CAP-SHARE Project Event in Finland: 5th-9th of May 2025

The CAP-SHARE team will be meeting in Rovaniemi and Sodankylä, Finland, from the 5th to the 9th of May. This week of conference, events and workshops is hosted by the Finnish CAP-SHARE team led by Professor Pigga Keskitalo, the CAP-SHARE project leader at the University of Lapland, Faculty of Education, and PhD Rauni Äärelä-Vihriälä, the CAP-SHARE project manager at the University of Lapland, Faculty of Education.

The first part of the week will be in Rovaniemi for the Arctic Spirit conference, starting with a CAP-SHARE session around the theme of “Building Future Security Together: Transdisciplinary and Intergenerational Capacity Sharing for Community Development in the Arctic”. This session will be a place to open dialogue and engage youth, policymakers, and researchers to explore how transdisciplinary and intergenerational collaboration can address critical challenges in Arctic communities. With a special focus on youth voices, the session provides a platform for intergenerational dialogue and actionable solutions to secure the future of Arctic regions.
The session will consist of two keynote presentations followed by a youth-led panel discussion.

Keynotes:

• Niila-Juhán Valkeapää, The Sámi Youth Council, Sámi Parliament, Finland: Perspectives of Sámi youth on cultural survival, identity continuity, and future building in a changing Arctic reality
• Pauli Taulavuori and Aaron Yliniemi, Muonio high school/general upper secondary school: The Boys of Frost from Lapland

Panellists:

• Aaron Yliniemi, Muonio high school/general upper secondary school, Finland
• Freyja Friðriksdóttir, Youth representative, Húnaklúbburrinn youth organization, Iceland
• Jenny Turton, Arctic Frontiers, Norway
• Lauri Kultima, Sodankylä High school/ general upper secondary school, Finland
• Niila-Juhán Valkeapää, The Sámi Youth Council, Sámi Parliament, Finland
• Pauli Taulavuori, Muonio high school/general upper secondary school, Finland
• Rauni Äärelä-Vihriälä, University of Lapland, Finland
• Viljajohanna Salonen, Sodankylä High school/ general upper secondary school, Finland

For more information about the Arctic Spirit session, contact the session conveners:
Rauni Äärelä-Vihriälä, [email protected]
Cécile Chauvat, [email protected]

After the conference, the team will travel north to Sodankylä municipality, one of CAP-SHARE’s associated partners. There, a workshop will be held in collaboration with Tähtikunnan School, where the team will organize activities with the students around the themes of arctic biodiversity and mapping for local climate scenarios. This is the first step in the project’s second phase: now that the online international workshops are concluded, CAP-SHARE is moving to face-to-face pilot activities in a more local setting, bringing all the work done so far to life. Finally, on the last day, CAP-SHARE will visit Tähtelä Observatorium in Sodankylä. The visit will tie to the theme of the importance of mapping for biodiversity and capacity sharing. Learn more about the Tähtelä Observatorium here.