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they have also contributed to preservation of biodiversity. Even though reindeer herders are not in principle against economic development, there is a growing concern regarding the needs to balance such activity with the traditional livelihoods of Arctic Indigenous Peoples and biodiversity.

The challenge of preserving Arctic biodiversity and the sustainability of the nature-based livelihoods of Arctic Indigenous Peoples is also a knowledge challenge. Science is, of course, important in this context, but not exclusively. There is also a need to include and involve the knowledge of reindeer herding peoples in the management of the Arctic. This represents another kind of knowledge, still based on

observation and testing, a knowledge that is developed, organized, and transmitted differently from “western scientific knowledge”. This kind of knowledge is experience-based, closely linked to the specific context it originates from. At the same time it represents knowledge probably older than western science itself, developed through generations of reindeer peoples’ observations and living in the north. This knowledge needs also to be respected, used, and implemented in managing the Arctic and Arctic biodiversity. This could happen through integration of traditional knowledge into science in a real partnership of co-production of knowledge, and through implementing co-management regimes for the Arctic areas.

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