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International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

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esidents. That synthesis report proved to be very valuable<br />

to policy-makers. IPY provided a major boost to<br />

this kind of synthesis work. In 2009, the AC released a<br />

follow-up report, the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment<br />

(AMSA).<br />

During the IPY era, the AC working groups also identified<br />

many new partners in the international Arctic science<br />

community. New interdisciplinary networks were<br />

created. The AC and its working groups will continue<br />

to develop and expand these cooperative formats.<br />

Cooperation and collaboration with IASC and the <strong>International</strong><br />

Arctic Social Sciences Association (IASSA) in<br />

particular, has increased and deepened as a result of<br />

various creative joint activities during IPY.<br />

Two new major synthesis reports are under preparation<br />

in the AC, the “Snow, Water, Ice and Permafrost<br />

Assessment”, SWIPA, (Chapter 5.2) scheduled for completion<br />

before the next AC Ministerial Meeting in April<br />

2011 and the “Arctic Biodiversity Assessment”, ABA, expected<br />

to be presented in 2013.<br />

The Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks initiative,<br />

SAON (Chapter 3.8), was identified by the AC Ministerial<br />

Meeting already in Reykjavik in 2004 as a potential<br />

major legacy of IPY. In the Tromsø Declaration, the AC<br />

decided to “consider ways to develop an institutional<br />

framework to support circum-Arctic observing”. Even<br />

though the SAON process has turned out to be quite<br />

complex, the AC continues to believe that substantial<br />

Fig. 5.5-5. AC<br />

Ministerial Meeting<br />

venue in Salekhard,<br />

Russia.<br />

(Photo: Helena Ödmark)<br />

improvements in monitoring and observations is critical<br />

to future scientific research on impacts of climate<br />

change and other types of change in the Arctic. New<br />

methodology for community-based monitoring developed<br />

during IPY should be seen as a useful complement<br />

to more advanced technology solutions such as<br />

space observations.<br />

Another IPY project, the Arctic Portal (IPY no. 388)<br />

that was built on an earlier AC project, has been selected<br />

as the gateway home for the IPY IPO website to ensure<br />

continued easy access to all IPO web-based material<br />

after the end of IPY. The Arctic Portal also hosts the<br />

websites of the AC and its working groups as well as<br />

those of IASC, IASSA and other activities (e.g. the SAON<br />

process, www.arcticportal.org). Some of the successful<br />

outreach and education work during IPY might be<br />

pursued under the auspices of the AC in cooperation<br />

with IASC, IASSA and others.<br />

In the Tromsø Declaration the AC decided “to consider<br />

the proposal to arrange an international polar<br />

decade”. This and other proposals for contributions<br />

to the potentially quite substantial legacy of IPY will<br />

need continued attention by SAOs during the Danish<br />

AC chairmanship 2009-2011 to ensure that the intergovernmental<br />

AC cooperation can take full advantage<br />

of experiences gained during IPY and contribute to increased<br />

support for scientific research.<br />

l e g a C I e s 603

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