ABSTRACT
While the concept of food security in the Arctic includes a very broad spectrum of issues and dimensions, the current chapter looks more closely at how the Arctic food crisis system works. The chapter considers three possible crisis scenarios: radiological fallout and contamination, animal disease epidemics, and the impact of oil spills on fisheries. Focusing mostly on the European High North and especially on Finland, the research question in this chapter asks whether crisis management systems are currently in place that could handle these types of crises. Utilising the crisis management cycle, the chapter reviews in some detail issues such as risk assessment, prevention, preparedness, response, recovery, and post-crisis learning. It concludes that sectorial-level crisis management systems are rather well developed. However, a more holistic perspective is missing. This is necessary to better understand the interdependencies among different hierarchical levels (subnational, national, transboundary, and international) as well as among different sectors and dimensions (health, social, economic, environmental, political, etc.). All these relationships would be crucial in the above crisis scenarios.
