“Rural and remote communities are so intertwined and dependent upon the ecosystems that they live with that they’re disproportionately impacted by climate change,” Vodden said.
“It's true across rural communities in the country, but particularly, or maybe in a more extreme way, in the more northern areas where climate changes even more rapidly.”
Rural and Indigenous communities have seen first-hand how the climate has changed over the years, and have a lot of knowledge and understanding to offer to the rest of the country, Vodden said.
The smaller a community is, the report said, the more likely it will be dependent on the natural-resource sector, with the community intertwined with industries such as oil, gas, agri-food, fishing, or logging.