World Trade Organization (WTO) – formerly called General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). WTO deals with the rules of trade between nations at a near-global level; it is responsible for negotiating and implementing new trade agreements, and is in charge of policing member countries’ adherence to all the WTO agreements, signed by the bulk of the world's trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. Most of the WTO’s current work comes from the 1986-94 negotiations called the Uruguay Round, and earlier negotiations under the GATT. The organization is currently the host to new negotiations, under the Doha Development Agenda launched in 2001. Indigenous Peoples’ Seattle Declaration. On the occasion of the Third Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organization, 30 November - 3 December 1999: “We, the Indigenous Peoples from various regions of the world, have come to Seattle to express our great concern over how the World Trade Organization is destroying Mother Earth and the cultural and biological diversity of which we are a part. (…) The WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AOA), which promotes export competition and import liberalization, has allowed the entry of cheap agricultural products into our communities. It is causing the destruction of ecologically rational and sustainable agricultural practices of Indigenous Peoples. (…) Mining laws in many countries are being changed to allow free entry of foreign mining corporations, to enable them to buy and own mineral lands, and to freely displace Indigenous Peoples from their ancestral territories. (…) The theft and patenting of our biogenetic resources is facilitated by the TRIPs (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) of the WTO. Some plants which Indigenous Peoples have discovered, cultivated, and used for food, medicine, and for sacred rituals are already patented in the United States, Japan, and Europe.”
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) – according to the Daily Mirror from October 8, 1961, WWF’s mission was to stop the decline of our natural world due to man's folly, greed and neglect. It began in 1960, when the British biologist Sir Julian Huxley visited Africa to research a series of articles. He discovered that many parts of Africa, which 50 years before were swarming with game, had become bare of wildlife. He was inspired to call to stop poaching and other threats that were devastating wildlife populations. In September 1961 in the Swiss town of Morges, where IUCN had its headquarters, WWF came into being with the aim to save life on earth. To keep up with the evolving face of conservation and the environmental movement, WWF has not only grown in size and stature but it has also matured in its understanding of what has gone wrong and what is required to put things right. WWF recognises the importance of indigenous resource rights and knowledge for the conservation of these areas in the future. WWF has been approached by many indigenous communities seeking collaboration on issues like protected area management and the conservation of natural resources. Amongst them are the Inuit of Isabelle Bay in Canada, the Yupik of the Bering Sea, and the Evenkis of Siberia. WWF opposes commercial whaling.
WSPA World Society for the Protection of Animals.
WTO World Trade Organization (WTO).
WWF – the original name of the organisation was World Wildlife Fund, which it still is called in the U.S.A. World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
WWF International Arctic Programme – the Arctic Programme of the World Wide Fund for Nature is dealing with such issues as Tourism, the Barents Sea Eco-region, the Climate Change, the Toxics, Conservation and Sustainable Development issues, and Marine Governance. The Arctic Programme has its main office in Oslo, Norway.
WWF-Arctic Bulletin – a quarterly magazine published by the WWF International Arctic Programme, Oslo, Norway.
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Y
Yupik Eskimo-Aleut languages.
Z
Zackenberg – a rock massif at Tyroler-fjord on A.P. Olsens Land in Northeast Greenland, named by the Koldewey Expedition in 1869. A hunters hut (74.28N, 20.38W) was established in 1930 by Østgrønlandsk Fangstkompagni Nanok A/S, a Danish commercial hunting company. In 1945 a hunting station manned all year round by one or two men until 1960 when it closed replaced the hunters hut.
Zackenberg Ecological Research Operations (ZERO) – in 1995 a temporary field station was established in Northeast Greenland, and in 1997 the Zackenberg Station (74.30N, 21.00W) was officially opened. Dansk Polarcenter (DPC) is the owner of the field station and the field research is co-ordinated through ZERO. The station is manned every year from June 1 to August 31.The station provides facilities for specific but comprehensive research projects, and for long-term monitoring of three systematic programmes, the ClimateBasis programme, which is monitoring the climate, the GeoBasis programme, which is monitoring the physical landscape processes, and the Biobasis programme that is the monitoring the living nature. Results from the research and monitoring at Zackenberg are reported in the ZERO Annual Reports published by DPC. Further individual research projects are carried out at the station.
ZERO Zackenberg Ecological Research Operations (ZERO).
Zoanthropy – a person who believes himself to be an animal. A phenomenon often used in myths, legends, fables and folklore.
Zone of Peace (ZOP) – General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev proposed in his speech on October 1, 1987 in Murmansk that the Arctic should be a zone of peace: “The Soviet Union is in favour of a radical lowering of the level of military confrontation in the region. Let the North of the globe, the Arctic, become a zone of peace. Let the North Pole be a pole of peace. We suggest that all interested states start talks on the limitation and scaling down of military activity in the North as a whole, in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.” There is no clear definition on a Zone of Peace, but it has from various sides been proposed that it could be is a site with sacred, religious, historic, educational, cultural, geographical and/or environmental importance, protected and preserved by its own community and officially recognized by a governmental authority. It should not merely be a demilitarized zone, but a sanctuary, which is operated within ethical principles of non-violence, free of weapons, acts of violence, injustice and environmental degradation. Murmansk speech. Demilitarized zone.
Zone of prevailing westerlies – at latitudes between 30° N and 60° N the prevailing winds blow from the west.
Zoomorphic – the representation of animals in art and designs. Zoomorphic symbols have been fundamental for the Indigenous peoples’ mentality, because they see the animals as intermediaries between Man and spirit, and those bonds between the human being and the deity.
Zooplankton – the animal organisms – often microscopic – in plankton.
Zulu time Prime Meridian.
Å
Åland – a group of more than 6,500 small islands and skerries (1,512/583 sq. km/miles) in the Gulf of Bothia, Åland is an autonomous, demilitarised, Swedish-speaking region of Finland. Åland is the main island of the Åland Islands, which makes up 70 per cent of the Islands’ total land area and is home to 90% of the population. The population counts approximately 26,000 of which 40 per cent live in capital of Mariehamn.
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