About CARMA
The CircumArctic Rangifer Monitoring & Assessment Network is a response to the Arctic Council's call to monitor Arctic biodiversity in the face of dramatic global changes. The series of Networks are being implemented by the Biodiversity Working Group of CAFF (Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna). CARMA is also a project of IASC (International Arctic Science Committee) and an initiative of the IPY (International Polar Year).
What CARMA is:
- A collaboration among communities, scientists, governments to exchange information on the environment, and status and use of wild Rangifer populations across the north
- A means of synthesizing existing community monitoring, climate stations, remote sensing, field studies, socio-economic data and development activity to understand the full impacts of change on the human/Rangifer system.
- A value-added vehicle so partners can better track change within their region.
- A source for reporting standard methods and protocols currently being used to monitor populations, the environment and the human activities within the human/Rangifer system.
- A center where partners can exchange ideas, observations and data across the CircumArctic
- An annual report card on the status of the major wild Rangifer herds
What CARMA hopes to be:
- A monitoring network of all wild Rangifer subspecies. Presently we are focussing on the large migratory herds from North America and Russia and "representative" wild herds from other Rangifer countries
CARMA mission statement
"Through cooperation, both geographically and across disciplines, to monitor and assess the impacts of global change on the human/Rangifer system across the CircumArctic."
CARMA partners
Coordinators: Don Russell; Gary Kofinas; Wendy Nixon
Institutions: The following institutions have sent representatives to one or all of the annual CARMA meetings:
| Affiliation | Country |
| Alaska Department of Fish and Game | USA |
| Arctic Borderlands Ecological Knowledge Co-operative | Canada |
| Arctic Centre, University of Lapland | Finland |
| Beverly & Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board | Canada |
| British Columbia Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection | Canada |
| Environment Canada, Canadian Wildlife Service | Canada |
| Environment Canada, Climate Research Centre | Canada |
| Environment Canada, Meteorological Service | Canada |
| Extreme North Agricultural Research Institute | Russia |
| Finnish Forest Research Institute | Finland |
| Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Department of Environment and Conservation | Canada |
| Government of Northwest Territories, Department of Environment and Natural Resources | Canada |
| Government of Nunavut, Nunavut Wildlife Service, Department of Sustainable Development | Canada |
| Government of Yukon, Department of the Environment | Canada |
| Greenland Institute of Natural Resources | Greenland |
| GRID-Arendal | Norway |
| Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology | Germany |
| Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach | Canada |
| Natural Resources Canada, Canada Centre for Remote Sensing | Canada |
| North Slope Borough, Wildlife Department | USA |
| Norwegian Institute for Nature Research | Norway |
| Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, Department of Wildlife | Canada |
| Porcupine Caribou Management Board | Canada |
| Québec Ministry of Natural Resources, Wildlife & Parks | Canada |
| Reindeer Herders International Center | Norway |
| Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Biological Problems of the Cryolithozone | Russia |
| Saami University College | Norway |
| St. Petersburg State University, Institute of Geography | Russia |
| The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) | Norway |
| United States Geological Survey, Alaska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit | USA |
| University of Alaska Fairbanks, Institute of Arctic Biology | USA |
| University of Alaska Fairbanks, Reindeer Research Program | USA |
| University of British Columbia, Department of Geography | Canada |
| University of Calgary, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine | Canada |
| University of Manitoba, Natural Resource Institute | Canada |
| University of Northern British Columbia, Forestry Department | Canada |
| University of Washington, Department of Atmospheric Sciences | USA |
| Western Arctic Herd Working Group, Alaska | USA |