Date

Dear Colleagues,

In February of 1999, eighty scientists, indigenous leaders, NGO
representatives, and resource managers gathered in Rovaniemi, Finland for an
interdisciplinary workshop on the Human Role of Reindeer/Caribou Systems.
There are several products from that workshop now available for your review.

They include a web-based Human-Reindeer/Caribou Systems resource located at
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~arctic/rangifer/ and a Workshop Report and
Research Plan. The Report and Research Plan text is found at the
"Development of a Research Plan" section on the web site, where it can be
downloaded as a PDF file or reviewed on-line. I encourage you to look at the
web site and ask that you please review the Research Plan.

You are also invited to join the newly established Human-Reindeer/Caribou
Systems listserve by going to the "Join the Discussion" section of the
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~arctic/rangifer/ home page. It is our hope it will
become a forum for information exchange on circumpolar
Human-Reindeer/Caribou Systems research planning, serve as a way of
networking people with common interests in grazing systems, and help to
build on the work undertaken in Rovaniemi.

Forthcoming this year is a volume of articles on the Human Role in
Reindeer/Caribou Systems by workshop participants to be published in a
special issue of Polar Research. Copies will be available through the
Institute of Arctic Studies at Dartmouth College. Write to
arctic [at] dartmouth.edu

We look forward to hearing your suggestions and reviews on the web site and
Research Plan, and talking about how to advance this work in the future.

Sincerely,

Gary Kofinas, Ph.D.
Research Associate
Institute of Arctic Biology - Univ. of Alaska Fairbanks
and
Research Fellow
Institute of Arctic Studies - Dartmouth College

11 Monadnock Court
Keene, NH 03431 USA
phone and fax: 603 / 352 2407
kofinas [at] dartmouth.edu