Connecting community-based monitoring to Arctic environmental decision-making and governance: A systematic scoping review of the literature

Abstract

Arctic community-based monitoring (CBM) programs have proliferated in recent decades. While the desire to influence decision-making is frequently listed as a motivation for CBM, there is a dearth of literature examining whether and how this goal is achieved in the Arctic. We draw on a systematic scoping literature review to examine the current state of the literature on Arctic CBM and environmental decision-making. Relevant articles (n = 27) were identified through inclusion/exclusion criteria (i.e., English language, peer reviewed, published between 1991 and 2021, and based on primary research) and analyzed using a data extraction questionnaire. We find that there is a growing focus on the relationship between Arctic CBM and decision-making in a range of decision contexts, most notably including co-management institutions. We note that less attention was paid to the potential effects of the often unequal, settler-colonial politics within the broader environmental governance system on the relationship between CBM and decision-making. Indigenous peoples and Indigenous Knowledge systems play a significant role within the included references, but less than half of the included references incorporated Indigenous governance concepts to a major extent. Based on our findings, we recommend future studies engage critical analysis of the influence of the governance and politics in the Arctic (1) on environmental decision-making; (2) the politics of knowledge; and (3) the use of digital technologies in the collection, storage, and mobilization of CBM data.

Keywords

• Arctic
• community-based monitoring
• environmental governance
• Indigenous governance
• Indigenous Knowledge
• systematic scoping review