Barrow is also called Ukpeagvik, which means 'place where snowy owls are hunted' in the Iñupiaq language.  The indigenous people there still hunt whales - the boat in the photo is a sealskin-covered whaling boat called a umiak.  The whaling culture goes back thousands of years, and is very focussed on the sea.  So the oil industry's plans to explore and develop oil offshore were received with great trepidation.

Shell has decided not to continue its exploration in the US Arctic for the moment, but for more than ten years plans were pulled together and a whole range of stakeholder engagement was undertaken.  I worked with the local team and NGOs in Alaska and internationally to make sure that stakeholder engagement was done effectively.  I helped establish the local engagement team, draw up programmes and identify and work with external stakeholders.

For instance, Living Earth ran two projects that really made a difference, the Polar Pairs teacher exchange linking schools in Barrow with schools in Aberdeenshire and the Long Conversation programme to encourage community dialogue.  This video is worth watching.