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type: Concept

CARMA
type: Concept
definition: Short Title: CARMA Project URL:http://yukon.taiga.net/carma/ Proposal URL: http://classic.ipy.org/development/eoi/proposal-details.php?id=162 Presently there are over 4 million wild and 1.8 million domestic reindeer and caribou inhabiting the earth's arctic regions. This keystone species has been an economic and cultural mainstay of nearly every indigenous group in the Arctic. Recent profound changes have been occurring in the North with the potential to jeopardize the relationship forged over countless generations between Rangifer, the land and the people. In late 2004 a concerned circumpolar group of social scientists, biologists, ecologists, abiotic specialists, aboriginal leaders, and resource managers met in Vancouver, Canada to launch an organization to track and assess the impacts of the changes that are occurring. This group, the CARMA Network (CircumArctic Rangifer Monitoring and Assessment network www.taiga.net/CARMA ) defined its mission: To monitor and assess the impacts of global change on the human/Rangifer system across the Arctic through cooperation, both geographically and across disciplines. At present, knowledge of many of the Arctic's significant Rangifer populations is fragmented and the relationship among the peoples dependent upon these populations is largely undocumented. Therefore, the CARMA Network proposes an extensive two-year coordinated program through IPY that will 1) provide a solid baseline of information on representative Rangifer populations and the human communities dependent upon them 2) establish an on-going monitoring and assessment network of these systems To meet these objectives, the following operating principles are proposed: -Keep it simple, relevant to the needs of Arctic residents; keep it transparent -Conduct monitoring and assessment using an interdisciplinary approach -Include and integrate local/traditional knowledge, industry research, field-based biological studies, and remote sensing research Focus initially on w…
in scheme: projects