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Find the recordings below the respective event descriptions.

Events:

  • Wildland Fires Sharing Circle: Arctic Indigenous Peoples on fire practices, changes, and impacts
  • Empowering the Future Leaders of Sustainable Ocean Management
  • Living in a Changing Arctic: A Town Hall Meeting with the Arctic Council and Arctic Mayors’ Forum

© iStock

Wildland Fires Sharing Circle: Arctic Indigenous Peoples on fire practices, changes, and impacts
Organizers: Norwegian Chairship, Gwich'in Council International

Wildland fires are a critical environmental concern with far-reaching ecological, social, cultural and economic implications. Record-breaking fire activity in 2023 intensified attention and concern on the growing threat of wildland fires across the circumpolar Arctic. Wildland fires across the Northern hemisphere have notably increased in frequency, severity and area across the Arctic over the past several years.

The Norwegian Chairship of the Arctic Council has therefore launched a Wildland Fires Initiative, which aims to increase circumpolar collaboration and make information on wildland fires in the Arctic more readily accessible. This side event is the first public panel of the initiative and will follow the format of a Wildland Fire Sharing Circle that brings together Indigenous knowledge holders. At this side event Arctic Indigenous Peoples will speak on fire practices, changes, and impacts. The event has been organized by Gwich’in Council International and involves representatives of the Indigenous Peoples’ organizations with Permanent Participant status in the Arctic Council.

Moderators:

  • Devlin Fernandes, Gwich'in Council International
  • Daazhraii Alexander, Youth Delegate, Gwich’in Council International
  • Olivia Dobbs, Youth Delegate, Gwich’in Council International

Speakers:

  • Edward Alexander, Co-Chair Gwich’in Council International and Co-Lead Chairship Wildland Fires Initiative
  • Morten Høglund, Chair of the Senior Arctic Officials of the Arctic Council and Co-Lead Chairship Wildland Fires Initiative
  • Maria Varteressian, State Secretary, Foreign Ministry Norway
  • Representatives of the Permanent Participants
Kronprins Haakon in the Arctic Ocean
© Jessica Cook/ACS

Empowering the Future Leaders of Sustainable Ocean Management
Organizers: Norwegian Chairship, Norwegian Polar Institute, Institute for Marine Research

This session will invite experts and young researchers in marine and ocean sciences as well as policy to discuss the future of ocean management. In particular, the session will raise the importance of empowering early career scientists and experts as the future implementors and advocates of EBM and stewards of our oceans. Students and early career researchers that participated in an August 2023 Arctic Ocean Research Cruise, led by the Norwegian Polar Institute, will share their experience from the cruise, and discuss the implications of such expeditions for international cooperation and early career development in order to further understanding, agency and collaboration – linking it to the challenges that we need to address. The discussion at this session will feed into the 3rd EA Conference in April 2024, arranged as part of the Norwegian Chairship of the Arctic Council and hosted by the Institute of Marine Research.

Moderator: Nalan Koc, Special Advisor for External Relations, Norwegian Polar Institute
Speakers:

  • Nils Gunnar Kvamstø, Director, Institute for Marine Research
  • Lis Lindal Jørgensen, Norwegian Institute for Marine Research
  • Maria Varteressian, State Secretary, Foreign Ministry Norway
  • Morten Høglund, Chair of the Senior Arctic Officials of the Arctic Council and Co-Lead Chairship Wildland Fires Initiative
  • Gunn-Britt Retter, Head of the Arctic and Environmental Unit Saami Council
  • Mario Acquarone, Deputy Secretary, AMAP
  • Einar Jónsson, PhD Candidate Marine and Freshwater Research Institute & University of Iceland
  • Concepcion Melovidov, Masters Student University of Alaska Fairbanks
  • Charlotte Carrier Belleau, Post-Doctoral Fellow Laval University
  • Malou Platou Johansen, Masters Student The Arctic Univeristy of Norway, Tromsø (UiT)
Luleå
© Andreas Harnemo

Living in a Changing Arctic: A Town Hall Meeting with the Arctic Council and Arctic Mayors’ Forum
Organizers: Arctic Mayors' Forum, Norwegian Chairship, EPPR and SDWG

Communities across the Arctic are at the forefront of navigating ever-faster changing realities as they seek to offer their inhabitants safe and thriving living conditions. In a nutshell, they are charged with sorting out the challenges and opportunities that global changes pose on local livelihoods. While the local contexts vary, sharing knowledge and building robust Arctic cooperation is imperative to ensuring that Arctic communities can adapt a long-term perspective on resilience. In this respect, the need for enhancing the engagement between levels of governance is growing. This side event will explore how local realities can be better integrated into the work of the Arctic Council. Panelists will present case studies where increased cooperation would benefit Arctic communities, including prevention and preparedness against natural disasters, societal innovations necessary to integrate newcomers to the Arctic, and notably through more eff ective integration of local and Indigenous knowledge.

Moderator: Patti Bruns, Secretary General, Arctic Mayors' Forum

Speakers:

  • Maria Varteressian, State Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  • Sigrun Wiggen Prestbakmo, State Secretary, Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development
  • Morten Høglund, Chair of the Senior Arctic Officials of the Arctic Council and Co-Lead Chairship Wildland Fires Initiative
  • Odd Emil Ingebrigtsen, Mayor of Bodø
  • Carina Sammeli, Mayor of Luleå
  • Ole Kristian Bjerkemo, EPPR Chair
  • Sarah Cox, Canada' Head of Delegation to the SDWG
  • Anja Márjá Nystø Keskitalo, Advisor EU unit at the Saami Council

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