Department of State

During FY 96 and 97 the Department of State continued its involvement in multilateral and bilateral activities related to environmental protection and scientific research in the Arctic. The most significant of these were participation in the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy and its successor organization, the Arctic Council, and support for the U.S. Man and the Biosphere Program.

Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy/Arctic Council

The Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS) was established in 1991 to serve as a consultative body to its eight Arctic member countries with regard to regional action on environmental issues of common concern. In July 1996, at an AEPS Ministerial Meeting in Alta, Norway, the Ministers signed a declaration establishing the Arctic Councilthe successor organization to the AEPS which, in addition to its core mandate of addressing regional environmental issues, was to examine the issue of sustainable development in the Arctic. The Arctic Council's four working groups remain the same as those under the AEPS:

• Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP);
• Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment (PAME);
• Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF); and
• Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response (EPPR).

Because funds were not available to provide direct assistance to AEPS and the Arctic Council during FY 96 and 97, the Department of State's support was limited to sending representatives to meetings of the working groups, to Senior Arctic Officials meetings, and to the Ministerial Meeting in Alta. The Department supported Arctic research by ensuring that agencies and individuals with Arctic policy and research interests were invited to participate as delegates to meetings of the Council and its subgroups, by participating in regularly scheduled meetings of the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee, and by holding monthly meetings of the Arctic Policy Group, which allowed Federal agencies with Arctic policy interests to participate in the policy formulation process.

The recent decision of the Department of State to chair the Arctic Council from September 1998 through September 2000 will necessarily increase the Department's supporting role for Arctic research and policy formation activities in FY 98, 99 and 00.

Man and the Biosphere Program

The Department of State's Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs supports the Secretariat for the U.S. Man and the Biosphere Program (U.S. MAB), an office funded by 13 Federal agencies. The primary source of funds spent by the U.S. MAB on Arctic projects comes through the Department's International Organizations Bureau. U.S. MAB contributed funds to Arctic research in 1996-97 through its High Latitude Ecosystems Directorate (HLD) and the Northern Sciences Network (NSN).

The HLD has a continuing core research project, which changed focus in 1996. The original sociological study, based primarily on surveys, analyzed community and traditional user participation in managing the Porcupine caribou herd on both sides of the Alaska/Canada border. Beginning in 1996, Phase II of the study, "Ecological Role of Hunting in Herd Dynamics and Its Implications for Co- management of Caribou," emphasizes the biological aspects and implementation of a monitoring system for users within their own villages. U.S. MAB funding for its HLD project was $50,000 per year in FY 96 and 97.

U.S. MAB continued its support of the NSN through contributions to the NSN Secretariat located at the Danish Polar Center in Copenhagen. The funds are used to support meetings and workshops held by NSN as well as to support research sites throughout the Arctic in the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX). NSN is an effort of the MAB countries with Arctic interests. U.S. MAB funding for the NSN was $6000 in FY 96 and $7000 in FY 97.