The High North: A region of cooperation – both yesterday and today

In 2011, we are celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian researcher, humanist, diplomat, adventurer and globetrotter. Before he turned 30, Nansen was already a national hero, a status he maintained all his life until his death in 1930. In this eventful and changing period, when Norway was seeking its place among the nations of the world and shaping its special national identity, Nansen appeared on the public scene demonstrating what he called "adventurousness and the urge to perform great deeds". These were characteristics the young Norwegian nation wanted to be associated with.

As a diplomat, Nansen was active during the formation of modern Norway – another example of his many activities. Part of this picture of him also includes Nansen the humanitarian, the man who carried with him the memories of all the distress and misery he had witnessed on his travels around the end of World War I. Across Europe, Nansen is therefore remembered as the humanist, the High Commissioner for Refugees of the League of Nations, who put all his prestige into helping hundreds of thousands of refugees and prisoners of war. When in 1922 he received the Nobel Peace Prize, it was also for his help efforts during the catastrophic famine that struck the Soviet Union.

But already as a young man, living among the Inuit in Greenland as a social anthropology field worker, Nansen had demonstrated his ability to understand and adapt to other people’s way of life. Here he was far in advance of his time. Nansen's respectful presentation of their knowledge, insight, technology, living conditions and culture helped to create a favourable attitude to preserving and protecting the culture and basis of existence for indigenous peoples – an attitude that is still prevalent in the countries of the north.

Today it is Nansen's thirst for knowledge and his inquisitiveness about everything concerning the High North that makes him an idol for many, not least for today's researchers. Although Nansen was seen by his contemporaries as a bold challenger of the Greenland inland ice and the vast ice desert that is the Arctic Ocean, these daring ventures were dictated by his thirst for knowledge – not by a desire for land, wealth or fame. During his expeditions he undertook scientific studies and compiled data that yielded valuable new knowledge about animal and plant life, ice conditions and ocean currents, meteorology and geology in the Arctic regions.

Nansen sought and saw connections between life forms and environments, between climate change and living conditions. For this reason we can say – although the term did not exist in his time – that he pioneered a modern ecological understanding of nature. As a professor at the University of Oslo, he became a groundbreaking spokesman for greater international cooperation on marine research, and his works yielded knowledge about fish stocks in the northern oceans.

This exhibition is dedicated to Nansen and his scientific achievements, which contributed to a flourishing of Norwegian research, particularly in such fields as geophysics and marine biology. We see from the exhibition that this also applies to today's Norwegian researchers on issues related to the High North. By highlighting four prominent researchers from four key Norwegian scientific institutions, it draws lines from Nansen's pioneering efforts to the issues of our time. His impulses live on and continue to inspire us, although today we have satellites and scientific methods that could hardly have been imagined a century ago. In spite of our expanded insight, our need for knowledge is just as great today as it was in Nansen’s days.

Then there is also the fact that where in the past the Arctic was a truly remote location seen in a global perspective, it is today the focus of international interest. This is due to the need for energy and resources, as well as the need for increased knowledge about climate change and the consequences of the melting ice. Management of the Arctic sea areas and the continental shelf is the responsibility of the Arctic coastal states, and boundaries are determined in accordance with the international law of the sea and by treaties between states. Such agreements provide a solid basis for predictable, long-term resource management and protection of the demanding and vulnerable climate and natural conditions that characterise the region.

Today, the High North is the Norwegian Government's most important strategic foreign policy priority. This has been the case since 2005 – and it will continue to be so. The Government presented its High North Strategy in 2006, and followed it up with the next stage of the strategy, the report New Building Blocks in the North, in 2009.

In 2011, the Government will present a white paper on its High North policy. The overriding aim continues to be to increase knowledge, activity and presence in the north and to provide a basis for sustainable economic and social development in the years to come. Sound development in the northern parts of Norway gives us credibility and a solid basis for gaining acceptance internationally for Norwegian points of view on various issues related to the future of the High North.

What primarily drives development in the north is climate change associated with increased human activity, management of the area’s rich natural resources and developments in Russia and relations between Russia and Norway. The agreement on maritime delimitation and cooperation with Russia, which was signed on 15 September 2010 in Murmansk, is a milestone that shows what can be achieved in close cooperation with our large neighbour through long-term negotiations based on modern international law. The agreement determines the maritime boundary and opens great opportunities for cooperation on sustainable management and development of natural resources in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean.

The Government's High North policy focuses on how people, knowledge and competence communities in all parts of Norway can help our neighbouring areas develop in a climate of peace, stability and cooperation. In this way we will facilitate a sound climate policy, responsible resource management and healthy development of business and industry, in the best interests of all those who live in the region. All in all, this also means greater security in the north.

This focus on the High North is thus a form of modern society-building where Norway and particularly North Norway are given opportunities for new economic development based on knowledge-intensive industries, in close cooperation with our neighbouring countries.

The focus on development in the High North is a national effort. The Norwegian Government can facilitate new development in the north, but it is business and industry, culture, knowledge, resource centres and people – as well as all the cooperation partners from other countries – that can create the truly significant results that will make a difference in the north over time. Since the launch of the High North strategy, large investments have been made, particularly in research and education. Norway intends to be involved in shaping developments in the High North and the Arctic. Therefore it is our ambition to be a world leader when it comes to knowledge about this region.

