The Arctic region is warming several times faster than the rest of the planet, imperiling Arctic communities as sea ice and permafrost degrade, coastlines erode, Arctic storms intensify, and the seasonal patterns of animals and plants rapidly shift. Amidst these changes, there is increasing pressure for resource extraction, including critical minerals for global transitions to low-carbon economies. Meanwhile, new geopolitical tensions have put cooperative activities with Russia on hold, including meetings of the Arctic Council – a trusted platform for science and policy cooperation between Arctic Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples for over 25 years. Arctic lands and waters have been stewarded for countless generations by diverse Arctic Indigenous Peoples. To reach sustainable, peaceful solutions to the parallel challenges facing the Arctic today, the co-development of knowledge and policy with Arctic Indigenous communities must be at the heart of future Arctic climate and security cooperation.

In partnership with Indigenous communities, Dr. Kutz initiated and maintains community-based wildlife health surveillance programs with the goal of early detection of change in wildlife populations, protection of public health, and facilitating the incorporation of local and traditional knowledge into wildlife co-management. Her research brings local, traditional and scientific knowledge together to understand the impacts of a warming Arctic on the health of muskoxen and caribou and the consequent effects on food security in the Arctic.