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International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

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‘Dreamtime’<br />

The ‘dreamtime’ forms a part of Australian aboriginal<br />

history, although a complex philosophy, it is<br />

a special time when birds got their colours (except<br />

the bad tempered crow) 5 , when sacred places were<br />

created, when law and custom were developed. It is<br />

a period of fashioning, organising and moulding the<br />

past to the present and into the future (Dean, 1996).<br />

Perhaps IPY <strong>2007–2008</strong> was our ‘dreamtime’, when the<br />

sciences danced with humanities, when the research<br />

community embraced education for the future of the<br />

Arctic and Antarctica.<br />

Box 1 <strong>International</strong> Ocean Institute (IOI) promotes objectives of IPY <strong>2007–2008</strong><br />

Iouri Oliounine<br />

Since the announcement of IPY <strong>2007–2008</strong>, the <strong>International</strong><br />

Ocean Institute (IOI – www.ioinst.org/ ), a non-governmental<br />

organization located in Gibra, Malta, demonstrated its interest<br />

in supporting the IPY objectives, particularly via information<br />

sharing, training and educating new constituencies. The<br />

IOI was founded in 1972 by Prof. Elisabeth Mann Borgese,<br />

as an international knowledge-based institution, devoted to<br />

the sustainable governance and peaceful use of the oceans. In<br />

2004, Yuri Olyunin, former IOI Director, was invited to share<br />

with the IPY organizers his experience in coordinating the <strong>International</strong><br />

<strong>Year</strong> of the Oceans held in 1998. In March 2005,<br />

the IOI representative took part in the first IPY Open Consultative<br />

Forum in Paris. IOI expressed its readiness to provide<br />

its network, experience and knowledge for contributing to the<br />

IPY efforts.<br />

IOI’s main contribution to IPY was via hosting the Pacem in<br />

Maribus Conference (PIM) in 2007 in Malta under the title<br />

“Waves of Change: Women, Youth and the Sea, Partnering for<br />

the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Sustainable<br />

use of its resources.” A group of experts on polar issues,<br />

including David Carlson, Eduard Sarukhanian, Angelika<br />

Renner and Claudia Halsband-Lenk, gave presentation at the<br />

special session dedicated to the issues relevant to IPY.<br />

Training programs on ocean governance organized by IOI in<br />

Canada and in Malta in 2007–2009 were enriched by the series<br />

of lectures dedicated to IPY. IOI annual Ocean <strong>Year</strong> Book<br />

volumes 23 (2009) and 22 (2008) featured several chapters on<br />

change, biodiversity, fishing and legal aspects of governance<br />

in the polar regions. These and other IOI activities relevant<br />

to IPY provide a good example of the NGO potential in<br />

promoting a multi-faceted global science program.<br />

l e g a C I e s 591

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