This week started for me in a very
Arctic way and I don't mean the cold winds and snow which have reached also
Helsinki during the last weekend. On Monday I participated in the meeting of the Advisory Committee of Arctic Region
in the House of Estates situated in the heart of Helsinki. The main task of the
members of Committee appointed by Finland's Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen is to
follow, comment, evaluate and support the purposes and measures addressed in
Finland's Arctic Strategy 2013. The Committee contains three kinds of
delegates:
1) officials of all ministries, 2)
representatives of private business, civic organizations and northern
municipalities, 3) and ten specialists working at universities and research
centers. I suppose that I had a double role; as a professor and specialist of
Arctic social, cultural and historical issues, and as a Lapland-born citizen
who is living in Helsinki and working at the University of Eastern Finland. At
least I have a nationwide view to the issues in question.
On Tuesday I continued my Arctic path
and participated in the meeting of the
Arctic Society of Finland which has been established last year. That
meeting took place in the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) in
Helsinki. The most exciting moment of the session was the publication of the
logo of our Society: The logo contains a symbolic blue A and black Polar Circle
around it. In addition we heard two presentations; the Arctic Ambassador of
Finland Hannu Halinen opened the
main lines of Finland's new Arctic Strategy 2013. He stressed that we do have
many challenges and much work to do before we will achieve the goals which
Finnish Government (with the strong support of the President) has set to
authorities, reference groups and researchers.
After Halinen's presentation, PhD Harri Mikkola from the FIIA gave a
slightly cynic view on the recent position of Finland in the global Arctic
playground. Because we are not a shore state of the Arctic Ocean, our fate will
be to catch only tiny crumbs from the table set of The Bigs, that is to say,
the most aggressive Norway, new energy sources searching Russia and Arctic
Canada. Maybe, after 20-30 years, Finland has a good position as a connector -
but we will get this niche possibility only if we are working in a very
proactive way.
From my expert point of view, I would
say that our present strategies and plans dealing with the Northern/Arctic
regions have, so far, not emphasized enough - on the changing living conditions
and wellbeing of local peoples in the North facing global and increasing
demands for natural resources. It is also unclear to regional actors how they
will benefit from all these new efforts and developments. If the huge multinational companies which are
already present in Lapland (mines), strengthen and broaden their activity, will
Lappish peoples - but also Finland as a state - loose the possibility to define
what is good for us and what is undesirable for our unique environment, and our
cultural and historical values as well.
So, let's be more active and take apart
discussions on the European and Finnish Arctic before it is not too late!
See the Finland's Arctic Strategy and
discussions: www.arcticfinland.fi
Join to the Arctic Society of Finland
here: www.arktinenseura.yhdistysavain.fi