Information on the Circumpolar Infrastructure Task Force (CITF) can be
found at the Institute of the North's web site:
or by contacting:
Mead Treadwell
Managing Director, Institute of the North
Alaska Pacific University
Office of Gov. Walter J. Hickel, Founder
PO Box 101700
Anchorage, AK 99510
Telephone: 907/343-2400, ext 2216
Fax: 907/343-2211
Email: meadwell [at] alaska.net
ARCTIC NATIONS TO REVIEW TRANSPORT, TELECOM LINKS
PRESS RELEASE from 7 NOVEMBER 2001
Espoo, Finland - The Arctic Council, represented by the Senior Arctic
Officials of the eight member nations, agreed today to convene aviation
experts from the Arctic during the first half of 2002 to report on
Arctic aviation to arctic Ministers scheduled to meet in Finland in
October of 2002. The U.S. will host the first meeting in Alaska.
A Circumpolar Infrastructure Task Force (CITF) will review information
on aviation links between northern regions of the globe to determine
options to help restore or expand connections at the top of the world,
which have been diminishing lately. The task force was also asked to
review related surface transportation and telecommunications issues.
Establishing a circumpolar dialogue on transportation issues reflects
one of Finland's priorities during its Chairmanship of the Arctic
Council from 2000-2002. Finland hosted the first meeting of arctic
transport government experts in Tornio, Finland, in September 2001, and
Finland's Ministry of Transport and Communications presented a draft
report on arctic transportation links today to the Senior Arctic
officials.
"Today, to get between points in the north, you have to fly south," said
Walter Parker, interim chair of the Circumpolar Infrastructure Task
Force (CITF), which came together as a U.S. initiative with support from
the U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Arctic Research
Commission. "Recently, flights between Canada and Greenland were
cancelled after 20 years. While the people of the Arctic live close to
each other, they have to fly many hours to get to know each other and to
work together.
"This Task Force will be the first circumpolar look at needs and
opportunities in arctic aviation," Parker said. "It takes the issue
beyond bilateral discussions between neighboring nations."
A workshop was held on these issues in conjunction with the Northern
Forum General Assembly in Edmonton, Alberta, on 29 October 2001. To help
expand air routes, Parker said, participants suggested coordination of
postal shipping policies and other aviation subsidies, joint promotion
of arctic tourism, and removal of legal obstacles to flights between
nations in the North. New technologies developed by the U.S. Federal
Aviation Administration's CAPSTONE program could help establish safer,
cheaper "small aviation" throughout the Arctic, especially in Russia
where it is most lacking.
"All of these ideas will be looked at," Parker said.
The CITF workshop in Edmonton attracted participants from the
governments of Canada, Russia, Finland, and the United States, and
industry experts from arctic and Northern Forum regions, as well as
China and England.
The Secretariat for the Circumpolar Infrastructure Task Force is based
at the Institute of the North at Alaska Pacific University. Parker, who
initiated this project as a member of the Arctic Research Commission,
has worked during his career to lay out Alaska's rural airport system
for the FAA and Alaska's rural communication system for former Governor
Jay Hammond. Former head of Polar Programs for the National Science
Foundation, Dr. Peter Wilkniss, a senior fellow at the Institute, serves
as CITF project director. Mead Treadwell, Managing Director of the
Institute and a member of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, and John
Doyle of the Northern Forum also serve on the steering committee.
Marideth Sandler, Alaska Governor Tony Knowles' representative in
Washington for International Policy, Transportation, and
Telecommunications will advise the group. Charlene Derry, of the
International Office at the Federal Aviation Administration in
Anchorage, Alaska, is coordinating the work of the Task Force under the
U.S. DOT contract.
In conjunction with its work, the Task Force will also examine issues
concerning telecommunications, including the prospect of greater use of
low-earth orbiting satellite systems (LEO), which give greater coverage
in the arctic region than other parts of the world. The task force will
monitor other activities in surface transportation, including links by
road and rail, which are being considered between the Barents Region and
Russia. The U.S. Congress has authorized a study of expanding rail
between Canada and Alaska.
Task Force meetings will include Permanent Participants in the Arctic
Council - Indigenous groups from throughout the Arctic. The project is
endorsed by the Northern Forum, which told the arctic officials it would
participate and help bring regional government and industry experts into
the process.
"From a circumpolar perspective, it is important to keep track of what's
going on, as we spent much of the Cold War building barriers to arctic
transport," Parker said. "Sometimes decisions on transport links are
made by nations bordering each other, but we're close enough at the top
of the world that we should look at these issues together."
Information on the CITF can be found at the Institute of the North's web
site: http://www.institutenorth.org
-end of press release-