SAON News

Community based environment monitoring has considerable potential for improving the understanding of environmental changes as well as for improving the management of natural resources. Together with the organizers of six community based environment monitoring programs, the INTAROS project has developed a library of ‘good practice’ manuals in community based monitoring that could serve as tools for cross-fertilizing indigenous and local knowledge with scientific knowledge in the Arctic.

This Community Based Monitoring Library is available at a website at the following link: https://mkp28.wixsite.com/cbm-best-practice. The library is intended to enable community members and organizers of community based monitoring programs to access one another’s experience and gain advice on how to collect and use data.

In the library, each manual is accompanied by a summary describing what worked, what didn’t work and why, written by the organizers of the community based monitoring program. The manuals in the library have been selected on the basis of the following criteria:

  • They have already been pilot tested on-the-ground in community-based monitoring programs in the Arctic,
  • They have in the view of the program organizers led to salient, credible, and legitimate knowledge products and are used by decision-makers,
  • They could contribute to both local and global repositories,
  • They are of a sufficient generic nature so they may be used in other communities and areas of the Arctic.

The 2nd Arctic Science Ministerial was held 26th October 2018 in Berlin.

Prior to the meeting, the Arctic Observing Summit Executive Committee, the EU Joint Research Centre and SAON had organised a side meeting with the title Towards a roadmap for coordinated Arctic Observing; approximately 80 people attended. Presentations are available here.

The Arctic Science Forum, held the day before the Ministerial meeting, had three themes:

  1. Strengthening, Integrating and Sustaining Arctic Observations, Facilitating Access to Arctic Data, and Sharing Arctic Research Infrastructure
  2. Understanding Regional and Global Dynamics of Arctic Changes
  3. Assessing Vulnerability and Building Resilience of Arctic Environments and Societies

In the draft statement from the ministerial meeting, SAON is mentioned (with others) in a context where ministers want to continue and expand the cooperation within the first theme by progressively moving from the design to the deployment phase of an integrated Arctic observing system which also supports and includes community-based observatories.

The report of the 2nd Arctic Science Ministerial is available here

Joint Statement of Ministers is available here

www.arcticgeoss.info and www.arcticgeoss.net now point to www.arcticobserving.org

At the 4th AOS in June 2018, delegates from 26 countries focused on the "Business Case for a Pan-Arctic Observing System".
Demonstrating the value of Arctic observations, linked to relevant Societal Benefit Areas showed how long-term observing systems support decision-making from local to global scales.
The Conference Statement is found here:

At the request of the 10 parties negotiating on an agreement to prevent unregulated commercial fishing in the High Seas portion of the Central Arctic Ocean, participants at the meeting were tasked with addressing four Terms of Reference, summarized below:
1. Design a 1 ‐ 3 year long mapping program.
2. Design a monitoring program.
3. Identify human, financial, vessel/equipment resources needed for mapping and monitoring.
4. Develop data collection, sharing, and hosting protocols that outline the details of what and how data shall be collected, shared, and hosted for  consideration by the Parties.

Peter Pulsifer, chair of the Arctic Data Committee (ADC) has presented SAON and ADC work at the meeting.The full report is available here: https://www.afsc.noaa.gov/Arctic_fish_stocks_fifth_meeting/pdfs/Final_report_of_the_5th_FiSCAO_meeting.pdf

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