AFTER THE ICE Science at the new Arctic frontier nature.com/arcticfrontier

This summer, the University of the Arctic celebrated its tenth anniversary by asking whether the future of the north could be a green one.

This vision presents a challenge. Local communities want economic growth, but the easiest ways of achieving that goal are not necessarily sustainable. The north needs a route for development that isn't based solely on resource extraction. Academic collaborations can help to achieve this, by promoting knowledge-based development, and by answering the research questions needed to support sustainable development.

The Arctic is home to a vast wealth of resources. Covering about 7% of the globe (the United States, in comparison, covers 2%), the Arctic has a disproportionately large share of oil and gas (the US Geological Survey estimates that the Arctic holds 22% of the remaining undiscovered petroleum resources), and includes large swathes of rocks rich in minerals. Diamonds and nickel are plentiful; the waters churn with fish; and the region is bordered by the vast boreal forest belt, which holds one-third of global forests and perhaps 40% of economic forest resources.

Credit: ILLUSTRATION BY SOPHIE CASSON

Arctic states are promoting the development of natural resources — sometimes with the active support of local people, at other times against local wishes — to secure national economic growth, stable access to resources and job creation. Many indigenous people support development, with provisos. In early 2011, the Inuit Circumpolar Conference — the umbrella organization for Inuit peoples of the world — issued a declaration welcoming environmentally sound extraction of renewable and non-renewable resources as long as decisions are made locally and the economic benefit stays at home. A similar policy is already in effect in Greenland, actively promoting and welcoming oil and mineral exploration.

Unlike many of the world's conflict-ridden treasure troves — from the diamond-rich African nations to the Middle East's oil fields — the Arctic's resources are in the politically stable backyard of developed countries. But this does not eliminate concerns. Some non-Arctic states fear a future in which a sparsely populated north controls such a large portion of major resources that are in demand throughout the world.

Local peoples strongly object to attempts by outsiders to impose controls.

Development initiatives are often met with public protests — from Greenpeace as well as some members of the European Parliament, non-Arctic nations and non-governmental organizations. Local governments and peoples in turn strongly object to attempts by outsiders to impose controls. The European Parliament's 2008 resolution on Arctic governance, which, inspired by the Antarctic Treaty, called for an international treaty to protect the Arctic, combined with the 2009 ban on seal products among other items, was so provocative, that the European Union's request to be an observer on the Arctic Council — the eight nations with territory in the Arctic — has repeatedly been put on hold. Many conservation organizations, such as Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd, and animal-welfare organizations, receive little support across the Arctic, whereas those that strongly encourage local dialogue, including the WWF, are more welcomed.

Academic institutions are working with governments, companies and other institutions to boost economic growth in the Arctic. Cooperation between the private sector, the University of Oulu and local government in Oulu, Finland, fostered the growth of the Finnish mobile-phone company Nokia. Likewise, universities in Tromsø, Norway, and Fairbanks, Alaska, are drivers of knowledge-based development; as are two new institutions in northern Russia: the Northern Arctic Federal University in Arkhangelsk and the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk.

The University of the Arctic was started in 2001 as a network of collaborating higher-education institutions, supported by the member states of the Arctic Council and the Arctic indigenous peoples. Today it links 138 universities and colleges across Russia, North America and the Nordic countries, ranging from small institutions with 100 students to major research-intensive universities with tens of thousands of students. The network shares research initiatives and joint-study programmes, and helps to optimize use of limited resources. It is often argued that a critical mass of people and jobs in one location is necessary to create a viable economy in today's world. The University of the Arctic proves that a dispersed network can be just as successful.

Another important role of academia is as the place where research questions are formulated and tackled. The International Arctic Science Committee, the University of the Arctic and the International Arctic Social Sciences Association have agreed to jointly organize the third International Conference on Arctic Research Planning in 2015. This is a bottom-up, scientist-driven initiative carried out every ten years to identify major research questions important in the north. This time, we intend to include more contributions from local peoples. Their concerns are often different from those of academics: with climate change, for example, their focus is on building the knowledge necessary to deal with its effects, rather than on revealing more details of the processes behind it. Local peoples seek ways to merge traditional and academic knowledge to help develop insights that might, for example, be relevant to fishermen when fish migration patterns change, or to reindeer herders when grass and snow conditions alter, as well as replacing soot-producing fossil energy with renewable options.

It is only when the whole population of the Arctic has a say in developing knowledge in and about the region that we will be equipped with the tools to define our own future and decide at what pace our resources will be developed. It is crucial that academics, through facilities such as the University of the Arctic, become involved with those deliberations, so that the right scientific data are made available for policy-makers. Working together, we can strive towards a green economy in the north.