Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic Report (AACA) workshop took place in Saint-Petersburg, Russia on premises of the Arctic and Antarctic science research institute. The workshop took its place on April 13-16 and gathered authors and working group members on this project. Mikhail Pogodaev was invited as an expert to work on chapters 2 and 6.

The Arctic is experiencing climate change during the last decades and modern research shows that it gets even worse. This change heavily affect consequences for physical, chemical and biological conditions of the Arctic eco systems and therefore – this will change the whole Arctic fundamentally.

Climate change is primary and main driver for change in the Arctic, yet this is not an exclusive factor. Other forces of change are global demand for nature resources, tourism, transport services, fishing industry and economic development also affect change in the Arctic. All these factors for change are often interconnected and interdependent.

In 2011, SAO Committee of the Arctic Council has received a task to consider an issue of need for complex evaluation of varied factors of change in the Arctic to use as a tool for the indigenous peoples, Arctic residents, governments and industrial companies to prepare them for future. This led to creation of the AACA project.

Agenda of the workshop included reports on status of preparation of chapters for this report, coordination of work of different author groups on these chapters. This workshop was meant to provide conditions for joint work of authors of chapters, determine needed materials and discuss main problems of report preparation, coordination of joint actions.

Overall aim of AACA project is preparation and provision of the most full information for grounded, timely and responsible policy and decision-making in conditions of changing Arctic.

Mikhail Pogodaev has met representatives of different organizations during the workshop – Jon Fuglestad, a representative of AMAP Secretariat; Marianne Kroglund – a representative of Norwegian Environment Agency; Tom Armstrong – a director of US Global Change Research Program; Svein Mathiesen – a Professor of EALAT Institute of Uarctic, Alexander Pilyasov – a director of Center on Economics of the North and the Arctic, Council of productive force research, etc.

Issues discussed during the meetings included participation in AACA-C project and general cooperation within the Arctic Council.

Mr. Pogodaev also spoke on this workshop as the Northern Forum representative on an issue of Russian Barents regions’ and indigenous NGOs possibility of joining the Northern Forum. Particularly he outlined the Northern Forum Sakha project “Humans in the Arctic” which is directly related to evaluation of living conditions during the global change in the Arctic using social indicators.