SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES in the Arctic

Professor Chris Southcott believes the development of natural resources in the circumpolar north can be done in a way that will ensure the long-term sustainability of the communities and surrounding environment.

Raised in Northern Canada, Dr. Chris Southcott has spent the past 25 years involved in community-based research. In 2006 he was awarded a major grant involving 35 researchers and 20 community partners to examine ways the community-based organizations in Northern Canada could better ensure sustainable development in the region. This led to the establishment of the Social Economy Research Network for Northern Canada, for which he currently serves as Chair and Research Director.

This year, Canada’s Minister of State (Science and Technology) announced that Chris Southcott, together with a network of researchers from around the world, had been granted $2.5M from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to find new ways to ensure that a larger share of the benefits of resource development stays in the North. The project is called Resources and Sustainable Development in the Arctic (ReSDA).

"Our research projects focus on sustainable regions, sustainable communities, sustainable cultures, and sustainable environments," says Southcott. "They will measure and analyze the impacts of resource development and find ways of assisting Arctic communities to deal with these impacts through a range of new and innovative development and policy tools."

As the Principal Investigator, Chris Southcott will lead scores of researchers from eighteen Canadian universities as well as universities in Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States.

"The potential exists for finding new ways of developing resources that will ensure greater benefits for and build capacity in these northern communities. Rather than being something that threatens their vitality, the development of natural resources can be done in a way that will ensure the long-term sustainability of northern communities and the surrounding environment."

MAKE A DIFFERENCE - click to donate