Institute receives Governor’s North Star Award

The Institute of the North has been named a 2010 recipient of the Governor’s North Star Award for International Excellence in Scientific Exchange. The award was presented by Lieutenant Governor Craig Campbell at a Sept. 8 luncheon in Anchorage.

The honor acknowledges work done by the Institute through its international projects: the 2007-2009 Arctic Energy Summit, the 2009 Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment Report and the 2009 International Arctic Fisheries Symposium.

The Arctic Energy Summit was an official International Polar Year project of the Institute of the North, sanctioned by the Arctic Council and with the support of the U.S. Department of State. Seventeen recommendations relating to the development of energy in the Arctic were generated from the Summit in two categories, technology and sustainability.

The Institute of the North served as a co-editor of the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment, an Arctic Council project, synthesizing the 4-1/2 year effort and more than 1400 pages of research into a cohesive 185-page report. The seventeen recommendations contained within the AMSA 2009 Report were adopted by ministers at the Arctic Council meeting in April 2009 and are divided into three categories – enhancing Arctic marine safety, protecting Arctic people and the environment, and building the Arctic marine infrastructure.

The International Arctic Fisheries Symposium was organized by the Institute of the North in coordination with the U.S. Department of State, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and other stakeholders. The International Arctic Fisheries Symposium provided a first-ever forum to discuss policy and science with regard to the impact of climate change on fish stocks and the new accessibility to the central Arctic with ice retreat.

Reports of the Institute’s work can be found at its website, http://www.institutenorth.org

The Institute of the North, founded by former Gov. Walter J. Hickel in 1994, specializes in the utilization and care for the resource-rich commons.