Mining in the Arctic environment – A review from ecological, socioeconomic and legal perspectives (original) (raw)
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This book focus on the connections between mining activities, knowledge politics and the valuation of landscape in selected case sites in Russia, Greenland and Norway. In our opinion, it fills a lacuna in the academic literature on mining activities in the north with its specific focus on the interrelated aspects of industrialized development and environmental concerns. This includes exploring the way that politics can help solve environmental problems by paying attention to the way particular knowledge systems (both scientific and public) influence environmental and developmental policies, and how landscape and its value as recreational or occupational space, or harvesting ground, is recognized in the context of mineral extraction and commercialisation processes. The book scrutinizes the way that concepts such as " sustainability " and " sacrifice zones " can be utilized in describing the mining activities and their economic, ecological and social footprints, as well as the political and scientific processes which make mining activities possible. Further, we aim to investigate the interconnectedness between the power to define the meaning and content of these concepts and the way they evoke moral and politicized conclusions as well as analytical ones. Keywords
This chapter seek to frame different relevant theoretical concepts that are currently used to shed light on the question of sustainable development as it relates to mining. It elaborates upon multiple conceptual and theoretical frameworks that are employed throughout the chapters in this volume, and the relationships between them. Our analysis of mining within a sustainable development framework requires a complex set of theoretical understandings and concepts. These are discussed here in order to provide a foundation for the analytical chapters that follow. The basic concepts analysed in this volume are 'sustainabil-ity in mining', 'sacrifice zones' and 'legitimacy'. Implicit in our analysis is the understanding that mining communities and mining projects need to deal with the complex understanding and valuation of landscapes and nature. This complexity can, of course, be understood by applying a number of different theories, of which we will present only a few. Some common threads that emerge from these different theoretical approaches include the importance of effective communication, the need to incorporate, acknowledge and understand diverse forms of knowledge, and the fact that legitimacy can be established in many different ways. This chapter, then, explores some of these perspectives.
Mining and Communities in the Arctic: Lessons from Baker Lake, Canada
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
In this paper, we explore mining in Arctic Canada from the perspective of the people on the communities there, in particular the Inuit, the pre-colonial people of the area. To do so, we first provide a brief overview of the history of mining in Canada including recent incursions into Nunavut. Then, we examine the place of aboriginal people including the Inuit in the modern global economy. We focus on their desire to participate in this economy on their own terms, meaning the respect of traditional land rights, and the respect and incorporation of traditional environmental knowledge, culture, values and practices in economic activities. Following this, we examine aboriginal land rights and settlement in Northern Canada. After this is done, we go on to consider the particular case of Baker Lake in Nunavut. Finally, we draw some conclusions from the case that can be generalised to other communities in the Arctic.
Environmental Evidence, 2019
Background: Mining activities, including prospecting, exploration, construction, operation, maintenance, expansion, abandonment, decommissioning and repurposing of a mine can impact social and environmental systems in a range of positive and negative, and direct and indirect ways. Mining can yield a range of benefts to societies, but it may also cause confict, not least in relation to above-ground and sub-surface land use. Similarly, mining can alter environments, but remediation and mitigation can restore systems. Boreal and Arctic regions are sensitive to impacts from development, both on social and environmental systems. Native ecosystems and aboriginal human communities are typically afected by multiple stressors, including climate change and pollution, for example. Methods: We will search a suite of bibliographic databases, online search engines and organisational websites for relevant research literature using a tested search strategy. We will also make a call for evidence to stakeholders that have been identifed in the wider 3MK project (https://osf.io/cvh3u/). We will screen identifed and retrieved articles at two distinct stages (title and abstract, and full text) according to a predetermined set of inclusion criteria, with consistency checks at each level to ensure criteria can be made operational. We will then extract detailed information relating to causal linkages between actions or impacts and measured outcomes, along with descriptive information about the articles and studies and enter data into an interactive systematic map database. We will visualise this database on an Evidence Atlas (an interactive, cartographic map) and identify knowledge gaps and clusters using Heat Maps (crosstabulations of important variables, such as mineral type and studied impacts). We will identify good research practices that may support researchers in selecting the best study designs where these are clear in the evidence base.
A B S T R A C T The Arctic remains of great interest for extractive industry development, despite fluctuating mineral and hydrocarbon prices, and the technological and political challenges of accessing these resources. The articles in this special section explore the realities of living close to extractive industries in the Arctic; the expectations surrounding extractive projects; the nature of local and distributed benefits; and the extent to which local knowledge is incorporated into public debates. In this introduction, we consider how an 'extractivist' logic can stifle other ways for local communities to imagine the future, contrasting this with local perspectives based on sustainability and coexistence with nature. Where industrial activity takes place, local involvement in shaping an industry's 'social licence to operate' offers a counterbalance to an 'extractivist' imperative, by focusing more on equitable benefit sharing and protection of local livelihoods and the environment. We conclude that rights holders and others directly affected by industry operations can use their own knowledge to ensure that decisions are sensitive to longer-term sustainability risks, and that alternative development options are adequately considered. An empowered local civil society also has an important role in ensuring extractive industry operations are environmentally sound and compatible with existing local livelihoods.
