Change in Arctic sea ice conditions is highly variable—that is, the changes in sea ice are different from year to year, and from place to place.  This variability is increasing and consequently, the challenge of making decisions in the changing Arctic is growing as well.  People living in Arctic coastal communities experience sea ice very differently than decision-makers in regional hubs or in Washington, D.C. or elsewhere. The ARC-NAV project aims to coproduce knowledge and make sense of several related processes, including: climate-related variability in sea ice conditions, how these changes are perceived and understood by Indigenous communities on both sides of the Bering Sea, how community ideas for dealing with changing sea ice conditions are integrated into decision-making (or not) by local, regional, national, and international governing bodies, and how well the policies and decisions made by those governing bodies address community concerns. 

Our transdisciplinary team includes researchers from Arizona State University, University of Northern Iowa, University of Alaska Fairbanks, McGill University, Columbia University, and Kamchatka Institute of Geography, partners from the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, Inuit Conference Chukotka, and Kamchatka Association of Indigenous Peoples, and community and regional partners from Rodovaya Obschina, Sireniki, Kamchatka and Chukotka, Russia and Native Village of Gambell, AK in the United States.

Our team's approach to coproduction is rooted in relationships to each other, in community, and to the land. We share stories, food, time, and knowledge.