Connecting Community-Based Monitoring to environmental governance in the Arctic: A systematic scoping review of the literature

Abstract

Arctic Community-Based Monitoring (CBM) programs occur within complex governance landscapes. Indigenous rightsholders are increasingly significant political actors and where environmental and political injustices related to climate change and resource development motivate monitoring. We draw on a systematic scoping literature review to examine the current state of the literature on Arctic CBM and environmental governance. Relevant articles (n=27) were identified through inclusion/exclusion criteria (i.e., English language, peer reviewed, published between 1991 and 2021, 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 governance at a variety of scales and in a range of environmental systems. Importantly, Indigenous peoples play a significant role within this literature in that most included articles discussed Indigenous Knowledge. However, less than half of the articles discussed Indigenous peoples as rightsholders with significant governance roles. Based on our findings we recommend future studies engage critical analysis of the influence of the, often unequal, 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.