Abstract
Given current and projected warming trends in the Arctic and the important role played by subsistence hunting and fishing in the life of northern rural communities, it is increasingly important to document local observations of climate change and its impacts on livelihood practices. We describe ethnographic research exploring local observations of climate changes and related impacts on subsistence fisheries in three Inupiat communities in northwest Alaska and six Athabascan communities in the Yukon River drainage. We found consistent agreement among perceptions concerning a broad range of environmental changes affecting subsistence practices in these communities. These observations of environmental changes are not experienced in isolation but within the context of accompanying social changes that are continually reshaping rural Alaskan communities and subsistence economies. In this paper we reflect on our research approach combining multiple methods of inquiry. Participant observation and semidirected interviews provided the conceptual framework for broadening our focus from climate and environmental change to community residents’ understanding of climate change in the context of their holistic human-environment worldview. Cultural consensus analysis allowed us to assess the extent to which perceptions of change are shared among hunters and fishers within and between villages and regions and to identify those phenomena occurring or experienced at smaller scales. Reflecting on this multimethods approach, we highlight important questions that have emerged about how we understand, synthesize, and represent local knowledge, especially as it is used in regulatory or management arenas.
Highlights
Northern ecosystems are undergoing rapid shifts as a result of global climate change, with significant implications for the livelihoods of indigenous peoples who rely heavily on wild resources
We found consistent agreement among perceptions concerning a broad range of environmental changes affecting subsistence practices in these communities
Our interview data suggested that indigenous communities in the Arctic are facing a total environment of change and observations of climate change are clearly perceived and experienced through linked lifestyle and other cultural shifts
Summary
Northern ecosystems are undergoing rapid shifts as a result of global climate change, with significant implications for the livelihoods of indigenous peoples who rely heavily on wild resources. Indigenous fishermen in Canada and Alaska, who rely on these species as part of their subsistence lifestyles, have observed and reported specific impacts to fish that are attributed to climate change These observations include the loss of habitat, changes in meat quality and fish morphology, reduced numbers of preferred species, and increased observations of fish species that were previously uncommon (McDonald et al 1997, Berkes and Jolly 2001, Cotton 2012, Moerlein and Carothers 2012). As these important subsistence resources are threatened or disappear, the fish and the people who rely on them are increasingly subject to external regimes of natural resource management and governmental regulation. These regimes are built from and in response to state and federal political contexts that can often be contradictory (McGee 2010) and at odds with local values and needs (Loring and Gerlach 2010)
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