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Contributions of traditional knowledge to understanding climate change in the Canadian Arctic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

Dyanna Riedlinger  and
Fikret Berkes
Dyanna Riedlinger
Affiliation:
Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N2, Canada
Fikret Berkes
Affiliation:
Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N2, Canada
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Abstract

Despite much scientific research, a considerable amount of uncertainty exists concerning the rate and extent of climate change in the Arctic, and how change will affect regional climatic processes and northern ecosystems. Can an expanded scope of knowledge and inquiry augment understandings of climate change in the north? The extensive use of the land and the coastal ocean in Inuit communities provides a unique source of local environmental expertise that is guided by generations of experience. Environmental change associated with variations in weather and climate has not gone unnoticed by communities that are experiencing change firsthand. Little research has been done to explore the contributions of traditional knowledge to climate-change research. Based in part on a collaborative research project in Sachs Harbour, western Canadian Arctic, this paper discusses five areas in which traditional knowledge may complement scientific approaches to understanding climate change in the Canadian Arctic. These are the use of traditional knowledge as local-scale expertise; as a source of climate history and baseline data; in formulating research questions and hypotheses; as insight into impacts and adaptation in Arctic communities; and for long-term, communitybased monitoring. These five areas of potential convergence provide a conceptual framework for bridging the gap between traditional knowledge and western science, in the context of climate-change research.

Type
Articles
Information
Polar Record , Volume 37 , Issue 203 , October 2001 , pp. 315 - 328
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2001

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