| Summary: | Establishing and implementing a long-term environmental monitoring programme in PolarRegions is both a complex and multidisciplinary field which requires participation andinvolvement of a great number of specialists on diverse and varied topics.The Swedish Polar Research Secretariat, responsible to promote and coordinate polarresearch, has always had the ambition to protect the Antarctic’s environment and theassociated and dependent ecosystems. In accordance with the Protocol on environmentalprotection in Antarctica, the secretariat has implemented an environmental monitoringprogramme since the beginning of the 1990’s. However, the output is not fullycomprehensive: on the one hand, it has provided necessary information on the understandingof the area and permitted to take mitigation measures, on the other hand, sporadic measuresand inappropriate data management system has left gaps in the environmental knowledge ofthe area.That is why, within the International Polar Year framework, the secretariat has decided toimplement a complete long-term environmental monitoring programme to not only evaluateimpacts from anthropogenic activities around the Swedish polar stations Wasa and Svea butalso to estimate their trend.The success of such programme depends on several key elements: feasible and clearly definedobjectives, a standardized sampling programme and an efficient data management system.Moreover, this programme should be strongly linked with the decision-making process andinternational cooperation would make this programme even more valuable.As science advancement continues, the need to protect the Antarctic’s environment becomemore and more obvious, indeed, we know that this continent maybe keeps in its ice answers totomorrow’s environmental questions. Att genomföra ett miljöövervakningsprogram i polarområdena är en komplex disciplin sombehöver medverkan och engagemeng av ett stort antal specialister inom många ämnen.Polarforskningssekretariatet är en myndighet som har till uppgift att främja och samordnasvensk ...
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