot programme, but was not funded. We also explored other funding to further develop research collaborations between the Inuit, the Cree and the Saami communities who met in Ottawa.

Second phase :

The first phase of ECOTRAD unintentionally ended up serving as a fact-finding mission to co-design the TUKTU project.