wp.arcticportal.org

Category: News & Press Releases

Last lecture of Nansen´s professor

Tomorrow, 15^th of January at the University of Akureyri, conference hall, dr. Natalia Loukacheva will give a public lecture titled: “Developing Arctic – from Nansen to modern times”. The lecture will take place in room M101 12.00 – 13.00 h and it is open for public.

Dr. Natalia Loukacheva is a scholar of comparative constitutional and international law with research interests in the circumpolar region, covering eight Arctic States. She was educated at the Urals State Law Academy, Yekaterinburg, Russia (Diploma with Honours in Jurisprudence, 1991-1996; Ph.D. law at the Department of International and Comparative Constitutional Law, 1999) and at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, Canada (S.J.D. – Doctor of Juridical Science degree, 2004).

Last year dr. Loukacheva was awarded Nansen visiting professorship in Arctic studies.

The professorship is awarded each year for a twelve months period to a leading scientist working with issues that bear on the legal, economic, social and natural circumstances in the Arctic. It is awarded each year for a twelve months period to a leading scientist working with issues that bear on the legal, economic, social and natural circumstances in the Arctic.

January 14, 2014
MobilityDK offers travel support

Travel support is now available for students, teachers and researchers from Uarctic members to and from Danish, Greenlandic and Faroease institutions for Arctic – relevant mobility activities.

The second application round for MobilityDK is now open.

The MobilityDK pilot model provides travel support for students, staff and researchers from UArctic member institutions, and it is available for Arctic-relevant mobility to and from Danish, Greenlandic and Faroese institutions.

The deadline for applications is January 31^st, 2014.

January 13, 2014
WTO engaged in EU fishing dispute

The Faroe Islands is seeking to bring its dispute with the EU over their herring and mackerel exports to the World Trade Organisation.

The Danish mission to Gevena filed a request to establish a WTO panel in the dispute, which pits the Faroe Islands, a self-governing member of the Danish Kingdom, against the EU, which it is not a member of.

The request will be dealt with at a forthcoming meeting of the WTO dispute settlement body on January 20.

Last November, the Faroe Islands announced that it had started WTO dispute settlement proceedings against the EU to challenge the bloc’s trade sanctions against Faroese herring and mackerel.
The sanctions, introduced last August, ban all imports of herring and mackerel products from the Faroe Islands, and deny access to EU ports by vessels transporting these products. The measures set up the awkward situation of Faroese ships being unable to call on Danish ports.

In a statement accompanying the announcement, Kai Leo Johannesen, the Faroese premier, pointed out that his country was heavily dependent on fish exports, which he said constituted more than 95 percent of total Faroese exports.
“This step is therefore of major importance for the Faroe Islands, and a crucial step in order to ensure that the EU’s coercive economic measure, whose purpose is exclusively to safeguard the interests of its domestic industry, will be withdrawn and revoked.”
The ban against Faroese fish products has repercussions in Denmark, where Danish fishing boats have been banned from Norwegian waters due to the conflict.

The EU can oppose the request to set up a panel during the January meeting, but EU regulations require that the matter be taken up the following month to attempt to mediate the dispute. Previous attempts at resolution have failed.

Click here for more articles about EU – Faroese fishing dispute.

Source: the Arctic Journal

January 10, 2014
5th Arctic Business Forum announced
The 5^th Arctic Business Forum meeting will be held in Rovaniemi, northern Finland. The conference will be taking place from March 11^th – 13^th 2014.

This annual event will introduce the latest business development and future prospects of the rising Arctic economy as a vital part of worldwide developments.

Two days of world class presentations by invited speakers, a trade show and a high class social program in the very heart of Lapland Finland make the event an excellent opportunity for anyone interested in the arctic business development in terms of business opportunities and networking, exchanging ideas, insight and learning experience.

