Näätämö River Collaborative Management Project - Finland

The Arctic is affected severely by climate change impacts. Skolt Sámi indigenous peoples in Finland are at the forefront of these severe impacts. The Näätämö River Collaborative Management Project is combining indigenous peoples traditional knowledge with modern science to address climate change.

Fast facts

In the Skolt Sámi villages approximately 30 to 40 women have directly received benefits from this project and its activities. The number increases if the impacts of the project include the larger Sámi society in Finland and its positive impact, as a model, to the women as leaders.

The problem

Climate change is severely impacting the Arctic, pushing the Skolt Sámi indigenous people of Finland to the brink of extinction. Their way of life depends on if they can maintain a close relationship with the land and water and forest and tundra which is being threatened every day by seasonal shifts in wind patterns, delays in freeze-up, increases in summer temperatures, earlier spring thaws and changes in the patterns of snow and rainfall. The impacts of climate change rarely occur in isolation, but are instead combined with impacts from a variety of other sources, including industrial degradation, pollution, management decisions, extractive use, etc. One of the Skolt Sámi’s means of livelihood depends on Atlantic salmon returning to the Näätämö River for years to come.

The solution

The Skolt Sámi women of Northern Finland lead the Näätämö Collaborative Management Project. Skolt Sámi women are concerned about climate impacts on the Sámi society and the Näätämö River, which houses Atlantic salmon. Using their traditional knowledge, women document the weather, water levels, salmon health and stocks, land use and occupancy and biodiversity change to be reviewed monthly with researchers. Data sets are compared with the researchers and the combined information provides an up to date situation. These collaborative management measurements with state and international partners are aimed at preserving the ecological conditions and non-industrial land uses in and around the watershed. The project also involves men who physically harvest predator fish to limit the impact on the salmon smolts and their young.

Helping the planet

The Näätämö Collaborative Management Project is the first of its kind in Finland. Sámi people have never before been in direct discussions and partnerships regarding their lands, waters and impact of climate change to such territories before. Many steps of the plan include decreasing the impact of eutrophication (an excess of nutrients in the water, frequently due to runoff, which is causing dense growth of plant life and death of animal life from lack of oxygen) to the Näätämö watershed, land use plans, embracing Skolt Sámi culture and knowledge, and management and restoration options that physically support the Sámi women directly involved in the project.

Helping people

The women involved, in addition to leading the land-based activities are creating digital maps of land use and occupancy, climate impacts and biodiversity changes along the watershed. The project has worked successfully for about four years and it provides young Sámi women and girls new models of leadership and pride, to see how the current generation of women is leading pilot-style innovative efforts to restore habitats and culture and language. As the Skolt Sámi number only about 600 and their language is extremely endangered, such positive steps to highlight the role and scope of leadership by women are essential to providing Skolt Sámi women a better future.

Scaling Up

This activity can be easily scaled up to include all Sámi watersheds in Finland, and also watersheds in Siberia, Norway and Sweden. It has already triggered a sister project in the Ponoi River watershed in Murmansk, Russia building on similar principles, and knowledge transfers have taken place between the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation from Ontario, Canada, as well as with the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in Canada.