First local workshop and meet-up in Norway

On September 22.-23., 2022, the first workshop and reference group meeting was held in Porsanger, northern Norway. The workshop was part of Work Package 3’s activities with the overall title “Biodiversity and well-being implications of climate change for coastal Saami in Northern Norway” in the FutureArcticLives project.

The program consisted of presentations on how climate and biodiversity change impacts small-scale fishers in Greenland and Northern Norway. In Greenland, inadequate infrastructure adds to these challenges.

An innovative and future-oriented project on the restitution of local coastal cod stocks in the Porsanger fjord was discussed and presented during the workshop (see image below). An excursion to the local marine research station with students from the Bergen School of Architecture and other invited guests was also organized as part of the workshop (see image above).

Kåre Hendriksen presented the status and challenges for small-scale fishers in remote communities in Greenland, followed by a presentation of changes in the marine ecosystem and fisheries in Porsanger, northern Norway.

In general, marine resources such as cod, halibut, and crab tend to fluctuate in both Greenland and Porsanger, making local livelihoods and small-scale fisheries dependent on the ability to be flexible and adapt to fisheries in new species.

Restoring fisheries to earlier states is another innovative option for Arctic communities which was discussed during the excursion to Holmfjord, the local marine research station in Porsanger. Local knowledge about the state of the ecosystem in the past in combination with scientific approaches to restoration are needed to restore ecosystems.

Read the "Porsanger Fjord Back to Life" StoryMap to know more about the changing state of resources in Porsanger and how the project works to document local knowledge of the state of resources and how the marine ecosystem was used in the past.

You can find selected materials from our meeting here:

• Kåre Hendriksen, University of Aalborg: The state of small-scale fisheries in remote communities in Greenland
  
  
• Hans Kristian Strand, Institute for Marine Research: The biological basis for the Porsanger Fjord 3.0 project
  
  
• Camilla Brattland, Bente Sundsvold and Arne Eide: Implications of biodiversity and climate change for livelihoods and wellbeing in the Arctic. The Porsanger fjord
  
  
• Bernt Bertelsen, Norwegian Directorate for Fisheries: Pilot for regional resource management

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