The Will to Drill. Revisiting Arctic Communities
This book has investigated current and future mining projects in several communities in three arctic countries: Norway, Greenland and (Northwest) Russia. Complex processes related to planning and operating arctic mines are taking place at a time when low-carbon transitions are at the top of the political agenda. While there's a need for minerals in the transition to renewable energy – which means that mining could be seen as a necessary activity for global sustainable development-mining operations also challenge environmental, social and economic sustainability where they take place. Local and national environmental activists have applied the term 'sacrifice zones' to describe particular areas heavily (and negatively) influenced by the consequences of excessive mining, including landscape encroachments and pollution of ecosystems. The " will to drill " in arctic communities, as described and analyzed in this book, is intriguing in that it reveals multiple ways of interpreting sustainability in relation to mining. In this final chapter we elaborate upon the cases described in the earlier chapters. We consider how particular narratives might explain the way that trade-offs are made between developments that are considered sustainable and notions of sacrifice at the local level. These explanations include ways that legitimacy is secured (or not secured) through the use of scientific knowledge and other knowledge traditions, and how such knowledge, if used successfully, can provide legitimacy for both supporters and opponents of mining. The chapter also identifies knowledge gaps and un-answered questions that point towards a future political and academic mining agenda – in the Arctic and for the extractive industries as a whole.
On thin ice – The Arctic commodity extraction frontier and environmental conflicts
Ecological Economics, 2022
This article contributes to the discussion on socio-environmental conflicts and extractive projects in the Arctic region. Fifty-three socio-environmental conflicts are analysed, using data from the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice. Based on descriptive statistics, regression and network analysis, the paper reveals that socioenvironmental conflicts predominantly overlap with Indigenous peoples' territories, from which a transversal opposition takes place, including Indigenous, non-Indigenous and international actors alike. The main commodities involved in these conflicts are related to fossil fuels, metals, and transport infrastructure. Associated large-scale extractive activities are bringing negative socio-environmental impacts at the expense of Indigenous groups, fishermen, and pastoralists, with loss of traditional knowledge and practices being significantly higher in Indigenous territories of high bio-cultural values associated to the environment. Our findings suggest that repression against activists is significantly more likely to occur in absence of preventive mobilization, and in Arctic countries with low rule of law. The chances to achieve the cancellation of a conflictive extractive project are significantly higher if dependency on natural resource rents in a country is low.
Environmental Evidence, 2019
Background: Since the 1960s, environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and recently, social impact assessments (SIAs), have been conducted during the planning stages of large development projects to identify potential adverse effects and propose mitigation measures to ameliorate these impacts. EIAs and SIAs should outline all possible positive and negative effects of a proposed action or development on ecological and social systems, respectively, including biodiversity, flora and fauna, abiotic components (such as air quality), human health, security and wellbeing. The work outlined herein aims to generate a list of all possible direct and indirect effects of metal mining (including gold, iron, copper, nickel, zinc, silver, molybdenum and lead) along with the impacts of mitigation measures proposed, that are mentioned in EIAs and SIAs in Arctic and boreal regions of the following countries/regions: Canada, Alaska (USA), Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Methods: We will conduct searches for environmental and social impact assessments in Swedish and English, and until theoretical saturation is reached (i.e. no new action-impact pathways are identified). We will perform searches of specialist websites (e.g. public repositories of environmental and social impact assessments) and Google Scholar. We will also contact relevant stakeholders (that have been identified in the wider 3MK project https ://osf.io/cvh3u /) and make a call for additional information. Eligibility screening will be conducted at two levels: title and full text. Meta-data will be extracted from eligible studies including type of mining activity, location of mine, type of impacts, and planned mitigation measures. Findings will be presented narratively, in a searchable relational database and in an evidence altas (a cartographic map). We will produce a framework of different mining impacts and related mitiga-tion measures from practitioners' knowledge reflected in EIAs and SIAs. This framework will further form the basis of a multiple knowledge base on mining impacts and mitigation measures generated from different knowledges including scientific, Indigenous, and practitioners' knowledge.
Understanding the Social and Economic Impacts of Mining Development in Inuit Communities
In this article, we examine whether the social and economic impacts of mines on Inuit communities have changed over time, based on Inuit experiences. After an overview of the past experiences of Inuit with the mining industry in Inuit Nunangat between 1957 and the early 2000s, we analyze the complex relation between Inuit communities in the vicinity of mines using recent fieldwork conducted in the Inuit communities located near two active mines in Inuit Nunangat: Salluit and Kangiqsujuaq (Nunavik) and the Raglan nickel mine and Qamani’tuaq (Baker Lake, Nunavut) and the Meadowbank gold mine. We argue that much work remains to be done to understand the economic and social impacts of mining development on Inuit communities.
The Polar Journal, 2014
This paper explores the effects of human disturbances associated with mine development in the Arctic on habitat and populations of reindeer/caribou (both Rangifer tarandus), and implications for reindeer husbandry and caribou hunting of indigenous Sami people in Sweden and First Nations in Canada. Through three case studies, we illustrate how Cree and Naskapi communities develop community-based geospatial information tools to collect field data on caribou migration and habitat changes; and how Sami reindeer herders use GIS to gather information about reindeer husbandry to better communicate impacts of mining on reindeer grazing areas. Findings indicate impacts on use of disturbed habitat by reindeer/caribou, on migration routes, and northern livelihoods. The three cases present novel methods for community-based environmental monitoring, with applications in hazards mapping, and denote the active engagement of indigenous communities in polar environmental assessments, generating community-oriented data for land use management decisions. They also illustrate how technology can lead to better communication and its role for empowerment.