Arctic Games
Interactive development and application of a transdisciplinary framework for sustainable governance options of Arctic natural resources.
Tore Söderqvist and Gerda Kinell, Enveco Environmental Economics Consultancy Ltd., Stockholm.
Stakeholder dispute in the Arctic is expected to increase as a result of the growing pressure to exploit a range of natural resources, due to their increasing accessibility. The challenge is to find compromises that are compatible with sustainable development. In the project Arctic Games, an interdisciplinary framework is being developed that combines game theory, theories on governance of natural resources, and environmental economics for the purpose of evaluating governance options for the Arctic’s future. This social science combination allows the identification of players, strategies and payoffs to take into account present and changed institutional conditions and also the economic values of natural resources including ecosystem services in the Arctic.
The framework is developed through an application to natural resources issues in the Lofoten-Barents sea area, for which several futures are formulated and analyzed. One of the futures is focusing on issues related to oil exploration and extraction. Besides providing new knowledge to decision-makers and stakeholders such as oil industry and fisheries, the project is also aiming at delivering a framework that is useful for researchers and other actors to apply for finding sustainable governance options.
This international project is also strengthening Swedish Arctic research through the participation of doctoral students and researchers at Swedish universities.
Project partners
- All project team members at a field trip to the project’s case study site of Lofoten on 8-9 March 2012. From left to right: Yulia Khaleeva, Merete Kvamme Fabritius, Maria Noring, Linus Hasselström, Frida Franzén, Cecilia Håkansson, Scott Cole, Åsa Soutukorva, Tore Söderqvist, Audun Sandberg, Eric Sjöberg, Sergei Izmalkov and Eirik Mikkelsen. Photo: Boris Iomdin.
Arctic Games is being carried out as a collaborative effort among the following partners:
- - Enveco Environmental Economics Consultancy Ltd. (www.enveco.se), Stockholm (Enveco is the project’s contractor with Mistra)
- - Centre for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR) at the New Economic School (www.cefir.ru), Moscow
- - Division of Environmental Strategies Research at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) (http://www.kth.se/en/abe/inst/som/avdelningar/fms), Stockholm
- - EnviroEconomics Sweden (www.eesweden.com), Umeå
- - Northern Research Institute (NORUT) (www.norut.no), Tromsø
- - Department of Economics at Stockholm University (www.ne.su.se), Stockholm
- - University of Nordland (www.uin.no), Bodø.
E-mail: ,
Documents
Project plan (pdf)
Deliverable #1: Annual report for 2011 (pdf)
Deliverable #2: Lofoten Tourism Rapport (pdf)
Deliverable #3: Value of Ecosystem Services at Risk from Oil Spills (pdf)