Suchergebnisse

This book offers multidisciplinary perspectives on renewable economies in the Arctic and how these are being supported scientifically, economically, socially, and politically by Arctic states. The economic development of the Arctic region is witnessing new, innovative trends which hold promise for the sustainable development of the region. This book discusses the emerging forms of renewable economies to understand where intellectual and technological innovations are being made. It draws on the expertise of scholars from across the Arctic and provides the reader with a foundation of knowledge to identify the unique challenges of the region and explore opportunities to unlock the immense potential of renewable resources to boost the region's economy. This book offers a holistic Arctic perspective against the backdrop of prevailing social, economic, and climatic challenges. With critical insights on the economic state of play and the role of renewable resources in the development of the Arctic region, this book will be a vital point of reference for Arctic scholars, communities, and policy makers.

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book offers various perspectives on Renewable Economies in the Arctic and how these forms of economy are being supported scientifically, economically, socially, and politically. It explores digital creative entrepreneurship as it is impacted by data connectivity and communication infrastructure in remote communities of the North American Arctic. The book then examines the impact of creative industries on renewable economies in the Arctic. It also explores the various ways tourism has developed, and continues to develop, in the Arctic. The book reviews the role of the social economy in Nunavut, Canada. It then argues that smaller institutions of higher learning within the Arctic must play a significant role in tackling the issues facing the region in a more practical sense. The book examines how climate change has spurred projects in Arctic countries to shift to low-carbon renewable energy sources.

The far-reaching invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation on 24 February 2022 poses the greatest threat to international peace and security in Europe since the end of World War II. The unjustified attack also impacts the relations between Russia and other Arctic nations, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Canada, and the United States of America (USA), all of which are members of the European Union (EU) or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), or both. In this text it will be shown how the international governance of the Arctic can be conceptualized without Russia. It will be shown that there will still be some role for the Arctic Council (AC), which is currently chaired by Russia, but that the future of international cooperation for governance in the Arctic is likely to be dominated an extended version of Nordic cooperation, here referred to as Nordic Plus, including also the like-minded partners Canada and USA. Arctic governance still has a future, but it will be a future that is very different from the experience of the last three decades. Half of the Arctic will be apart from the Nordic Plus approach to Arctic governance, at least for the foreseeable future. While this change does not have to be permanent, it is currently difficult to see how Russia will be able to return to international cooperation in the Arctic after the current complete disregard for the core idea that is the fundament for international Arctic governance: the acceptance that international relations are based on rules that equally apply to all.

Reindeer herding is both a traditional livelihood and business. Reindeer herding in the Nordic countries has been able to keep remote northern areas inhabited and maintained indigenous cultures. Reindeer herders have also been able to adapt to new circumstances, and a lot of them have invested in value-adding production or secondary occupations, such as tourism. The main challenge for reindeer herding is loss for pastures, which are used as commons, for other industries and infrastructure projects. The most recent competitor for land use is the growing investments on renewable energy production of windmill farms, which disturbs especially reindeer calving. In this article, we study the rights and opportunities of reindeer herders in participating in decision making on land use for infrastructure projects in general and windmill projects specifically. We focus on the situation in Finland, but also use examples of reported land use conflicts (between reindeer herders and windmill farms) from other Nordic countries. The aim of the article is to find out how reindeer herders experience their opportunities for participating in decision-making and how decision-makers understand their opinions. There is national legislation on participation in land use, as well as an increasing amount of international conventions to protect the environment and rights of local, especially indigenous populations. This international law has affected on Finnish national legislation and the constitution, which requires people with indigenous livelihoods be consulted before infrastructure projects get started. We focus on the rules and regulations in connection with windmill farms. Windmill farms are especially interesting, since renewable energy is now preferred as safer and greener energy. ; Reindeer herding is both a traditional livelihood and a business still practiced in the northern parts of Eurasia. In the Nordic countries, reindeer herding has contributed to keeping remote northern areas inhabited while maintaining Indigenous cultures. Reindeer herders have also been able to adapt to new circumstances, and many of them have invested in value-adding production or secondary occupations, such as tourism. The main challenge for reindeer herding is the loss of pastures to other industries and infrastructure projects. The growing investment in wind farms—which not only compete for the same land with reindeer herding but may also disturb the herding practices—has emerged as a recent competitor to reindeer herding in the context of land use. In this article, we study the rights and opportunities of reindeer herders to participate in decision making on land use for infrastructure projects in general and wind farm projects in particular. Our focus is on the situation in Finland, but we also use examples of reported land use conflicts between reindeer herders and wind farms from other Nordic countries. The aim of this article is, on the one hand, to find out how the rights of reindeer herders in planning and making decisions on wind farms are regulated and, on the other hand, how these rights function in practice. In addition to national legislation on participation in land use, there exists a growing number of international conventions to protect the environment and the rights of Indigenous people. Wind farms are particularly interesting in that renewable energy is now internationally preferred and subsidized as "green energy" in the fight against climate change. The challenge remains how to protect traditional livelihoods and human rights while targeting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In recent years, food insecurity has become a crucial issue in the circumpolar Arctic region. An investigation into why this issue has become so prevalent requires the exploration of a wide range of factors that affect the foods and food systems of the region. These factors include both natural phenomena as well as geopolitical, socio-economic, and cultural aspects. Global climate change and its disproportionate impacts on the region contribute to the rapid transformation of the region in terms of its environment, economy and geophysical, political and socio-cultural characteristics. At times, this transformation arguably offers new opportunities in relation to economic globalisation, but it also significantly alters the natural functioning of the region's ecosystems. The overall implications of climate change place heavy pressure on the areas of environment, land use, and natural resource management. Hence, it also brings about adverse consequences for, among other things, traditional food supply chains, and traditional food systems at large. Moreover, the combined effect of technological advancement and economic globalisation puts pressure on traditional food supplies, especially in the Nordic part of the circumpolar Arctic, given that traditional foods have become relatively less available and that the supply of imported foods is becoming increasingly available in many parts of the region, and especially in its European parts. This situation results in adverse implications on the availability of safe and nutritious foods for many communities in the Arctic.

