Skolt Sámi and Atlantic Salmon Collaborative Management of Näätämö Watershed, Finland as a Case of Indigenous Evaluation and Knowledge in the Eurasian Arctic

• Published in: New Directions for Evaluation
• Main Authors: Mustonen, Tero, Feodoroff, Pauliina
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2018
• Subjects: Arctic; Näätämö; Atlantic salmon; Salmo salar; Skolt Sámi
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ev.20334; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fev.20334; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ev.20334

Abstract Indigenous evaluation as a process, method, and paradigm has developed over the past few years in those global areas, where Indigenous communities and scholars have been able to secure rights and achieve overall recognition of their knowledge systems. In the Eurasian North, the Indigenous knowledge systems and evaluation are actively being contested and suppressed. Our chapter, cowritten by Sámi fishermen and cultural leaders, juxtaposes the relevance of the academic and global discussions of “Indigenous evaluation” with the first collaborative management initiative of Finland. It involves the Atlantic Salmon ( Salmo salar ). By reviewing critically the ongoing relationships and fisheries the Skolt Sámi have with their river and fish, an equally critical view is employed toward the emerging Indigenous evaluation discourses and their applicability and transferability from international arenas into on‐the‐ground management and defense initiatives in the context of regime‐shifting Arctic. Such a view identifies the key aspects of relevance from Indigenous evaluation. It also dissects the academic rhetoric and related relevant measures that can influence land use, policy, and development of Indigenous governance in the context of rapid changes.