27 March 2025 | 08:30 - 10:00 (MDT)
Open Session - HYBRID
Room: UMC Fourth Floor - 415 / 417
Organisers: Arja Rautio (University of Oulu, Finland); Janne Näkkäläjärvi (Sámi Education Institute, Finland); Mervi Heikkinen (University of Oulu, Finland)
Session Description:
Climate and environmental change influence human life, wildlife, and ecosystems in the Arctic in various ways. One Health is an approach that recognises that human health is closely related to the health of animals and the environment. This is particularly true in the Arctic where a community's well-being relies on healthy animals and the environment. Human health is more than the absence of disease; it encompasses physical, mental, behavioural, cultural, and spiritual health.
Megatrends such as globalization, digitalization, migration, urbanization, demographic changes, and the growing role of the service sector including mass tourism have a major economic and environmental impact in Arctic rural and urban areas. These megatrends lead to challenges and threats, which may influence the lives of the people living in these regions. There is a need for local and Indigenous Peoples to be better involved in environmental related decision-making. Amongst these global changes, there are also new opportunities for local people to take part in decision-making.
European Commission funded ILLUQ, ICEBERG and ArcSolution projects are working in this field and facilitate participatory deliberative processes in collaboration with the local, coastal, and Indigenous People of the Arctic. The cluster aims to co-create equal ways and means for knowledge co-creation and democratic participation in environmental decision-making.