Taskforce on Ocean Governance

Polar Oceans

Although the Arctic and Southern Oceans are far from most people, they are both heavily impacted by human actions. Climate change, pollution, and the overharvesting of marine mammals, are just a few well-known problems faced by Polar peoples and ecosystems. As the ice recedes, conflicts over fisheries, mining, and shipping are resurgent, and new pollutants are identified, including the plastic “garbage patch” recently discovered in the Arctic Ocean. Through all this, people who live in the polar region rarely have either the economic or the political power to solve these external problems, though they often show considerable resilience and adaptability in the face of environmental stresses. This cluster brings together people who specialize in the governance of the polar oceans, including impacts experienced by Polar peoples, local-level responses to those impacts, and the national governments or international regimes that are responsible for mitigation and assistance with adaptation.

If you’d like to join the cluster, please click here to become a member. This will allow you to post information on the page and give you the opportunity to receive information and updates via the Oceans Taskforce listserve.

While we do not have funding ourselves, we do hope to foster joint projects via Working Groups, which would bring together cluster members to write grant proposals, put together collected volumes/special issues, or develop webinars, workshops, syllabi, or similar products. All projects should focus on the cluster topic and fit within the ESG Science Plan (http://www.earthsystemgovernance.org/research-agenda/). Working group members should come from more than one institution and should have sufficient expertise to accomplish project goals. Forming a working group can help you to expand your professional network. It will also provide mentoring from the cluster leaders and access to logistical support like web-conferencing from ESG headquarters. To submit a Working Group proposal, please fill out this form and send it to the cluster leader(s) listed below. If you’d like to propose a Working Group that fits in more than one cluster, please send it to the leaders of each cluster in a single e-mail. Scroll down for descriptions of active Working Groups.

Cluster Leaders:

Gosia Smieszek
University of Lapland, Finland
malgorzata.smieszek@ulapland.fi

Lau Blaxekjær
University of the Faroe Islands

 

Active Working Groups: