Arctic Council

The 10th Conference of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region will take place in Akureyri, Iceland 5-7 September. During the conference the Arctic Council will also host a breakfast seminar where representatives from the Arctic Council will speak on the progress of major Arctic Council assessments and contributions to policy making. A question and answer period will follow speakers.

Reports appear in the media about the sea ice in the Arctic on a daily basis, and in September coverage is expected to reach an all-time low. American researchers are already warning that Arctic sea ice has reached its lowest level since satellite records began in 1979. How is this manifesting itself? We asked Richard Gyllencreutz, who is currently on a research expedition aboard the Swedish icebreaker Oden in the Arctic.

The Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON) is the Russian umbrella organization which organizes 35 regional and ethnic organizations of indigenous peoples in the 25 regions where they live. RAIPON represents 41 groups of Indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East. The total number of people is about 300 thousand and they live in 60 % of the whole territory of the Russian Federation from Murmansk to Kamchatka.

The Saami Council was founded in 1956, making it one of the oldest indigenous peoples’ organizations. The Saami Council is a volunteer-based and independent cultural and political cooperation organization for Saami organizations in Finland, Norway, Russia and Sweden. The Saami Council is a non-governmental organization.

Annika E. Nilsson is Senior Research Fellow at Stockholm Environment Institute, where she is project leader for the ongoing Arctic Council-approved Arctic Resilience Report (ARR).