GRID-Arendal: 30 Years of Making a Difference

The report Changing Taiga: Challenges for Mongolia’s Reindeer Herders was launched in Kautokeino in March during the outreach event Arctic Change, Indigenous Youth, and Future Opportunities attended by HRH Prince Albert II of Monaco. Supporting European Arctic Policy-Opportunities for Space- based Systems, an ESA-funded project led by GRID-Arendal provided a coherent perspective on how space-based technologies can support European Arctic policies at the national, regional and international levels. The One Stop Data Shop , which facilitated access to data generated by approximately 17,000 marine surveys, has been used extensively by developing countries for preparing shelf submissions. By end 2012 there were 8,577 external downloads of Extended Continental Shelf data files (so-called ‘shapefiles’) from 1,753 unique sites. GRID-Arendal initiated collaboration with Geosciences Australia and Conservation International to produce a global seafloor geomorphology map to support the analysis and display of data submitted by states party to the UN Regular Process and to provide the foundation for the development of a management tool for seabed in areas beyond national jurisdiction. GRID-Arendal was a partner in the joint Spain-UNEP project Broad- scale marine spatial planning of mammal corridors and protected areas inWider Caribbean and Southeast and Northeast Pacific . The objectives of the project are to support regional policies and protocols on transboundary marine mammal management and governance, and to strengthen institutional frameworks.

Reindeer herding camps in the East Taiga A snapshot from 2011

Tengis-Shishged River Basin National Park

i s

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n

T e

a y

t

g a l

B u r

S h

a r

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2012

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H a r

B y

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T

Targan

Shi s h ged

Elevation

Reindeer herding camps

Metres above sea-level

Spring Summer Autumn Winter Lost pasture

Tsagaannuur

2 800 3 000 2 600 2 400 2 200 1 400 1 600 1 800 2 000

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Land designation

Ived

D D E P R

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Protected area bu er Protected area Important bird area Mining exploration concession

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Renchinlhumbe

D A R K H A

Soyo

0

10

20 Km

Khoridal Saridag Strict Protected Area

Source: information on camp locations derived from herders, June 2011; WWF Mongolia, Web-GIS; NASA SRTM 30 dataset.