Faced with today's challenges, we recognise many of the issues Nansen drew attention to, and we find inspiration in his emphasis on the balance between climatic conditions, resources and settlement patterns. The people who live in the Arctic are the most important resource the region has. Their experience and ways of life are the basis for developing new knowledge about the region.

Research based on international cooperation and transparency is a key element in these efforts. Issues relating to the Arctic are met with great interest virtually everywhere in the world. Here is one example: In connection with the conclusion of the International Polar Year in 2010, 2300 researchers from 50 countries convened in Oslo. Norway has a leading role in this work and is one of the four or five foremost nations in the field of polar research. It is natural that Norway should take on such a role, not only due to our position as a pioneer country in the field of polar research, but also to fact that we have territories and responsibility for exercising stewardship of sea areas in both polar regions.

Cooperation with our neighbour Russia in the north is extremely important. Fridtjof Nansen's life was closely linked with Russia – a country which he was intensely fascinated by. He inspired not only Norwegians but also many Russians. It is therefore appropriate that this exhibition will be shown in several locations in Russia, particularly in a year that coincides with the 300th anniversary of the Russian multi-scientist, poet and polar entrepreneur Mikhail Lomonosov from Arkhangelsk. Scientific cooperation between Norway and Russia is crucial for dealing with the challenges facing us today, for example in connection with shipping, fisheries and offshore activities in the region.

Svalbard has now become a meeting place for international research. Researchers from all corners of the globe flock to Ny-Ålesund, reflecting the international interest in participating in research on major global climate challenges. The Arctic is a region where the impact of climate change can be followed at close range. Together with Former US Vice President Al Gore, I presented a report on the melting ice at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in 2009. The consequences are increased global warming, which will in turn lead to rising sea levels and impact tropical climate and conditions for agriculture and other activities in a number of countries.

These changes are dramatic and pose major challenges for the world's population. They also provide new opportunities – such as the opening of the northern sea route to Asia along the Russian coast. Transport of ore from Syd-Varanger in Norway to China along this route could lead to substantial savings of fuel and time, but ice and climate conditions make this route unreliable. However, it may in the long term pave the way for entirely new traffic and trade in the Arctic region.

Expectations as regards oil and gas resources are another aspect of the increasing international interest in the region. The challenges related to combining preservation of the living conditions for the vital fish resources in the Barents Sea with sound exploitation of oil and gas deposits in this area are an important dimension here. Close cooperation with Russia – which has resulted, for example, in exemplary management of the north-east Arctic cod stock – is a key point of departure. The climatic conditions are extremely demanding as regards technological solutions, and intensive research and new knowledge are needed in many fields. Even if the countries that are responsible for these areas have extensive experience of offshore and other activities in the region, the investment requirements are higher here than for offshore operations under other conditions.

This is the situation in which we intend to develop good communities for people to live in. We will build on all the experience of those who have found their livelihoods in Arctic regions throughout history, living in harmony with the vulnerable natural environment.

This exhibition featuring the polar researcher Fridtjof Nansen, his heritage and his successors tells a story about the role knowledge and insight have played for sustainable management in the High North. Together with our neighbours and other cooperation partners, we have a responsibility for ensuring that resources benefit people, and that living and surviving in harmony with nature in the north will not someday just be something we can read about in history books. Natural science has taught us how vulnerable our own basis of existence is. Even with today's access to sophisticated technology and satellites, finding answers to the challenges of our time requires a lot in terms of "adventurousness and the urge to perform great deeds" – to use Nansen's words.

In 2011, we will be celebrating several anniversaries. It is 150 years since Fridtjof Nansen was born, 100 years since Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole, and 75 years since the Fram Museum in Oslo opened. We are often prone to see only the mythical aspects of the great polar explorers, seeing them as heroes and adventurers who carried out daring deeds – the extreme sports of their time. However, the polar explorers also gave us new knowledge and new horizons. They laid the cornerstones that we continue to build on.

Little would have been achieved without respect for the laws of nature and its whims, or without a scientific approach: painstaking preparations and calculations, exactitude in all details, testing and trial and error. In the Arctic and Antarctica, our focus during the last century has shifted only fractionally – the main emphasis moving somewhat from exploration towards research. However, these are not separate things, but rather different phases of development. All modern research is by its very nature international. Research thus provides a basis for even closer cooperation between states in dealing with challenges and opportunities in the Arctic and Antarctica.

Let us continue to build on the scientific and humanist ideals that brought the name of Fridtjof Nansen out to the world. Let us be inspired by the man who blazed the trail. I hope that when you visit this exhibition, you allow yourselves to marvel at Nansen’s many profiles, his versatility and the plethora of important issues explored by High North research, both then and now. Nansen represents an ideal when it comes to being curious about the natural environment as the basis of human existence, about the diversity of plant and animal life, and about the secrets of the oceans. It is the balance in the interaction between these elements that is so essential to us, and this exhibition must be viewed in the light of this diversity.

I wish the organisers every success with the exhibition both at home and abroad. I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the academic community in Norway on the 200th anniversary of the University of Oslo.