{"id":5885,"date":"2026-10-29T07:06:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T05:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogi.eoppimispalvelut.fi\/lumenlehti\/?p=5885"},"modified":"2026-10-29T07:30:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T05:30:05","slug":"building-resilience-in-the-arctic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogi.eoppimispalvelut.fi\/lumenlehti\/2026\/10\/29\/building-resilience-in-the-arctic\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Resilience in the Arctic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Download PDF<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lue suomeksi<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kalle Kankaanp\u00e4\u00e4, Ambassador for Arctic Affairs, Senior Arctic Official, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland         <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I grew up in Rovaniemi, used to ski to the school through a forest, and later served as a conscript in the Sodankyl\u00e4 garrison, 100 kilometers North from the Polar Circle. Like every family, we had food in the freezer for several weeks or even months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resilience of society is an integrated feature in Finland, especially in Lapland. For individuals and households, resilience in extraordinary situations is something very practical: having food to eat, heating at home, and functional transport connections, among many other things. Sudden power cuts or snowstorms blocking the roads do not normally cause severe difficulties for daily life in remote villages or other sparsely populated areas of Finland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finland\u2019s geographic location in the North has made Finns build up preparedness even before the concept of resilience was created. Resilience is Finland\u2019s stronghold, we are known for it, and visitors coming to Finland are eager to learn about our system. Today, current political uncertainty would require enhanced preparedness everywhere in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resilience consists of various layers of activity, where \u2013 according to the Finnish model \u2013 state level authorities, municipalities, private companies and civil society work together in a coordinated manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Security of supply is an element of resilience and of key importance for Finland. More than 95% of Finland\u2019s foreign trade is transported by ships. In this respect, Finland is an island, one could say. In case of disturbance in the Baltic Sea, no existing land transport connection could replace shipping in Finland\u2019s cargo flows. A railway connection from Finland to North Atlantic via Sweden and Norway would strengthen Finland\u2019s resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Emergency Supply Agency (NESA) coordinates civil preparedness and risk management in Finland. State level and municipal authorities have an obligation to ensure the continuity of critical operations in society, and business community is involved through contracts between authorities and enterprises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finland has been working with Norway and Sweden in security of supply for a long time. Since the COVID-19 pandemic and the Finnish Presidency in the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2021, security of supply became a part of Nordic cooperation. This is tangible especially in the North Calotte area, where Finland has land border with Sweden and Norway, and therefore access to land transport connections to these countries, who are close partners and neighbours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resilience is a set of parallel paths, in the best case not crossing or overlapping each other, but all leading in same direction. What Finland does nationally, with our neighbours, as a part of Nordic cooperation, within the EU framework, or in NATO\u2019s security planning, contribute to the same goal, which is keeping the society functional even in exceptional circumstances, whether the disturbances are natural or man-made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arctic Council works on resilience notably within the EPPR (Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response) working group, which contributes to prevention, preparedness, and response to environmental and other emergencies, accidents, and to search and rescue activities. Although the Arctic is a mosaic, and Arctic regions around the circumpolar area vary significantly, many of the challenges are similar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Access to remote villages in the Arctic can be very difficult. Getting help may take time, but on the other hand, the resilience of communities is often at high level. Also, one cannot overestimate the capacity of locals in supporting the authorities in emergency situations. As we have seen in Finland, seasoned reindeer herders are sometimes the only ones being able to guide search and rescue teams to find lost skiers in darkness and snowstorm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The European Union has recently updated its Arctic policy, and one aspect of the document is societal resilience and civil preparedness. The EU recognizes the significance of local communities in societal resilience. Investments in infrastructure, especially in connectivity, enhance economic development and well-being of humans, and lay basis for strengthened resilience and ability to respond to emergencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EU\u2019s Arctic policy highlights the indigenous and local knowledge in providing information on local circumstances and conditions. The S\u00e1mi Climate Council is an excellent example of this, combining the inherited indigenous knowledge of hundreds or thousands or years with up-to-date scientific meteorological data.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is of utmost importance for resilience that remote Arctic areas remain inhabited. Locals are the first ones to notice unusual activity, suspicious looking strangers or unfamiliar technical equipment. Strong societal resilience serves against hybrid activities. Connectivity and active use of social media for societies\u2019 own communication leave less room for foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate change is the biggest problem of our times, and it endangers good development achieved in resilience. Whatever the existing or upcoming difficulties are, climate change will worsen the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Emergency Supply Agency (NESA) and the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) have issued a report on how climate change will affect the security of supply in Finland. Globally, extreme weather conditions such as flooding and heatwaves endanger food production and affect industry and logistics negatively in sectors which are critical for resilience, such as pharmaceutical manufacturing, agricultural production and green transition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s world brings a lot of uncertainties to us: climate change, political instability, and disturbances in trade flows affect all of us, directly or indirectly. What is certain is that we need to pay more attention to resilience at all levels of society, local communities and households. This is especially important in the Arctic region, where long distances and harsh weather conditions may add extra dimension to the difficulties arising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo of Kalle Kankaanp\u00e4\u00e4 on the cover: UM\/Sanna Kaesmae<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finland\u2019s geographic location in the North has made Finns build up preparedness even before the concept of resilience was created. Resilience is Finland\u2019s stronghold, we are known for it, and visitors coming to Finland are eager to learn about our system. Today, current political uncertainty would require enhanced preparedness everywhere in Europe.<\/p>\n

It is of utmost importance for resilience that remote Arctic areas remain inhabited. Locals are the first ones to notice unusual activity, suspicious looking strangers or unfamiliar technical equipment. Strong societal resilience serves against hybrid activities.
Kolumni suomeksi<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1658,"featured_media":5756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[798270,798245,110189],"tags":[110194,798271],"class_list":["post-5885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-3-2026","category-inenglish","category-kolumni","tag-arktinen-alue","tag-resilienssi"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7X4tP-1wV","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogi.eoppimispalvelut.fi\/lumenlehti\/files\/2026\/10\/Kankaanpaa_column_Lumen_3_2026.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogi.eoppimispalvelut.fi\/lumenlehti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogi.eoppimispalvelut.fi\/lumenlehti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogi.eoppimispalvelut.fi\/lumenlehti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogi.eoppimispalvelut.fi\/lumenlehti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1658"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogi.eoppimispalvelut.fi\/lumenlehti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5885"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogi.eoppimispalvelut.fi\/lumenlehti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5917,"href":"https:\/\/blogi.eoppimispalvelut.fi\/lumenlehti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5885\/revisions\/5917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogi.eoppimispalvelut.fi\/lumenlehti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogi.eoppimispalvelut.fi\/lumenlehti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogi.eoppimispalvelut.fi\/lumenlehti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogi.eoppimispalvelut.fi\/lumenlehti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}