Strategic Environmental Assessment in a Transition Country. Development of SEA Screening Criteria for Belarus

The Arctic Council focuses on environmental protection and sustainable development issues; it is strictly forbidden to engage issues of security or territory. Nonetheless it is the premier БЂњArcticБЂ«polity as of 2010. 345 By the turn of the millennium, even before the shock wave of 9/11, things had started to tighten up. People were beginning to consider the prospect of new economic opportunities for oil and gas exploration, shipping, and fisheries made possible by the reduction of summer Arctic sea ice. Under the Putin administration, Russia began funding her own scientists again, while also rolling up the welcome mat for western scientists. I and two graduate studentsБЂ”informed we were no longer allowed to do fieldwork even if escorted by Russian colleaguesБЂ”packed up and left. 346 ACIA, Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 1042 pp. Available for free download at 347 AMSA, Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 2009 Report, Arctic Council, 190 pp., April 2009. 348 These things are specifically barred from the Arctic CouncilБЂ™s mandate ...»