A new report from the Nordic Council of Ministers describes a co-operation project involving the local authorities in Ísafjörður in Iceland, Longyearbyen on Svalbard, Norway and Sisimiut in Greenland.

The report attempts to provide a systematic description and comparison of the common Local Agenda 21 factors in each of the communities. Those factors are: local authority structure and democracy, business, sewage, drainage, marine pollution, hunting and biological diversity, environment protection, tourism and cultural heritage.

The Local Agenda 21 project in the Arctic Region was launched in August 2000 with resources from the Arctic Steering Committee, a sub-grouping of the Nordic Council of Ministers' Nature, Outdoor Life and Cultural Environment Group (NFK).

The project represented part of the follow-up to the Nordic action plan to preserve the natural and cultural environment in the Arctic Region: Greenland, Iceland and Svalbard. The aim was to promote and facilitate the work of Arctic local authorities to draw up action plans for sustainable development in the Arctic Region according to chapter 28 of the Rio Convention (Agenda 21).
The report is only published on-line.