Ocean Futures: Resource Management Programme

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The Resources Programme (RP)

Ocean Resources
Compared to land areas, our knowledge of the seas and oceans of the world as depositories of valuable resources remains inadequate and, some will say, in its infancy. The enormity of ocean surfaces and physical, technological, and economic impediments of many kinds have acted as formidable barriers to sub-surface exploration and research. Our aim is to help conquer these barriers. To that end Ocean Futures has established, among others, the Resources Programme (RP).

What We Do
The programme seeks to initiate, participate in, and encourage research and other activities that will enhance our understanding of how the search for and the exploitation of the biological and mineral resources of the oceans and the seabed may affect the natural environment and processes of climate change and global warming and vice versa; and how these in turn may be influenced by and interact with political, economic, social, and legal factors, both national and international.

Our Approach
The projects undertaken by the RP are either,
1) developed by the RP itself because they are considered relevant and of general or special interest, and subsequently presented to potential sponsors, or
2) commissioned by individual or groups of sponsors, national or international, on topics and problems of their own choosing.

Within the limits set by nature of the topics the RP will always endeavour to adopt a holistic and multidisciplinary approach to the research and tasks placed before it

Staff
Ocean Futures can draw on some of Norway's most experienced and accomplished experts on northern and Arctic affairs as well as on an Affiliated Faculty of some of the worlds leading experts in the field on which Ocean Futures concentrate.

Current and Past Projects of the RP
The RP participated in a major Ocean Futures project - Shipping in Arctic Waters - commissioned by the Centre for High North Logistics (CHNL) in which the study of the biological and mineral resources of the Arctic occupy a central position. This study was concluded in May 2010.

Other research activities include a major contribution to a study for the Norwegian Oil Industry Associationof the unopened areas (to oil and gas exploration) on the Norwegian continental shelf in the north. This was completed in February 2009.

The programme contributed to the writing of six policy papers on various aspects of the northern areas for the Norwegian Atlantic Committee in January 2009.

In March 2006 an Ocean Futures project entitled Norwegian and Russian Arctic Resources: Prospects for Economic and Social Development received approval as an International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008 project by the IPY Secretariat in Cambridge, UK. According to the statutes, such approval is given only to projects which can potentially contribute to cutting edge research. The project was developed in close collaboration with three leading Russian research institutions - SOPS, CNIIMF, and AARI. Several Norwegian institutions also collaborate.

For further information, please contact:
Dr Arnfinn Jorgensen-Dahl
Senior Research Fellow, Programme Manager
E-mail:
arnfinn.j-dahl@ocean-futures.com or
ocean@ocean-futures.com
Ph.: +47-22-088-752

Updated: May 2010

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