SIKU is one of several IPY 2007–2008 projects aimed at documenting indigenous observations of environmental changes in the polar areas, with its specific focus on sea ice and the use of ice-covered habitats by the residents of the Arctic. Incidentally, the project’s acronym SIKU is also the most common word for sea ice (siku) in all Eskimo/Inuit languages, from Chukotka to Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. As a collaborative international initiative, SIKU brings anthropologists, human geographers, sea ice and climate scientists, marine and ecosystem biologists from the U.S., Canada, Russia, Greenland, and France in partnership with almost two dozen indigenous communities in Alaska, Arctic Canada, the Russian Chukchi Peninsula, and Greenland. SIKU, like many IPY 2007–2008 projects, is organized as a consortium of local or national initiatives with their respective budgets provided by the national funding agencies. Presently, the main operational components of the SIKU initiative are the Inuit Sea Ice Use and Occupancy Project (ISIUOP) in Canada (see summary report on the ISIUOP activities), the Alaska-Chukotkan portion of SIKU made of several local efforts (see field reports by Nicole Stuckenberger and Josh Wisniewski), and the Greenlandic component that is being developed as a part of the continuing SILA-Inuk project administered by the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC)-Greenland office in Nuuk. Recently, a small French team secured its funding to join the SIKU initiative and to conduct sea ice knowledge studies in Greenland.

There are over 4 million wild and 1.8 million domestic reindeer and caribou inhabiting the earth’s arctic regions. This keystone species has been an economic and cultural mainstay of nearly every indigenous group in the Arctic. Recent profound changes have been occurring in the North with the potential to jeopardize the relationship forged over countless generations between Rangifer, the land and the people. The CARMA Network network defines its mission:

To monitor and assess the impacts of global change on the human/Rangifer system across the Arctic through cooperation, both geographically and across disciplines.

Our IPY activities are designed to further an interdisciplinary and cross-institutional discussion about climate change, Arctic peoples, and international policy through: a series of lectures and workshops; a museum exhibition and related publications; and, the organization of the 2007 Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW).

CAVIAR - Community Adaptation and Vulnerability in the Arctic Regions – is an international research consortium consisting of partners from the eight Arctic nations. The main goal of CAVIAR is to identify how projected changes in climate interact with changes in social and natural conditions, and how such interactions shape vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in Arctic Regions. Comparable case studies across Arctic communities will provide a basis for synthesizing knowledge of vulnerabilities and for exchanging experiences with adaptation.

ESSAR addresses how climate variability and change affects the marine ecosystems of the polar (Subarctic and Arctic) seas and their sustainability. To provide accurate projections on the impact of climate warming on these ecosystems requires improved knowledge of its components and their linkages. Because of the complexity of the interactions, accurate predictions of what will happen to individual species requires knowledge on key life-history traits and of what will happen to the ecosystem as a whole, as species do not function separately from their ecosystem. ESSAR, therefore, encompasses retrospective and field studies on physics, plankton, benthos, fish and shellfish, marine mammals, sea birds and humans. The field studies will be carried out in the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans during 2007-2008. The data gathered will be used, together with bio-physical models, to make quantifiable predictions of the effects of both climate variability and long-term climate change on arctic polar marine ecosystems.

Collecting oceanographic data from ice-filled polar waters is costly and logistically challenging. Rather than relying solely on human scientists, this project uses beluga whales and four seal species as ocean explorers to collect information about the conductivity (salinity), temperature and depth (CTD) of Arctic and Antarctic waters. By fitting state-of-the-art CTD tags on dozens of these deep-diving marine mammals, scientists will be able to gather a rich new data set that will extend our knowledge of the world's oceans as well as the top predators that live in them. MEOP will provide a unique source of fundamental physical and biological data from the polar oceans. Its unique approach will compliment efforts in many other IPY projects and will leave a legacy of useful biological and ocean data along with new approaches to understanding the interaction between marine predators and their ecosystem.

The development of a polar-based photobioreactor for the production of bioactive compounds by indigenous micro-algae and cyanobacteria.

Indigenous youth will inherit large portions of the north and the responsibility for protecting its natural resources. They will choose future livelihoods in a world where economic, political and environmental decisions occur in multinational global forums. This project will develop future environmental decision-makers and indigenous community leaders who understand and appreciate conservation issues and the roles of science, indigenous knowledge and politics in conservation decision-making.""