The following current issues will be featured by the presentations:
- What effects climate change has on Arctic business
- Arctic sea routes and the influence on other transport methods
- Shale gas developments and effects on arctic oil & gas industry
- Raw material prices – is mining still profitable and sustainable
- Best practices
- how do SME’s get in and part of the large scale projects
Additional information with program and registration details available at www.arcticbusinessforum.com

The conference is organized by Lapland Chamber of Commerce, Finland.
January 9, 2014
Outcome of AsiArctic work now available

The Arctic Region is increasingly becoming a place of international attention. As the ice melts, new opportunities and challenges arise. Asian states which previously had little interest in the area are taking a greater interest in the Arctic.

In the AsiArctic research program we, researchers from the Fridtjof Nansen Institute (FNI) and the Norwegian Institute for Defense Studies (IFS), aim to contribute new and relevant knowledge on the Arctic interests of China, Japan, Korea and India.

The most recent outcome of AsiArctic work is the FNI report concerning Greenland´s future and the emerging relations between Greenland and the EU, China and South Korea.

The report explores the Greenlandic government’s recent strategies to establish a large-scale extraction industry in its territory, focusing especially on Greenland’s developing ties to the EU, China and South Korea.

The report links the Greenlandic government’s international outreach to the territory’s aspirations for full independence from Denmark, showing how mounting international interest in Arctic resources serves to strengthen the idea of Greenland as a independent actor.

The aim of this report is to highlight how the creation of a sovereign image is at the centre of state building efforts in Greenland, and how, by taking advantage of the mounting global interest in the Arctic, Greenland is able to effectively increase its international agency.

This report takes a constructivist approach to sovereignty, and the work of Cynthia Weber and Thomas Biersteker forms its theoretical core.

The report is now available at the Arctic Portal on line library. Click here for the quick download.

January 7, 2014
Arctic Frontiers 2014 coming soon

Arctic Frontiers 2014 will be held at the University of Tromsø, Norway from Sunday 19 to Friday 24 January 2014. The theme of the conference is ‘Humans in the Arctic’.

As with previous years the policy section will run for the first two days (Monday 20 and Tuesday 21 January 2014) followed by three days of science (Wednesday 22 January to Friday 24 January).

Click here to register for the conference. To see the detailed programs for the policy and science sections, please access the conference website.

January 6, 2014
China-Nordic Arctic Research Center
On December 10^th 2013, the Polar Research Institute of China (PRIC), and six institutes from the Nordic countries as well as three other institutes from China signed a Cooperation Agreement on the China-Nordic Arctic Research Center (CNARC) to formally mark the inauguration of CNARC. Attendants to the inauguration ceremony included representatives from the State Oceanic Administration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, diplomats in China from the Arctic countries, business leaders, as well as Chinese and Nordic Arctic scholars.

Scientists from China and the Nordic countries have already established strong links in Arctic science cooperation. The idea of CNARC, to strengthen cooperation in this field even further, was supported during the official visit of former Prime Minister of China, Wen Jiabao, to Iceland in April 2012. Following his visit and in order to promote wider Arctic cooperation PRIC and the Icelandic Center of Research (RANNIS) suggested to expand the cooperation from China-Iceland to involve all the Nordic countries in this Arctic research cooperation.

Subsequently, in June 2013, during the first China-Nordic Arctic Cooperation Symposium held in Shanghai, PRIC proposed to establish CNARC. The proposal received positive response from Chinese and Nordic institutes, which provided the foundation for the establishment of CNARC.

The CNARC provides a platform for academic cooperation to increase awareness, understanding and knowledge of the Arctic and its global impacts; and promote cooperation for sustainable development of the Nordic Arctic and coherent development of China in a global context.

CNARC focuses on the Nordic Arctic and global Arctic issues, with its research themes including:
1. Arctic climate change and its impacts,
2. Arctic resources, shipping and economic cooperation and
3. Arctic policy-making and legislation.
The cooperation of CNARC will include the following four modes of activities:
- carrying out joint research projects,
- developing Arctic research networks and frontiers by providing opportunities for Chinese and Nordic scholars to conduct Arctic research through fellowships and scholarships,
- convening regularly the China-Nordic Arctic Cooperation Symposium and other workshops and
- facilitating information sharing and cultural exchange between China and Nordic countries in Arctic context.
CNARC is supported by an Assembly of Member Institutes and a secretariat. The Assembly of Member Institutes consists of representatives from Chinese and Nordic institutes with capacities to influence, coordinate and implement Arctic research. The secretariat is based at PRIC. Following the inauguration the first Assembly of Member Institutes took place in order to discuss the operation mechanism of CNARC and its work plan for 2014.

