Arctic Auditories: Hydrospheres in the High North. Elizabeth Barron is participating as a work package leader in Arctic Auditories (AA), led by Katrin Losleben at University of Tromsø. This project uses participatory feminist methodologies to examine the soundscapes of the Arctic, and how they are changing because of climate change.

Funded by NORHED II - Norwegian Agency for Development Aid and International Cooperation (NORAD), € 2 000 K.

Creating a political and social climate for climate change project is headed by Lujala. It seeks to improve policymaking in addressing climate related displacement at the local, national and international levels. The project creates global and national indexes to assess resettlement capacity, and through surveys and experiments in Bangladesh and Ethiopia, it analyzes how attitudes towards the displaced form and evolve. The project engages researchers in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Norway, Finland, and the US.

EPICC- Environmental Policy Instruments across Commodity Chains: Multilevel Governance for Biodiversity-Climate in Brazil, Colombia, and Indonesia co-coordinated by Diana Vela Almeida. EPICC applies a polycentric governance and environmental justice approach to investigate four selected commodity chains (cattle, palm oil, gold and tin) that ‘feed’ the European market. EPICC seeks to map the governance and power links that connect the multiple territories of production and transformation and their plural legal systems with the European regulatory, political and socio-economic space. By doing so, EPICC identifies and analyses leverage points (chokeholds) and blind spots, and sheds light on the micro and macro conditions that may facilitate the mitigation of environmental and social impacts that occur at the selected locations of production (in Brazil, Colombia and Indonesia).

Transparency, identity, and governance of high-value natural resources (TIGRe) project that is led by Lujala examines how the management of valuable natural resources, such as oil and gold, can be improved through increased transparency and citizen engagement in developing countries. It uses qualitative fieldwork, surveys, and field experiments, and engages researhers in Indonesia, Ghana, Finland, Norway, Canada, and the UK.

This project is led by Barron, with Elaina Weber. Gathering wild plants and fungi provides food, income and nutritional diversity for an estimated 1 in 5 people around the world, in particular women, children, and others in vulnerable situations. Results of surveys conducted in Europe, North America, and the United Kingdom over the last 20 years suggest high rates of participation in gathering by individuals and households. In Norway it is well known that collecting wild foods is a popular activity through amateur societies, clubs, and as part of traditional family practice. In addition to these biophysical, material and cultural elements, at the local level gathering wild plants and fungi provides a key way in which people interact with and “know nature”, which in turn influences their motivations and perspectives on nature conservation and environmental policy. At the international level Norway participates in biodiversity governance through active membership in such platforms as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), and is positioning itself to be a global leader in biodiversity conservation and sustainability. This research project will examine the intersection of these domestic-facing practices and the international-facing science-policy agendas of the Norwegian government at national and international levels. Identifying synergies and tensions across scales can uncover potential issues for environmental management and the uptake of biodiversity agendas by local and regional communities. The analysis will contribute to theory building on emplaced sustainability and the inclusion of diverse knowledge and value systems in biodiversity governance.