The Kake Climate Partnership: Implementing a knowledge co-production framework to provide climate services in Southeast Alaska

Abstract

This paper provides a case study analysis of knowledge co-production with an Indigenous community and Tribe in Southeast Alaska. The 24-month study provided climate services and information in support of climate adaptation and mitigation with community identified priorities of food sovereignty and food security. Our objectives are to (1) describe an application of a theoretical framework that is specific to co-production among Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners, and (2) reflect on the ways in which this application supports relevance and use of climate services in an Indigenous community. Methods included text analysis of written research logs, review of monthly project briefings and structured discussions among a diverse author team. We found that co-production can be used to explicitly define a collective vision among partners that is a transformative way of doing applied climate and environmental science. As such, the role of the university researcher shifted from focusing on personal research interests to a focus on supporting local needs and priorities. When the climate services process is centered on Tribal and community priorities and locally identified science needs, the climate science aspect becomes just one element in the implementation of a larger local vision and goals. Challenges our team encountered during the study were related to logistics, communication, juggling priorities of multiple partners, capacity, and conducting community-based research during a global pandemic. We recommend that future efforts to co-produce climate services through research, adaptation planning, and mitigation be institutionalized and maintained over decadal, not annual, timescales.

Ten “simple” rules for non-Indigenous researchers engaging Indigenous communities in Arctic research

“…The development of the shared expectations document can also come in the form of a code of conduct or an explanation of team values. For example, as part of the CPK methodology employed in the Kake climate partnership—a collaborative project between Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners in Southeast Alaska—Figus and colleagues [ 54 ] documented principles and expectations such as tribal values, food sovereignty, data sovereignty, and publication values.…”

“…Establishing a mutual understanding of research objectives and maximizing transparency prevents researchers from imposing on Indigenous peoples and avoids exploitative practices. The inclusion of diverse voices and different ways of knowing in the development of research questions facilitates a sustainable research project that is valuable for the Indigenous community and non-Indigenous researchers [ 19 , 54 ].…”

The Arctic Rivers Project: Using an Equitable Co‐Production Framework for Integrating Meaningful Community Engagement and Science to Understand Climate Impacts

“…Climate model projections for this century from the latest Coupled Model Intercomparison Projects (CMIP 5 and 6) simulations paint a picture of continued rapid Arctic warming (Davy & Outten, 2020; Pörtner et al., 2019). Making climate services useful , useable , and used (Figus et al., 2022; Findlater et al., 2021; Vincent et al., 2018) can support community‐level adaptation planning and resilience in the Arctic through the more equitable accounting of diverse social structures, needs, resources, and contexts (Vincent et al., 2020).…”

“…One avenue for developing useful, useable, and used science is by co-producing knowledge and co-designing research priorities and projects with communities that are directly impacted by these changes (Figus et al, 2022;Nature Editorial, 2018;Naugle et al, 2020;Vincent et al, 2018Vincent et al, , 2020. Knowledge co-production can be thought of broadly as the collaborative process of bringing several sources and types of knowledge together to address a defined problem and to build an integrated understanding of that problem (Armitage et al, 2011).…”