Mercury Risk Evaluation, Risk Management and Risk Reduction Measures in the Arctic (ARCRISK) – Inception Report

The project “Risk evaluation, risk reduction and risk management action plans for mercury in the Arctic – a circumpolar management approach” (ARCRISK) has been developed to address mercury pollution in the Arctic. The main objective is to develop an action plan with targeted risk reduction measures for mercury releases from key sources to land and water in the Arctic. The action plan will cover key sources from each of the four selected case study river catchment basins in Canada (1), Norway (1), and Russia (2). The ARCRISK project team consists of experts from nine highly skilled research institutes, universities and other institutions, from Canada, Norway, Russia and USA. An inception workshop was held in Oslo in March 2020 to consolidate the team and collectively develop the project framework. The present report summarizes key deliberations and decisions made as part of the inception phase, to further operationalize the project, making detailed plans and decisions for implementation of the project in 2020-2022. In addition to the components described in the inception report, the framework also includes an updated budget and a workplan for implementation of WP2-6.