The Global International Waters Assessment

FYI:

The Global International Waters Assessment is preparing studies of the world's marine water bodies.  Studies are available for three Arctic regions:

• The Russian Arctic covers the Kara, Laptev, and East Siberian Seas and the Russian Chukchi Sea.  There's a lot of detail here on a part of the Arctic that many outside Russia don't know much about.  This is a massive region - maybe a third of the Arctic Ocean's perimeter.
• Arctic Greenland, East Greenland Shelf, West Greenland Shelf
• Barents Sea

Regions are defined to include the seas and the lands around them and the rivers that drain into them.  The reports describe the physical, ecological, and economic characteristics of the regions.  These are "assessments," and each report assesses the implications, including potential policy implications of five standard issues: (1) freshwater shortage, (2) pollution, (3) habitat and community modification, (4) unsustainable exploitation of fish and other living resources, (5) global change.

Each study is conducted by regional physical and social science scholars.  Leadership is provided by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).  Half the funding comes from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). [I'm not sure what this is - Ben]  Important funding also comes from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Finnish Department for International Development Co-operation, and the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (Sida).  The waters assessment is meant to complement previous assessments of biodiversity, climate change, and the ozone layer.  The project has been underway since 1999. Administration is based at Kalmar University in Sweden.

Hat tip to Bill Wilson of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council for letting me know about these.

Comments

[trusted essay]

Nice post! We should not take for granted all the resources we have!