Climate change & permafrost thaw in coastal Russian Arctic: non-material dimensions at risk

• Main Authors: Doloisio, Natalia, Vanderlinden², Jean-Paul
• Other Authors: Cultures, Environnements, Arctique, Représentations, Climat (CEARC), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Nunataryuk, European Project: 773421,H2020,H2020-BG-2017-1,NUNATARYUK(2017)
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2021
• Subjects: Permafrost thaw; climate change; Republic of Sakha; culture; adaptation; [SDE.ES]Environmental Sciences/Environment and Society; Arctic; Sakha; Yakutsk; Tiksi; Climate change; permafrost; Yakutia
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04566928; https://hal.science/hal-04566928/document; https://hal.science/hal-04566928/file/0.pdf

International audience Climate change and permafrost thaw are creating new risk patterns and exerting increasing pressure on Arctic communities. Understanding the interplay between these bio-physical processes and meaningful non-material dimensions should be at the core of adaptation-oriented research. They are particularly relevant as they englobe particular elements, processes, values and forms of interacting that allow local residents to lead meaningful lives and livelihoods. Additionally, culture plays a key role in the way that each community interprets and valuates the impacts of climate change and permafrost thaw and consequently, how they will react. Within this context, in July 2019, members from the CEARC Laboratory (France) and Russian researchers from the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk and the Institute for Humanities Research and Indigenous Studies of the North, conducted fieldwork in the coastal Russian Arctic settlements of Tiksi and Bykovsky (Bulunsky District, Yakutia). The main purpose was to identify the impacts of climate change and permafrost thaw as perceived by local residents. The qualitative analysis of their narratives allowed to identify salient topics and to reconstruct the complex chain of interactions within the complex system they live in. They provided an increased understanding of the impacts on non-material dimensions of northern residents’ lives and livelihoods. Tiksi and Bykovsky are different in terms of geomorphology, demographic composition and socio-economic profiles. This was reflected on the type and extent of impacts that each of them are currently facing.