The Northern Sustainable Development Forum will be launched in the city of Yakutsk, September 24 -28, 2019. From this year on, the forum is an annual event and is aspiring to become one of the main collaborative grounds for solving and discussing challenges and possible perspectives of sustainability in the North/the Arctic regions.
It is believed that it is going to serve as a fertile ground for the project-implementation networking groups of the participants from the regions of the global North and the North-Eastern Asian countries which are interested in the Arctic issues.
Needless to say, that the Northeast of the Arctic region undergoes the evident climatic change, which require an interdisciplinary approach and conducting of research under a leadership of the internationally regarded group of experts. Furthermore, it is compulsory as of now to consider a participation of a sizeable region like Yakutia in programs on sustainable development for the North and the Arctic regions within a global context, regarding the fact that the largest formation of permafrost is located in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The slightest signs of the climate change in Yakutia resonate in the other places of the world.
Additionally, the necessity for founding and locating “The Northern Forum” in Yakutia, has to do directly with the increased interest of the Asian Countries’ Alliance to participate in the projects involving the development of the Arctic region. In return, the countries of the Arctic hemisphere are interested in active participation of Asian investors, researchers, and project-developers in the variety of projects, such as the development of naval northern infrastructure and preservation of biodiversity in the Arctic. Yakutia is located in between the two expanses: the Arctic and Asia, and can serve as a bridge for the two zones. In connection to this possibility, and also following up with the Agenda on Sustainable Development- 2030 released by the General Assembly of the UN 17, “The Northern Forum”, the North-Eastern Federal University after M.K Ammosov, and the Government of Republic Sakha (Yakutia) came forward with an initiative of creating, on a permanent basis, a collaborative venue “The Northern Sustainable Development Forum”.
The Forum participants are representatives of eleven countries – eight circumpolar countries (Russia, Canada, USA, Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark) and three countries of the North-East Asia (People’s Republic of China, South Korea, and Japan).