26 March 2025 | 10:30 - 15:30 (MDT)
Open Session - HYBRID
Room: UMC Fourth Floor - 415/417
Organisers: Jessica Aquino (Hólar University); Pigga Keskitalo (University of Helsinki & University of Lapland); Inga Beck (Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research)
Session Description:
The increasing disconnection among communities, scientists, and policymakers poses significant challenges to biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation. It is vital to bridge these gaps, particularly in Arctic rural communities where residents face pressing concerns about environmental degradation, limited opportunities for work and education, and feelings of under-representation. A transdisciplinary intergenerational collaborative research approach is needed to investigate how both scientific research and inclusive education can develop capacities, needed for active democratic engagement and citizen participation in this context. All generations bring valuable input to such approach: Youth, being particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts, are vital to securing our sustainable future. Elders and other stakeholders, including scientists, hold valuable insights into the environment, drawing from traditional ecological knowledge or scientific expertise. Arctic regions need to be equipped to face the challenges posed by a changing world and empowered to actively participate in climate action and policymaking. A co-created strategy is needed to effectively create knowledge sharing and capacity building for climate preparedness and resilience within local communities. This can only be achieved by a process that promote skill acquisition, knowledge dissemination, and greater civic engagement among youth and potentially marginalized and historically silenced knowledge-disempowered individuals—addressing the knowledge voice gap. We invite research, case studies, and learning experiments from early career professional, elders, scientists, educators, and policymakers who focuses on collaboration with various stakeholders to develop strategies for capacity sharing for community resilience and increase civic involvement with biodiversity conservation and climate change.