Nordic Agency for Development and Ecology / Nordisk Fond for Miljø og Udvikling (NORDECO) is an inter-disciplinary organization aimed at developing and applying natural and social science to real-world development challenges. NORDECO develops tools and methods, carries out research, connects persons and institutions, builds capacity, and supports interventions on the ground. Founded in 1991, NORDECO has the declared goal of supporting local, innovative conservation and development initiatives in remote communities. Globally, NORDECO has spearheaded the development of bottom-up approaches to natural resource monitoring and management, where local people or local government staff are directly involved in data collection and interpretation, and where monitoring is linked to the decisions of local people,using methods that are simple, cheap and require few resources. Such approaches can help generate transparency, accountability and local ownership in sustainable natural resource management initiatives. NORDECO is coordinating the international Monitoring Matters Network, which involves researchers and practitioners from universities, community-based and non-governmental organizations, and government agencies (www.monitoringmatters.org). The research publications by NORDECO on community-based observing systems are among the most cited in their field and have contributed to changes in national and international policies. NORDECO is registered in Greenland/Denmark as a social enterprise (SME) with headquarters in Copenhagen.
NORDECO's role in CAPARDUS is to lead the case studies in Greenland (WP2, Arctic Russia (WP4 and the USA (WP5). In addition, NORDECO will contribute to developing data management standards (WP1), co-designing Arctic Common Practices System (WP6), and undertaking outreach and capacity development (WP8).