Understanding Human and Ecosystem Dynamics in the Kola Arctic : A Participatory Integrated Study

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The Lake Imandra watershed is located in one of the most developed regions in the Arctic-the Kola Peninsula of Russia. Approximately 300 000 people live on the roughly 27 000 km 2 watershed, making it one of the most densely populated areas of the Arctic. Most of the people are involved in large-scale mineral extraction and processing and the infrastructure needed to support this industry. This paper reports the results of a pilot project staged for the Lake Imandra watershed that has put human dynamics within the framework of ecosystem change to integrate available information and formulate conceptual models of likely future scenarios. The observation period is one of both rapid economic growth and human expansion, with an overall economic decline in the past decade. We are applying the Participatory Integrated Assessment (PIA) approach to integrate information, identify information gaps, generate likely future scenarios, and link scientific findings to the decision-making process. We found an increasingly vulnerable human population in varying states of awareness about their local environment and fully cognizant of their economic troubles, with many determined to attempt maintenance of relatively high population densities in the near future even as many residents of northern Russia migrate south. A series of workshops have involved the citizens and local decision makers in an attempt to tap their knowledge of the region and to increase their awareness about the linkages between the socioeconomic and ecological components.Key words: watershed analysis, Kola, ecological economics, adaptive management, development scenarios RÉSUMÉ. Le bassin hydrographique du lac Imandra est situé dans l'une des régions les plus développées de l'Arctique, soit la presqu'île de Kola, en Russie. Près de 300 000 personnes vivent dans la zone du bassin qui couvre environ 27 000 km 2 , ce qui en fait l'une des régions les plus peuplées de l'Arctique. La plupart des habitants travaillent dans l'extraction et le traitement miniers à grande échelle ainsi que dans l'infrastructure qui soutient cette industrie. Le présent article rapporte les résultats d'un projet pilote mis sur pied pour le bassin du lac Imandra, projet qui a placé la dynamique humaine dans le cadre du changement des écosystèmes, afin d'intégrer l'information disponible et de formuler des modèles conceptuels de scénarios probables dans l'avenir. La période d'observation en est une à la fois de croissance économique et d'expansion démographique rapides, suivie d'un déclin général au cours de la dernière décennie. On a recours à la méthode d'évaluation participative intégrée (EPI) pour intégrer l'information, y dégager des lacunes, générer des scénarios probables dans l'avenir et établir un lien entre résultats de la recherche et processus décisionnel. On a trouvé qu'il y avait une population humaine de plus en plus vulnérable qui était sensibilisée à divers degrés aux problèmes locaux de l'environnement et pleinement consciente des difficultés économiques, popula...

Strong connections, loose coupling: the influence of the Bering Sea ecosystem on commercial fisheries and subsistence harvests in Alaska

“…We suggest that what we found in the Bering Sea may be a relatively common form of human-ecosystem connection and coupling, in contrast to the tight coupling that produces compelling narratives of the welfare of resource users being directly aligned with the health of the environment (e.g., Hamilton et al 2003, 2004, Voinov et al 2004. Further work as outlined here, in the Bering Sea and elsewhere, would help determine if this idea is true, perhaps providing more insight into a class of systems with important implications for human behavior and management.…”

“…One premise of the study was that human activities would respond clearly and directly to changes in the physical and biological aspects of the ecosystem. This expectation was based on other high-latitude systems where human outcomes are indeed tightly coupled to ecosystem conditions (e.g., Hamilton et al 2003Hamilton et al , 2004 and to similar drivers of demographic and other changes to the human system (e.g., Huntington et al 2007, Voinov et al 2004. Our work in the two components of the project, however, led us more or less independently to the understanding that the ways in which ecosystem change influences humans in the Bering Sea are strongly attenuated by social dynamics.…”

A field survey—Staroe lake suffering from atmospheric deposition in the region north of the Arctic Circle

“…With the rapid industrialization, the population on the Kola Peninsula has increased from 5 thousand to over 1 million since the 1920s (Voinov et al 2004). On the Kola Peninsula, surface mines are typically enlarged until either the mineral deposit is exhausted or the cost of removing larger volumes of overburden makes the mining uneconomical, and this overburden (also known as waste) is the term used to describe material that lies above a valuable deposit.…”

Toward understanding the human dimensions of the rapidly changing arctic system: insights and approaches from five HARC projects

“…Multilevel Fig. 5 Trends in Imandra watershed mining and population (a); births, deaths and migration (b); and Imandra Lake phosphorus and total sediments (c) and nitrogen and chlorine (d); see Voinov et al (2004) modeling, a statistical approach employed in several arctic research projects, provides analytical tools that should prove useful in studying such cross-scale relationships (e.g., Skrondal and Rabe-Hesketh 2004).…”

“…These are used to enhance understanding of pollutant behavior and the relationship between local humans and the environment. See Voinov et al (2004) and Moiseenko et al (2006) for further details.…”