Collaboration to secure relevance and quality in a study of EIA practise in extractive industries in the Arctic

This chapter  introduces stakeholder participation in a research project  on  the environmental assessment of  offshore  carbon activities. The project combines traditional research  methods, namely document analysis and interviews and collaborative methods in the form of  local stakeholder involvement in workshops. The collaborative  methods helped to secure the relevance of the analysis and recommendations and  created room for mutual exchange and learning,  thus enabling local knowledge to inform the project. Collaborative methods also proved valuable in anchoring results locally and supporting a debate on the topics  raised. The use of  collaborative  methods also offers challenges in terms of picking the “right” participants, creating a safe space for collaboration and engaging participants/making them willing to spend precious time. While these challenges are universal for collaborative methods, this chapter discusses their specific manifestation in the context of Greenland and the Arctic.