Arctic Yearbook 2015 | Page 440

440 Arctic Yearbook 2015 created with inclusion of representatives of relevant national organizations solely from the Arctic eight (Rogne et al. 2015: 24). The Board was to consider general regional problems affecting the common interests of the Arctic countries and ensure that the activities of IASC would remain consistent with those interests (IASC Founding Articles, part D, art. 1).2 This agreement removed the last obstacle on the way to establishment of the International Arctic Science Committee, which was eventually founded in Resolute Bay, Nunavut, Canada in August 1990. Whereas representatives of France, Germany, Japan, Poland and the United Kingdom attended the meeting still solely as observers, during the first regular meeting of the IASC Council in January 1991 the science organizations of France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom were admitted as the first nonArctic full members of IASC. From early days to ICARP III The founding of IASC marked the beginning of a new era of collaborative efforts in the region. Not only fruitful completion of negotiations on the Committee helped to energize the process which led to signing of the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS) in Rovaniemi in June 1991 (Young 1998: 116), but the International Arctic Science Committee played a pivotal role in overcoming divisions and developing cooperation between Russian and Western scientists working on the Arctic who previously had had very limited contact. Initially, even though according to its founding articles IASC was supposed to operate through the working groups, most of its work was done through international projects, to deliver tangible outcomes within a prescribed period of time. The projects revolved around the themes of impacts of global changes on the Arctic region and its peoples, Arctic processes of relevance to global systems, natural processes within the Arctic, and sustainable development in the region. IASC Working Group Workshop in Potsdam, Germany, January 2011. 25 Years of IASC