Work package 4

Enhance community-based observing programs for participatory research and capacity-building [Months: 1-48]
NORDECO, NERSC, UiB, GEUS, NUIM

This work package is led by Finn Danielsen, NORDECO (lead) and Lisbeth Iversen, NERSC (co-lead). WP4 will build on stakeholder dialogues in WP 1 Task 1.2), and gaps in existing data delivery chains identified in WP2, and feed results into WP 5, 6, 7 and the roadmap to future Arctic Observing System developed in WP1. The sitebased activities on community-based observing in INTAROS will focus at two Arctic communities, located in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, and Disko Bay, Greenland. The communities have been chosen on the basis of the following criteria: (i) Communities where a process to develop community-based and citizen science observing programs is under way; (ii) Communities where good prior relations and mutual knowledge on participatory research and capacity-building already exists between the partners and with national, municipal and community level authorities and institutions, and where the project therefore has substantial potential for achieving quick results and constructive experiences of direct relevance for iAOS and with other open access global repositories as well as for local and national decision-making; (iii) Communities in countries that have some degree of policies enabling good governance and solving of issues of rights over land and resources, which is important for successful community observing efforts.

The two selected communities, one in Scandinavia (Longyearbyen, Svalbard), and one in Greenland (Disko Bay), (i) are high-risk regions in terms of climate change impacts as well as loss of biological diversity, (ii) can potentially benefit significantly from community-based observing programs in terms of enhancing resilience and adaptation to climate change through improved governance, and (iii) are characterized by economies in which institutional set-ups and available funding would benefit from efficient and low-cost observing programs at local levels. The activities of the present project will contribute significantly to moving forward community-based observing programs in these communities.