Skolt Sámi and Atlantic Salmon Collaborative Management of Näätämö Watershed, Finland as a Case of Indigenous Evaluation and Knowledge in the Eurasian Arctic

Abstract

Indigenous evaluation as a process, method, and paradigm has developed over the past few years in those global areas, where Indigenous communities and scholars have been able to secure rights and achieve overall recognition of their knowledge systems. In the Eurasian North, the Indigenous knowledge systems and evaluation are actively being contested and suppressed. Our chapter, cowritten by Sámi fishermen and cultural leaders, juxtaposes the relevance of the academic and global discussions of “Indigenous evaluation” with the first collaborative management initiative of Finland. It involves the Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar). By reviewing critically the ongoing relationships and fisheries the Skolt Sámi have with their river and fish, an equally critical view is employed toward the emerging Indigenous evaluation discourses and their applicability and transferability from international arenas into on‐the‐ground management and defense initiatives in the context of regime‐shifting Arctic. Such a view identifies the key aspects of relevance from Indigenous evaluation. It also dissects the academic rhetoric and related relevant measures that can influence land use, policy, and development of Indigenous governance in the context of rapid changes.

Ethnoichthyology of freshwater fish in Europe: a review of vanishing traditional fisheries and their cultural significance in changing landscapes from the later medieval period with a focus on northern Europe

“…The Skolt Sami in the borderland between Russia and Finland were mainly fishers before the Second World War. Like other fishing Sami, they migrated along rivers to their camp sites following the fishing season and although this practice has declined, many Skolt Sami are still fishermen [ 74 ]. Although we have rich ethnographical and linguistic data from the Sami, ethnoichthyological aspects need further research [ 75 ].…”

Indigenous Women’s Voices

“…Being with the land is being with the men. I've brought this UN university project (Arctic Council 2016;Mustonen 2013;Mustonen & Feodoroff 2018) -local observations of climate change -to our community, due to my small asset of academic connections, but also constantly hearing short stories, sentences from my relatives about the thunder storm in the middle of winter, strangely behaving ice, new winds rising in the darkest time of the year when it should be still. Not being a reindeer herder, a hunter or a fi sher myself but a theater director of all trades, it is the men, and my father, that I go to ask for permission and guidance for the work I have started without having any expertise for it, only the need for acting.…”

The Rights of Nature: An Emerging Transformation Opportunity for Evaluation

“…Inclusive spaces are crucial as we navigate intertwined social and environmental justice challenges ( Pickering & Persson, 2019 ). Participatory evaluation procedures create space for deliberation for diff erent mental models of nature and human -nature relationships that infl uence observations about problems, expectations for the future, and how to proceed in development contexts (e.g., Mustonen et al, 2018). Th e emerging institutionalization of the Rights of Nature off ers an opportunity to contemplate how evaluators might ensure that nonhuman voices are included and appropriately represented.…”