First published on 09/03/2016, and last updated on 01/22/2018
Written by Tero and Kaisu Mustonen, Snowchange Cooperative, 2016
Life in the Cyclic World has been in the making for a decade. It is based on the collected, analyzed and assessed traditional ecological knowledge of Indigenous Arctic Communities, compiled to support the Arctic Biodiversity Assessment of the Arctic Council. Between 2012 and 2016, the authors and the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF), one of the Council’s working groups, exchanged drafts and amended versions with the hope of releasing this document as a Compendium. However, this plan did not materialize, and Snowchange, an ICCA Consortium member, is now publishing these materials independently.
A large part of the present volume is derived from the Snowchange oral history archival materials of the Indigenous communities in Sweden, Finland and Russia. All the material has been published before in scientific monographs, articles, community reports, books and other publicly available materials. All the oral histories and Snowchange traditional materials used in the publication have been discussed with the representatives of the Indigenous communities and organisations, a process that has taken a decade. The principles of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent – FPIC have been followed to the fullest whenever possible. Materials have been included from the oral history archives of the Snowchange Cooperative and a literature review. The main focus of the materials is from the years 1999-2010.