This book explores the challenges facing food security, sustainability, sovereignty, and supply chains in the Arctic, with a specific focus on Indigenous Peoples. Offering multidisciplinary insights with a particular focus on populations in the European High North region, the book highlights the importance of accessible and sustainable traditional foods for the dietary needs of local and Indigenous Peoples. It focuses on foods and natural products that are unique to this region and considers how they play a significant role towards food security and sovereignty. The book captures the tremendous complexity facing populations here as they strive to maintain sustainable food systems – both subsistent and commercial – and regain sovereignty over traditional food production policies. A range of issues are explored from food contamination risks, due to increasing human activities in the region, such as mining, to changing livelihoods and gender roles in the maintenance of traditional food security and sovereignty. The book also considers processing methods that combine indigenous and traditional knowledge to convert the traditional foods, which are harvested or hunted, into local foods. This book offers a broader understanding of food security and sovereignty, and will be of interest to academics, scholars, and policy makers working in food studies, geography and environmental studies, agricultural studies, sociology, anthropology, political science, health studies, and biology.

This chapter argues that societal security is not just a fight for survival, it is also about the promotion of conditions for the greater sustenance of a society – it is about 'survival plus'. It highlights the human security concept's normative utility and guiding role for the promotion of value additions and ethical norms in security debates as they relate to the formation and promotion of societal sustainability. In the case of the Barents Region, the presence of indigenous peoples and their particular context in a regional and societal scope require the integration of political processes transcending their national border lines. A definition of societal security is presented in the International Organization for Standardization. The Arctic Human Development Report has largely addressed many of these issues from the viewpoint of socio-cultural, economic and environmental aspects in order to promote community cohesion within the region.

The existence of dominant companies such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook, etc. result in a dangerous situation in terms of abuses of data protection and data security legislation. It is important to specify the term "dominant" or "dominance" as, in my opinion, the existing definition from a competition law perspective does not apply to the situation concerning privacy and data protection. So far law has not presented any other sufficient way to describe "dominance".

The Information Society Code as a new act replaced recently eight former acts in Finland in the field of communications. The amount of sections in this one single act is now about 350. The aim of the short paper is to analyze the challenges and benefits of this kind of legal politics.

As China's cross-regional diplomacy is not separated from the party-state's overall foreign policy goals and doctrines, this chapter offers a review of China's foreign policy and economic interests. Without doubt, these dynamics also shape China's policy in the Arctic. The chapter concludes that Beijing is no longer content to be a norm-taker in international politics but it is more comfortable with becoming a norm-maker. However, there are noteworthy differences between China's Arctic engagement and its diplomacy in other parts of the world.

Although it is part of a that has been ongoing since 2014, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia that began on 24 February 2022 provides a historical marker. The invasion and the war crimes and crimes against humanity that continue to be committed by Russian forces in Ukraine have already impacted international relations more dramatically than any other event since the end of the Cold War. 24 February 2022 marks the end of the post-Cold War era and will likely be seen as a historical date on par with the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989. In this short text, it will be shown how reactions by other states to Russia's illegal war against Ukraine is impacting international cooperation and human rights.

This chapter offers an account of China's ecological footprint in the Arctic. Because China is the world's biggest carbon dioxide emitter and a significant contributor of short-lived climate pollutants, the chapter pays special attention to China's role in international efforts to tackle climate change. In addition to China's domestic climate policies, the chapter elaborates the state's contribution to international climate negotiations under the United Nations climate regime. It also introduces the ways in which China's Arctic policy addresses climate change and reviews China's potential to reduce black carbon and other pollutants.

The chapter focuses on economic relations between China and Finland in the Arctic context. This is done from two perspectives. First, the chapter considers Chinese investments and presence in northern Finland and particularly Lapland. Relevant sectors include bioeconomy and tourism, the Arctic railway project, as well as – in terms of future prospects – mining, renewable energy, data centres and testing facilities. Second, the chapter looks at the instances of economic cooperation – Finnish investments in China, Chinese in Finland and joint ventures – in areas of Finnish Arctic expertise.

This chapter elaborates on China's evolving strategy in the Arctic. For China, the Arctic is no longer about simply being an observer in the Arctic Council, but much more. The chapter will analyze mainly the specifics of China's Arctic white paper and examine a pair of specific cases, namely China's role in negotiating the Polar Code and the Arctic fisheries agreement. Special attention will be paid to the ways in which China's national policy towards the Arctic has emerged and how it has been viewed by other actors and commentators following China's role in the Arctic. As a sub-section, China's policy towards the Arctic's indigenous peoples will also be studied.

The chapter focuses on economic presence of China in the Arctic regions. First, it considers the economic relations between China and the Nordic states, North American Arctic and Russia. China and Chinese actors are active in different ways in different parts of the Arctic. Second, it looks at the key Arctic industries, where China's role is or may become relevant: shipping, oil and gas, minerals extraction, and tourism. Finally, the chapter considers the two dimensions of concerns related to Chinese economic activities: the problem of economic and political influence gained through investments and the environment and social performance as well as reliability of Chinese companies.