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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