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Nuuk and Sermitsiaq mountain, Greenland
Nuuk and Sermitsiaq mountain, Greenland
© vadim.nefedov / Adobe Stock

EPPR helps small communities prepare for oil spill risks with launch of educational video

1 December 2020
Народы АрктикиЧРЕЗВЫЧАЙНЫЕ СИТУАЦИИКанадаНорвегияСоединённые Штаты АмерикиАлеутская международная ассоциацияРабочая группа по предупреждению, готовности и ликвидации чрезвычайных ситуаций
The video creates awareness on impacts and risks of oil spills and challenges they may create in small communities

The Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response (EPPR) Working Group of the Arctic Council today released a new video on oil spill pollution prevention and response. The video serves as an educational resource for small communities in the Arctic that are increasingly at risk for oil spill pollution.

As human activity is increasing in the Arctic, so does the risk of accidents and oil spill incidents. EPPR developed its Prevention, Preparedness and Response in Small Communities project to better understand preparedness and risk exposure in small and remote Arctic communities. The project seeks to meaningfully engage with small communities to raise awareness of oil spill threats, vulnerabilities and impacts, and ensure communities have access to best practices and capacity building. A first video of the project, focusing on basic oil spill response principles, was released in 2019. The newly released video is a continuation of the series. A third video is being planned to complete the series and will address how to develop a community response plan.

“Even small oil spills, when left unaddressed, can cause serious damage to the environment, local economy, people and cultures. That is why it is so important for communities to understand them and why we want to create awareness on the risks, their impacts and response activities– and this video together with the first one serves as an entry point to community preparedness.” Jens Peter Holst-Andersen, Chair of EPPR

“As the changing Arctic becomes more assessable to activities coming from outside the region, we are seeing an increased risk of oil spill pollution that disproportionally affects local peoples and the environment they heavily rely on,” said Jens Peter Holst-Andersen, Chair of EPPR. “Even small oil spills, when left unaddressed, can cause serious damage to the environment, local economy, people and cultures. That is why it is so important for communities to understand them and why we want to create awareness on the risks, their impacts and response activities– and this video together with the first one serves as an entry point to community preparedness.”

The ten-minute video focuses on potential risks of and impacts to communities of acute oil pollution. It educates viewers on calculating and understanding risks of oil spill pollution, types of threats, the range of impacts that may occur, communicating risks and reasonable steps community members can take. Shorter clips were made for each segment of the video for theme-based outreach.

Phase III of EPPR’s Prevention, Preparedness and Response in Small Communities project is led by Norway, Canada, the United States and Aleut International Association.

The video, along with the first, can be viewed here on EPPR’s Vimeo channel. The high-resolution video may be downloaded through Vimeo for viewing and external distribution.

Click here for a direct link to the full video.

For questions and requests for video files, please contact:
EPPR Secretariat
eppr@arctic-council.org

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Prevention, Preparedness and Response for small communities