About ANSIPRA - origin and budget

December 2003

We have noticed that many people with whom we have contacts think that ANSIPRA is an NGO (non-governmental organisation). Although this does not cause much of a problem, we still want to set this right.

ANSIPRA is a network project, arisen from a private initiative by Winfried Dall-mann in 1998 in mutual understanding with RAIPON. The project was then consolidated under the umbrella of the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI) with a basic budget allocated from the Institute. NPI is a research and environmental management institution under the Norwegian Ministry of the Environment. ANSIPRA is not registered as an organisation and, consequently, is fully dependent on the Norwegian State.

The basic budget covers salaries of the secretariat staff, office facilities, and copies as well as postage of the bulletins. For other expenses, like translations and other work which exceeds the capacity of the staff, ANSIPRA needs sponsors.

We have experienced difficulties in finding sponsors ready to allocate a small amount of funding on an annual basis. Although the amount needed is only in the range of US$ 2000-3000 a year, it is a hard work to raise these relatively small funds every year, again and again. We would be grateful if any of the institutions which use the information we distribute through our bulletin and website could help - or continue to help - keeping our activities alive.