On November 12-13 the SAO (Senior Arctic Officials) meeting was held in Copenhagen. The RAIPON’s representatives also took part in the event, there were: Pavel Sulyandziga, Dmitriy Berezhkov, Larisa Abryutina.
Before this, on November, 9, members of the Arctic Council Secretariat met. The Secretariat is formed by the representatives of the indigenous organizations of the Arctic countries — Aleut International Association (AIA), Arctic Athabaskan Council, Gwich’in Council International, ICC, Raipon and The Saami Council.
The RAIPON delegation presented its proposals to hold the Arctic Indigenous Leaders Summit in Moscow April 15-16, 2010. The preliminary subject of the Summit is “interaction between the indigenous peoples and industrial companies”. Our Association suggests defining certain standard of work for extractive companies in the Arctic, similar to World Bank’s Indigenous Policy according to which business takes on social liability for the indigenous peoples. Currently the RAIPON is preparing the corresponding documents and will distribute them among its partners – organizations of the indigenous peoples of the Arctic Zone. Permanent members of the Secretariat took the information into consideration, noted the importance of the event and promised that the delegations of the arctic peoples would be present in Moscow.
During the same period the RAIPON’s representatives took part in the Arctic Council’s working groups’ sessions - in the Working Group on Sustainable Development and the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme Working Group, and also in the Arctic management discussion.
On November, 12, the SAO in the Arctic Council meeting started. Issues of saving arctic marine environment, the melting Greenlandic ice sheet are on the agenda. The SAO's are also requested to take decisions about the Arctic Human Health Groups activities and the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program.
In April, 2009, Kingdom of Denmark took up the chairmanship from Norway in Tromsø (Norway) and will chair the Arctic Council within the next two years, in 2009-2011.
Sustainable development, human health, environment protection, arctic flora and fauna preservation, and preservation of the means of subsistence of the indigenous peoples and their communities — all these issues are still in the Arctic Council’s spotlight. The participants of the meeting noted that nature and the environment are key elements in the day-to-day living for the peoples of the Arctic. Drawing on personal experience, information shared with others and knowledge handed down through generations enables residents of the Arctic to recognize local environmental and biological changes. The interaction between traditional knowledge in the local communities and scientific research is therefore of great value. In line with requests by the parliamentarians of the Arctic Region and the Nordic Council of Ministers, the aim of the chairmanship is to promote cooperation and to facilitate synergies from existing work in the area to provide for better human health in harmony with cultural values of the indigenous peoples and arctic communities. In this light high priority will be given to review and integrate data obtained from environmental studies with the changed climate conditions in combination with human health surveys and the changing living conditions experienced and foreseen in the Arctic. The purpose is to be able to take a broad comprehensive view on the existing separate assessments and the knowledge obtained in the Arctic Council and thus gives an indication on the overall direction of the health of the arctic peoples and the arctic ecosystems.
On behalf of RAIPON I Vice-President Pavel Sulyandziga spoke at the meeting. He thanked the Arctic Council and the host country for opportunity given to the indigenous peoples to participate in the forum. Pavel Sulyandziga has informed the participants about the coming Arctic Indigenous Leaders Summit that will be held by RAIPON April 15-16, 2010, in Moscow and invited everybody to take part in the Summit.
Our delegation had also distributed some information materials to all the participants of the SAO meeting about the annual exhibition “Treasures of the North”, that will take place at the All-Russian Exhibition Centre April 15-19, 2010 in Moscow.
Special ambassador of Russia at the Arctic Council announced that beginning with the next year Russia will hold the Arctic Countries Film Festival in Murmansk. Special attention of the festival would be given to the films about arctic indigenous peoples.
Reference info: The Arctic Council is a high-level intergovernmental forum which provides a means for promoting on issues of cooperation in environmental protection and sustainable development of polar regions. The declaration of its establishment was signed September 19, 1996 in Ottawa (Canada) by 8 arctic countries: Canada, Russia, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, The United States, Sweden and Finland.
At the end of the two-year cycle, the Chair hosts a Ministerial-level meeting.
According to the Declaration, there are a number of officially sanctioned Observers to the Arctic Council. This status can be given to the non-arctic countries, inter-governmental and inter-parliamentary organizations, global and regional non-governmental organizations.
Currently the Arctic Council’s activity involves mainly issues of sustainable development and environmental protection.
Arctic circumpolar zone is a region of Russia’s strategic partnership with arctic countries, including cooperation in the intergovernmental Arctic Council, other international organizations that deal with the arctic environment protection, cooperation and experience exchange of sustainable development issues solutions.
The RAIPON Information Centre
