Glacier

Antarctica, Earth’s southernmost continent, contains the largest reservoir of freshwater on the planet, holding approximately 68.7 per cent of global freshwater in the form of ice sheets and glaciers (NSIDC 2025; Rignot et al. 2019). Together with Greenland, these ice sheets store over 99 per cent of the world’s freshwater ice, with the Antarctic Ice Sheet alone covering nearly 14 million square kilometres and containing about 30 million cubic kilometres of ice (NSIDC 2025). This massive ice reserve plays a crucial role in global sea levels and climate systems (IPCC 2021).

Photo by Garth Lenz.

Short description of the Mikisew Cree First Nation community 

Nestled on the northwest shore of Lake Athabasca, Fort Chipewyan is one of the most northern communities in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo. Isolated by nature, Fort Chipewyan can only be accessed by plane or boat in the summer and by a winter road in the winter.

The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), the Government of Costa Rica, and the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water (PSIPW) were jointly organizing a conference to promote the use of space technology in water management to the benefit of developing countries.

The Conference was heldin San José, Costa Rica, from 7-10 May 2024, hosted by and with the support of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) on behalf of the Government of Costa Rica.

Photo by Garth Lenz.

Short description of the Mikisew Cree First Nation community 

Nestled on the northwest shore of Lake Athabasca, Fort Chipewyan is one of the most northern communities in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo. Isolated by nature, Fort Chipewyan can only be accessed by plane or boat in the summer and by a winter road in the winter.