Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic: Inuit, Saami and the Indigenous Peoples of Chukotka (SLICA)

RCTIC SCIENTISTS wrote, in the 1998 Opportunities in Arctic Research: Final Report for the U.S. National Science Foundation, "For the last few decades the scientific community has expressed concern about the vulnerability of the Arctic and its residents to environmental, social, and economic changes…(Recent) research results show that arctic climate and ecosystems are indeed changing substantially with impacts on people living in and outside the Arctic." The scientists listed as the first key question, "How are the rapid social, political, economic and environmental changes occurring in the Arctic today affecting the people there?" (ARCUS, 1998:3). Delegates to the 1998 Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC) passed a resolution supporting an international survey of living conditions in the Arctic. The resolution noted, "Rapid social change characterises all indigenous peoples of the Arctic…There is a need to document and compare the present state of living conditions and the development among the indigenous peoples of the Arctic."