IPY Svalbard Course 2008: A multidisciplinary science - management cross-talk course on IPY projects and sustainable management of Svalbard

The target group of the IPY Svalbard Course 2008 are executive officers and managers in Norwegian governmental administration and the industry, and the aim of the course is to give the participants an introduction to the natural conditions, history, polit ics, environmental monitoring, industrial activity, tourism and managing of Svalbard and the Norwegian Arctic. In connection with the International Polar Year we will focus particularly on environmental, historic, political, and industrial research in tha t is relevant for the management of Svalbard as one of the Worlds last wilderness areas. Special focus will be devoted to presenting the outcome from the several IPY-projects that the organizing institutions (Norwegian University of Science and Technology [NTNU], Norwegian Polar Institute [NP] and University Center at Svalbard [UNIS]). are involved in. Through lectures, a cruise around Spitsbergen with landings and excursions, demonstrations and hands-on experience, and cross-talk plenum debates between s cientists and the participants, the course will give the participants updated information that is necessary for a sound and sustainable management of wildlife and the environment, tourism and natural resources and industry at Svalbard. The course (ca. 2 5 partcipants) will be implemented as an excursion around Svalbard using a larger vessel. To demonstrate and illustrate research activities within biology and geology and important historic, industrial and political events, landings will be made at approp riate sites, such as Svea, the Swedish Research Station at Kinnvika and maybe Rijpfjorden, Nordaustlandet, Ny-Ålesund, the Polish Research Station at Hornsund, Russian Research Stations in Barentsburg and Kapp Linné.