Co-management and the co-production of knowledge: Learning to adapt in Canada's Arctic

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Abstract

Co-management institutional arrangements have an important role in creating conditions for social learning and adaptation in a rapidly changing Arctic environment, although how that works in practice has not been clearly articulated. This paper draws on three co-management cases from the Canadian Arctic to examine the role of knowledge co-production as an institutional trigger or mechanism to enable learning and adapting. Experience with knowledge co-production across the three cases is variable but outcomes illustrate how co-management actors are learning to learn through uncertainty and environmental change, or learning to be adaptive. Policy implications of this analysis are highlighted and include the importance of a long-term commitment to institution building, an enabling policy environment to sustain difficult social processes associated with knowledge co-production, and the value of diverse modes of communication, deliberation and social interaction.

Highlights

► Co-management institutional arrangements in the Canadian Arctic bring together local and traditional knowledge with scientific knowledge. ► Knowledge co-production is the institutional trigger or mechanism to enable learning and adaptation to environmental change. ► Knowledge co-production within co-management is leading to positive social and ecological outcomes but building these processes takes time. ► Crises play a role in catalyzing knowledge co-production and instigating learning to deal with change. ► Enabling policy environments and commitment from higher order institutions is crucial to support knowledge co-production for learning and adaptation.

Introduction

Institutions have a central role in building the capacity of society to adapt to change, and in addressing inevitable socio-economic and ecological trade-offs among adaptation options (Gupta et al., 2010). Institutions can mediate individual and collective responses to change by providing incentives (or disincentives) to collaborate, facilitate the delivery of resources, and influence the vulnerability of different groups of social actors (Agrawal, 2008). Less clearly articulated in the climate and environmental change literature is the important role of institutions and institutional processes in conferring adaptiveness by creating the conditions for social learning, defined here as the iterative action, reflection, and deliberation of individuals and groups engaged in sharing experiences and ideas to resolve complex challenges collaboratively (Diduck et al., 2005, Keen et al., 2005).

Pelling et al. (2008: 868) suggest that “Little research has investigated the relationship between individual learning and the underlying communication pathways and institutional constraints through which adaptive capacity and action are negotiated within and between organisations”. There is a growing body of literature on co-management institutions and institutional arrangements in the Canadian Arctic that is promising in this regard. The co-management literature examines collaboration among actors and organizations at different levels, and shared learning through change, or adaptive co-management (Olsson et al., 2004, Armitage et al., 2009). Evidence suggests the process and linkage functions of co-management build adaptive capacity at multiple levels by fostering shared understanding and sense-making, increasing dialogue and interaction (e.g., among harvesters and decision makers in government agencies), distributing control and shared responsibility for actions, and improving conditions for individual and group learning (Berkes, 2009, Plummer, 2009).

In the Canadian Arctic, co-management institutional arrangements are moving beyond specific projects, single resources and individuals. These arrangements provide emerging networks, or horizontal and vertical linkages that give rise to new social practices and stakeholder interactions, and thus a greater ability to cope with variability and build longer-term adaptive responses to minimize risk and uncertainty. As Pelling et al. (2008) argue, “Seeing adaptation in terms of learning highlights both material adaptation and institutional modification as valid adaptive strategies. If learning itself is considered a kind of adaptive behaviour, then this opens up questions surrounding the process through which actors can learn to learn (or learn to be adaptive)”.

This paper analyses the role of co-management institutional arrangements in efforts to adapt to environmental change in the Canadian Arctic. In particular, we examine the processes or mechanisms that help bring together local and traditional knowledge with scientific knowledge to enable learning. First, we outline the linkages among knowledge, learning and adaptation in a co-management context. We draw next on three case studies of co-management in which learning processes have emerged over time to show how knowledge co-production acts as a trigger or mechanism for learning. Insights from these cases contribute to co-management and learning theory and are relevant for policy and institutional design. We conclude the paper with reflections on learning as adaptation, and indicate how experiences with knowledge co-production in Canada's Arctic may provide lessons for other contexts.

Section snippets

Knowledge co-production for learning and adaptation

Adaptive capacity is the ability of an individual or group (i.e., community) to cope with, prepare for, and/or adapt to disturbance and uncertain social-ecological conditions. The importance of learning through change and ability to experiment is implicit in this definition but has not been fully examined (Diduck, 2010). Adaptations are specific manifestations of adaptive capacity (Smit and Wandel, 2006, Fazey et al., 2010), and are defined in the climate change literature as the “…adjustment

Learning to adapt in three co-management cases in Canada's Arctic

Indigenous groups in Canada's Arctic (Inuit and Inuvialuit) have already experienced difficult socio-cultural, political, economic, and demographic changes in recent decades. Polar regions, including Canada's Arctic, are now also projected to experience significant temperature increases with implications for food security, transportation and human settlements (ACIA, 2005, IPCC, 2007). A seasonally ice-free Arctic is expected to catalyze additional resource development and further social and

Discussion and conclusion

Understanding how Arctic co-management institutions create the conditions for learning and build adaptive capacity for environmental change remains incomplete. This paper helps to address that gap and highlights how knowledge co-production in co-management institutional arrangements can serve as a trigger or mechanism for learning and adaptation (Table 5). Social learning catalyzed by increasingly meaningful knowledge co-production thus emerges as a key type of adaptation. In each of the cases,

Acknowledgements

We thank the people of Aklavik, Arctic Bay, Fort McPherson and Tuktoyaktuk for their willingness to participate in the research. Funding for this project was provided by ArcticNet, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Northern Scientific Training Program (INAC), and the IPY-CAVIAR Project. We acknowledge the constructive feedback from three anonymous reviewers. Special thanks to Pam Schaus for preparing the map.

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