Meaningful Engagement of Indigenous Peoples within an EIA
Utqiaġvik, Alaska * November 27-29, 2017 * Iñupiat Heritage Center
The Arctic Council’s Sustainable Development Working Group has launched a project led by Finland to identify and analyze good practices related to Environmental Impact Assessments. Regional seminars will occur in Finland, Canada and Alaska.
The Alaska workshop will focus on the following goals:
- To hear from Indigenous Peoples their experience with and perspectives of consultation
- To improve utilization of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) in EIAs
- To review Alaskan case studies of Indigenous consultation
- To discuss methods that move consultation to meaningful engagement
- To contribute lessons learned and good practices to the EIA analysis of the Sustainable Development Working Group (SDWG) of the Arctic Council
Participants come from across the North Slope, Alaska, Canada, Norway, and Finland. Each brings a local or indigenous perspective, or expertise related to environmental impact assessments or consultation. A series of listening sessions, case study presentations and small group discussions will result in the identification of what works and what we’ve learned from what doesn’t. Beyond consultation the group will consider how more meaningfully engage indigenous peoples in assessment processes.
Thank you to Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, North Slope Borough, North Slope Science Initiative, Institute of the North, Finland’s Ministry of the Environment, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips for their financial support.