List of CNARC member institutes:

Nordic member institutes
- Arctic Center of the University of Lapland (Finland)
- Fridtjof Nansen Institute (Norway)
- Icelandic Center for Research (Iceland)
- Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (Denmark)
- Norwegian Polar Institute (Norway)
- Swedish Polar Research Secretariat (Sweden)
Chinese member institutes
- Center for Polar and Oceanic Studies, Tongji University
- Research Institute of Polar Law and Politics, Ocean University of China
- Shanghai Institutes of International Studies
- Strategic Studies Division, Polar Research Institute of China
Click here to see the lilst of event´s participants. Click here to view the photos from the event.
December 11, 2013
More oil discovered in Skavl

Statoil has recently reported to find more oil resources in the Barents Sea. The hydrocarbon discovery at the Skavl prospect could increase the chances for a new field centre development in the Arctic, says Atle Staalensen from the Barents Observer.

According to Statoil, the Skavl prospect includes up to 50 million barrels of extractable resources. The well drilled by the rig West Hercules is located only few kilometers from the Johan Castberg and Havis structures in the Barents Sea.

The new project includes modest volumes of oil, but could still increase the likelihood of a major field development in the area. After finding the Castberg and Havis fields in 2011, Statoil announced that a major breakthrough had been made in the Barents Sea, calling the fields in “the most important discoveries on the Norwegian shelf over the last ten years”.

Statoil is an international energy company with operations in 34 different countries.

Statoil is operator for production licence PL532 with an ownership share of 50 percent. The licence partners are Eni Norge AS (30%) and Petoro AS (20%).

Source: Barents Observer

December 10, 2013
IASC Christmas edition

Over the past two decades, IASC has been organizing forward-looking conferences focused on international and interdisciplinary perspectives for advancing Arctic research cooperation and applications of Arctic knowledge. In 2015, it will have been 10 years since the ICARP II and 20 years since the first ICARP in 1995.

The political and economic interests in the Arctic are already multifold what they were just 5 years ago, and consequently national funding agencies and various large companies have a marked interest in Arctic science. Consequently, new Polar/Arctic research programs are currently being developed and some have already launched.

More programs require improved coordination in order to secure the best value for funding spent. Agreeing on shared objectives, across Arctic states as well as internationally is becoming increasingly important.

The International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) is a non-governmental, international scientific organization. The IASC mission is to encourage and facilitate cooperation in all aspects of Arctic research, in all countries engaged in Arctic research and in all areas of the Arctic region.

Overall, IASC promotes and supports leading-edge multi-disciplinary research in order to foster a greater scientific understanding of the Arctic region and its role in the Earth system.

Click here to read the full Christmas report on IASC.

December 9, 2013
Arctic wonders discovered in Greenland

For the first time ever, lakes have been discovered beneath the ice sheets of Greenland, following a discovery from researchers from Cambridge University. “Our results show that sub glacial lakes exist in Greenland, and that they form an important part of the ice sheet’s plumbing system,” says, Steven Palme from the team.

There have been hundreds of lakes discovered beneath the Arctic Ice sheets, but this is a first for Greenland, with two roughly 10 kilometers square located by airborne radar. They are believed to be formed by different processes however.

Greenland comprises a thinner ice sheet and proper land mass, and has surface lakes in the summer which are likely to feed these subterranean reservoirs. Previously it was thought that the steeper ices surface of Greenland would make this unlikely.It’s very possible that more lakes exist.

“Because the way in which water moves beneath ice sheets strongly affects ice flow speeds, improved understanding of these lakes will allow us to predict more accurately how the ice sheet will respond to anticipated future warming,” Palme said.

Source: IceNews

December 4, 2013