HSD: Salmon Harvests in Arctic Communities: Local Institutions, Risk, and Resilience

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Survival in many rural locales around the world depends upon the availability of subsistence resources. The rules and norms of local institutions that facilitate effective use of these resources are subject to unprecedented challenges. This interdisciplinary research project will study the ability of these local institutions to withstand rapid environmental and social change. Because these changes are particularly acute in the Arctic, this research will study the effects in two salmon-dependent regions on opposite sides of the Bering Sea -- southwestern Alaska and the Russian Far East. These regions have sharp distinctions in terms of their social, political, and economic histories, but they share similar Yup'ik ethnic backgrounds. The research team of two economists and an anthropologist who conduct field research in two related phases. In the first phase, ethnographic methods will be used to document local institutions within the Kuskokwim region of Alaska and the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of Russia. The second phase will use the tools of experimental economics to test how these institutions perform, particularly how they adapt to greater risk and uncertainty. In carrying out this project, the investigators will provide a better understanding of the resilience of Arctic resource systems to increased uncertainty and shocks. Global climate change is already having dramatic impacts on communities in the study region as well as the Arctic as a whole. Describing and documenting the role of local institutions in enhancing resilience can inform policy options that are applicable to other Arctic social-ecological systems undergoing similar rapid and extreme changes. In addition to providing broader understanding of the ability of communities that depend upon subsistence hunting and gathering to adapt to change, this research project will provide benefits to the communities participating in the research in a number of ways. This project will provide meaningful opportunities for undergraduate participation, particularly indigenous students from the communities in the study area. Student research projects will be designed jointly with tribal councils. By providing training to local students, this project will help improve education and develop the human capital in these regions. The investigators will collaborate closely with village leaders in all communities to maximize the relevance of the study the challenges these people face. Village leaders in both countries have stated that their involvement could provide their people a greater voice in affecting regional policies regarding subsistence harvests. To help facilitate this, after the research is completed, the research team will return to the communities to report their findings. An award resulting from the FY 2007 NSF-wide competition on Human and Social Dynamics (HSD) supports this project. All NSF directorates and offices are involved in the coordinated management of the HSD competition and the portfolio of HSD awards.