Women and Natural Resource Management in the Rural North Arctic Council Sustainable Development Working Group 2004-2006 By Lindis Sloan (ed) Joanna Kafarowski Anna Heilmann Anna Karlsdóttir Bente Aasjord Maria Udén May-Britt Öhman Nandita Singh Sanna Ojalammi Women and Natural Resource Management in the Rural North Arctic Council Sustainable Development Working Group 2004-2006 By Lindis Sloan (ed) Joanna Kafarowski Anna Heilmann Anna Karlsdóttir Bente Aasjord Maria Udén May-Britt Öhman Nandita Singh Sanna Ojalammi Published by Forlaget Nora Kvinneuniversitetet Nord N-8286 Nordfold Layout: Pure Line Design, Nordfold. www.PureLine.Norge.cc Cover photo: International Steering Committee member Lene Kielsen Holm on the lulissat ice fjord, June 2006. Photo: Anna Heilmann. ISBN: 82-92038-02 Contents Preface . 7 Concluding remarks from the project work group and international steering committee . 9 A human security perspective . 10 Women and Natural Resource Management in the Rural North . 12 Project summaries . 17 Canada . 19 Greenland . 37 Iceland . 73 Norway . 97 Sweden . 129 Finland . 155 5 6 Preface “Women and Natural Resource Management “Management of natural, including living, in the Rural North” is a continuation of the resources”. Analysing natural resource-based 2003-2004 Arctic Council SDWG project industries in the Arctic in terms of women’s “Women’s participation in decision-making participation in these sectors covers both processes in Arctic fisheries resource manage- these points. ment”, which presented its report to the Developing prosperous and resilient local Ministers in Reykjavik. communities depends on achieving social sustainability, including economic activities The “Women and Natural Resource in the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. Management in the Rural North” project gives A common feature in the rural North is that an account of women’s relationship with women tend to have higher levels of education several resource-based industries and industrial than men, and may also find it harder to developments in the Arctic Region, with field- find challenging work in the communities work reports from Canada, Greenland, Iceland, they wish to reside. Increasing the awareness Norway, Sweden amd Finland. The national of the very male-dominated resource-based projects include such diverse topics as the industries of the fact that they may be missing Canadian Hunters and Trappers organisati- out on possible well-qualified local employees ons, Greenlandic mines, fisheries and the may serve to increase the number of local plans for a new aluminium plant in Iceland, residents (men and women) employed by the Norwegian oil and gas developments in these industries. Adopting measures to the Barents Sea, hydropower in Sweden, and encourage local residents to seek qualifications Finnish forestry. Women directly involved for such positions also seems to be a little in the industries are interviewed, as are considered possibility. women living in areas where daily life is The management of natural resources, affected by the developments. including living resources, is a task well suited to Arctic residents, women and men. The Sustainable Development Framework Closeness to the resources and an under- Document, adopted by the 2002 Barrow standing of the local conditions based on Ministerial meeting, identifies six special proximity through generations, when added importance subject areas under the heading to understanding brought by training and of sustainable development, two of which access to positions of power, can give a resource are “Sustainable economic activities and management system that is sustainable in increasing community prosperity” and the that stakeholders are actively involved. October 2006 Lindis Sloan Project Co-ordinator 7 Concluding remarks from the project work group and international steering committee Arctic, natural resource-based industries involve the use of scarce natural resources of high economic and strategic importance. Traditionally, women’s roles have tended to be analysed in terms of family or local society. We hereby argue that women’s participation in resource-based industries should be analysed in their regional, national and geopolitical contexts, taking into account the security dimension. Finally we want to suggest that the Sutainable Development Working Group (SDWG) of the Arctic Council should request that all its future projects be required to integrate and demon- strate gender-based analysis in its project proposals and that each partner demonstrate how this will be accomplished. SELECTED RECOMMENDATIONS: • Decision-makers, administrators and companies engaged in natural resource- based industries in the North should take note of their own stated aims to achieve gender equality, and increase their efforts to achieve gender equality in their activities. • This includes evaluating stated policies and legal measurements, taking into account how recruitment practices, company cultures, local culture and educational strategies combine to affect these efforts. •Gender-disaggregated and comparable statistics should be compiled, reflecting employment, decision-making and effects on local communities. These statistics should be comprehensive and reflect development over time. Such a statistics base will also serve to emphasise the contributions Arctic residents, women and men, are making to the economy. 9 A human security perspective – by Gunhild Hoogensen Gender, Natural Resources and the North investigations have been far more explicit in – The traditional language of security has exposing the power relations between the been actively employed in the North for marginalized and the dominant. Thus, security decades. Security in the North has focused from below is not merely an examination of on issues of power, resource exploitation what security needs are expressed at the and territory. Global climate change is already individual level, but it is also an examination altering the Northern landscape, and allowing of how the insecurities from below are often for increased transport and greater access to a result of the maintenance of security from untapped resources, particularly fossil fuels above. Elite and/or state security creates and (which in turn has significant and large perpetuates insecurities on the margins. impacts on the fisheries, agriculture, reindeer Security is linked to power relations, and herding, etc). Moreover, the burning of this feminist insights expose the power relations fuel to satisfy global energy demands, will between above and below, between dominant further accelerate climate change. Consequently, and non-dominant. oil and gas plays an increasing role in security These power relations of dominance and debates by both increasing sought-after non-dominance may or may not lead to revenues for Arctic states, and also providing direct, violent conflict, but they do point to for a reduced dependency upon Middle recurring vulnerabilities. The relations between Eastern sources. Such traditional security dominance and non-dominance are not interests, however, do not always meet the meant as reified categories, but as fluid security needs of people living in Northern relations that are dependent upon one another. communities. As such, a human security A gender informed human security perspective can shed light on the security perspective identifies securities of non- needs of those who are usually not considered dominance by allowing us to look inside, when assessing the nature of security in the through, and beyond the state to see relation- North. ships of dominance and non-dominance. A Rooted at the level of the individual, human securities analysis through positions of non- security claims to represent securities from dominance reveals the relationships among the bottom-up. In other words, human security people, and through these relationships, to ideally represents those securities that are not who is most vulnerable in which context. heard at the dominant or state/elite level Local insecurities developed through relations through traditional security. It allows for a of dominance and non-dominance can and recognition of marginalized and “invisible” do spill over into the international realm, groups – those who do not have the power crossing borders, resisting and rejecting the to make their voices heard. claims of the state that these insecurities are Making the marginalized visible and state business. recognizing “security from below” has been One additional and important feature of the focus of gender international relations this approach also needs to be mentioned. studies. By endeavouring to understand In addition to giving space to marginalized, security from the position of the individual, unheard voices, a gender-based human human security inevitably opens up the security approach also recognizes the definition of security to a variety of perspectives importance of “positive security” – the ability from below. Feminist approaches argue for a individuals and communities have to produce reconceptualization of security based on the and maintain their own security. As such, in/securities of civilian society, the marginalized, the way to understand human security in and the depoliticised. In addition, feminist the North is: human security is achieved 10 when individuals and communities have the or not indigenous – when are indigenous freedom to identify risks and threats to their men “good enough” to assume leadership well-being and the capacity to determine