Greetings from Snowchange HQ.
First off, the Mahinekura Reinfelds Declaration from the Snowchange 2008 is now available online here. It details and summarizes the discussions, results and overall context of Snowchange 2008 held in December.
This Declaration has undergone rigorous dialogues and check-ups by the family of Mahinekura, her tribal peoples, prominent Maori leaders as well as all participants of Snowchange 2008 from Siberia to Alaska over the past 8 weeks before being released today. The undersigned collective groups represent all the participants of our event. Their contact details are available as needed from Snowchange.
During first half of 2009, action plan will be developed and implemented regarding the steps mentioned in the Declaration. This will be made available as well.
In other Snowchange news for December-Februry 2009:
Work continues on the research project regarding Kola Saami environmental monitoring project. Two community workshops will be held this year devoted to this, one in Skolt Saami village of Sevettijärvi (Finland) and one in remote wilderness area of Krasnochelje (Kola, Russia). These events have been made possible by a grant from the Barents Secretariat in Kirkenes, Norway.
Implementation of the Solar Panel Project between Northern Forum Academy, Barefoot College and Snowchange continues. Soon the women from Kolyma will come to India (in March) and Arkleton Trust monitoring person Chris Madine will arrive in Selkie, Finland for talks February 6th.
Professor Jules Pretty from the UK visited Karelian-Finnish subsistence communities and villages Jan 28th to Feb 1st.
Annual meeting of Snowchange Cooperative will be Feb 15th.
We are working on participation to the Indigenous peoples climate change summit in Alaska, USA in April.
School of Selkie has received a 10,000 euro grant for revitalisation of Karelia-Finnish traditions as well as started to implement international northern cooperation with schools from Unalakleet, Alaska and Norya, Udmurtia, Russia.