Communities across the Canadian Arctic are exposed and sensitive to changes in social, political, cultural environmental and economic sys-tems. Case studies from across the Arctic suggest that community adap-tation is already well underway, par-tially in response to environmental change due to a changing climate.
This project documents the changing physical, biological and socio-economic conditions that are affect-ing people in the Arctic and identifies policies and strategies to assist communities in dealing with these changes.
The project builds on previous work on the vulnerabilities of Arctic com-munities, and it is feasible because of established collaborations with northern people and organizations.
One main focus of the project involves integrating scientific and tra-ditional knowledge of ice, perma-frost, coastal dynamics, marine and terrestrial wildlife with information about community use of these eco-system services. The other is to identify opportunities in existing poli-cies for adaptation strategies to help communities deal with changing conditions.
