Rethinking Arctic sustainable development agenda through indigenizing UN sustainable development goals

Abstract

ABSTRACT The year 2020 has urged Humanity to rethink the sustainable development agenda. The COVID-19 pandemic rearticulated the gaps in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to benefit remote regions and and their populations including Arctic Indigenous Peoples. In this brief communication, we want to draw attention to the need of reshaping UN SDGs in light of the ‘new normal’ to promote sustainable development of Arctic Indigenous communities. The UN Agenda 2030 sets priorities that have relevance to the Arctic, with its rapidly changing environmental and social systems that are interlinked to other parts of the globe. Successful implementation of SDGs in the Arctic can only be accomplished through an open and pluralistic dialog among global and Arctic stakeholders with the engagement, equal partnership, and under the guidance of the Arctic Indigenous Peoples. This process, we argue, could start by revising the existing 17 goals and creating five new ones (Sustainable Governance and Indigenous Rights, Resilient Indigenous Societies, Livelihoods and Knowledge systems, Life on Ice and Permafrost, Equity and Equality in Access to Natural Resources, and Investment in Youth and Future Generations) that represent Indigenous People’s knowledge and aspirations for sustainable development. By indigenizing SDGs in the Arctic, we will not only build the Arctic’s own sustainable development framework but attain greater equity and expand the knowledge base of sustainable development globally.