REPORT FROM THE ARCTIC RESILIENCE REPORT SCOPING WORKSHOP.

Abstract

The Arctic region is currently experiencing rapid change - environmentally as well as politically and economically. Climate change is the driver that has received most attention, but a number of other drivers are also relevant for the Arctic, such as demographic change and increased global demand for the resources of the region. At the Arctic Council (AC) Ministerial meeting in Nuuk in May 2011 it was decided that a scoping exercise should be arranged during the fall of 2011 to review the need for an integrated assessment of multiple drivers of Arctic change, including an Arctic Resilience Report (ARR). The scoping activities for the ARR1 have been led by the Stockholm Environment Institute and the Stockholm Resilience Centre2 in collaboration with the Resilience Alliance. A major activity has been a scoping workshop, which took place in Stockholm, Sweden3, 26-28 September 2011, with participation from experts4 and the Arctic Council working groups. The Stockholm scoping workshop began with a half-day public plenary session, where the purpose was to introduce the concept of resilience5 and discuss how the ARR can be relevant to other ongoing Arctic assessments and initiatives.6 The remaining one day and a half, for invited experts and working groups only, was devoted to group discussions aimed at demonstrating the methodology of a resilience assessment and to some preliminary discussion about the ARR as a project. An Arctic Council Working Group meeting was held in parallel to the ARR scoping workshop. As a result of the workshop, a proposal to start the ARR project has been submitted to the Arctic Council for decision at the Senior Arctic Official’s meeting in Luleå, Sweden, 8- 9 November 2011. This report describes some of the key messages that came out of the Stockholm workshop and provides background for the submitted proposal (presented in Appendix C).