Profile

Timo Koivurova, Research Professor, Director of the Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law, Arctic Centre/University of Lapland; Docent of International Law, Faculty of Law, Economics and Business Administration/University of Eastern Finland; Docent of International Law, Faculty of Law/University of Turku.

Research professor Timo Koivurova has specialized in various aspects of international law applicable in the Arctic and Antarctic region. In 2002, Koivurova's doctoral dissertation "Environmental impact assessment in the Arctic: a Study of International Legal Norms" was published by Ashgate.

Increasingly, his research work addresses the interplay between different levels of environmental law, legal status of indigenous peoples, law of the sea in the Arctic waters, integrated maritime policy in the EU, the role of law in mitigating/adapting to climate change, the function and role of the Arctic Council in view of its future challenges and the possibilities for an Arctic treaty. He has been involved as an expert in several international processes globally and in the Arctic region.

Professor Koivurova has been and is involved in many international research projects. He was a co-leader of a global research project on the theory and practise of transboundary environmental impact assessment, the outcome of this research project now being published by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers (2008). He was a research leader-in-charge in Finnish Academy funded CIGSAC (The Capability of International Governance Systems in the Arctic to Contribute to the mitigation of Climate Change and Adjust to its Consequences) and Commission of the EU funded project comparing the ocean governance and law of the sea positions of Canada and EU respectively (co- director). He was one of the co-leaders in a research group having as its aim to outline the policy and legal context in the Arctic marine region, this research group being part of the EU Commission funded "TRANSFORM: Transatlantic Policy Options for Supporting Adaptations in the Marine Arctic" and leading a project - together with professor Kai Kokko - to examine the legal issues related to an idea to negotiate Pan-European forest management convention for the Ministerial Conference for the Protection of Forests in Europe. Currently, professor Koivurova is one of the co-leads in the EU Commission funded Arctic footprint project and, together with professor Kai Kokko, leading a research team to examine the EU competencies affecting the Arctic, a study that will be done for the European Parliament.

Professor Koivurova is a member of the IUCN's Commision on Environmental (CEL) and has been invited by the Norwegian Research Council to serve as a member in the steering committees' overseeing large research programmes: Geopolitikk-Nord, which examines the evolving Arctic policy from the Norwegian perspective; and NORRUSS, which aims to study the evolving northern policy of the Russian Federation. Professor Koivurova is also - together with professor Gudmundur Alfredsson - editor-in-chief in the Yearbook of Polar Law.