JANSROP Phase II
JANSROP Phase II: A New Project on the NSR and the Related Issues
INSROP developed and proved technical possibility of the NSR as an international commercial sea-lane and it ended successfully with abundant fruit in assessment of the insurance and legal issues of the NSR and sensible suggestions for improvements.
After the INSROP, however, drastic transformation took place in the political and socio-economic situation in Russia and simultaneously the circumstance around the NSR has been changing in response to the world markets of natural resources. The SOF then examined the current Russian movements and the world market trend in 2002, and decided to start a new project on the NSR and the related issues from a new dimension in close cooperation with Russia. The new project, "JANSROP Phase II" was determined to carry out in a three-year time frame from 2002, with kind support of The Nippon Foundation again. The formal title of this project, "Development and Operation Programme for Environmental Sustainability in East Eurasia", is named for brevity JANSROP Phase II that characterizes the Japan-funded project. JANSROP had been the domestic project carried out by the SOF in the same time frame of the INSROP.
In contrast to the INSROP, JANSROP Phase II lays stress on the eastern part of the NSR including some regions of Siberia, Far East Russia and the Sea of Okhotsk. The primary objective of the Project is to stimulate Asian countries' interest in the NSR through the presentation of update information of natural resources preserved in the regions with development and transportation scenarios. The Project tries accordingly to draw up a scheme of their development and put forward scenarios of an effective infrastructure for ship operations and a transportation complex.
A proposal of a marine operation regime in the sub-arctic region, which is characterized by harsh climate conditions as a whole, is another objective of the Project, and the regime should be discussed on the principle of environmental sustainability, with a particular emphasis on the Sea of Okhotsk as an archetypal example. The project work centers in Japan with participation of research institutes in foreign countries such as Russia, Norway and Canada. The outcome of the study is scheduled to be presented at an international forum or conference. For a substantial assessment of the NSR prospect, the second experimental voyage plan would materialize when the project concludes its necessity.
The core concept of the JANSROP Phase II is "Sustainable Development", in harmony with the preservation of the environment in the regions, eastern Eurasia, as indicated clearly in the above-mentioned study contents. This concept, having put forth buds in the latter half of the 1980s and been declared to the whole world at the Earth Summit in 1992, will take on added significance in the 21st century. The concept is vital to the development in the arctic and sub-arctic regions because the regions have a deep influence on the earth system and an environmental vulnerability to pollution.
The SOF is confident of being able to contribute tremendously to the marine industry, commercial shipping and various markets of natural resources through announcing a proposal of a rational regime concept for marine operations and management and arousing an interest of Asian markets in the regions relatively unconcerned in the past.