Arctic Council

The sustainable development program of the Arctic Council has a clear goal

• to propose and adopt steps to be taken by the Arctic States to advance sustainable development in the Arctic, including opportunities
• to protect and enhance the environment and the economies, culture and health of Indigenous Peoples and Arctic communities, as well as
• to improve the environmental, economic and social conditions of Arctic communities as a whole.

The guiding tenet running throughout the work of the Sustainable Development Working Group (SDWG) is to pursue initiatives that provide practical knowledge and contribute to building the capacity of Indigenous Peoples and Arctic communities to respond to the challenges and benefit from the opportunities emerging in the Arctic Region. 

Increasingly, the activities of the Arctic Council, across all working groups, have become cross-cutting. In this regard, the SDWG is ever more required to contribute to Arctic Council priority areas being carried out by other working groups and subsidiary bodies. The SDWG has an important contribution to make to this
cross-cutting work, particularly in the socio-economic dimension and has been exploring new ways to organize and conduct its work with the aim of taking a more strategic view of its priorities and work ahead.

SDWG Chairmanship is currently held by Sweden and the SDWG Secretariat is based in Canada.

Description of SDWG Major Areas of Activity:

Consistent with the overall work and priorities of the Arctic Council, the SDWG carries out projects and activities, as approved by the Arctic Council Senior Arctic Officials, in the following thematic areas:

Arctic Human Health:
To broaden the scope and strengthen the integration of human health activities
within the Council by developing concrete initiatives to improve the health and
well-being of Indigenous Peoples and other Arctic residents.

Arctic Socio-Economic Issues:
To advance on a better understanding of the human influences on the Arctic environment and the socio-economic conditions of Indigenous Peoples and Arctic communities.

Adaptation to Climate Change:
To strengthen the work of the Council by reducing vulnerability and implementing adaptation initiatives related to climate change in the Arctic, including practical community-based actions.

Energy and Arctic Communities:
To consider future projects and activities in relation to the Arctic region as an energy consumer, and the importance of environmentally friendly economic activity in the energy sector to ongoing social and economic development in the Arctic region.

Management of Natural Resources:
To consider that Indigenous Peoples and Arctic communities rely on the sustainable use of natural resources for their health and economic well-being. Increases in shipping, petroleum activities, fishing, mining, climate change and variability require that the management of resources is based on a holistic perspective.

Arctic Cultures and Languages:
To support Arctic cultures; to reduce the loss of Arctic Indigenous languages and to follow-up on the Arctic Indigenous Languages Symposium.

Current Major Ongoing SDWG Projects 2011-2013:

Arctic Peoples:

1. Comparative Review of Circumpolar Health Systems (Canada/Greenland)
2. Arctic Human Health Initiative (USA)
3. International Circumpolar Surveillance (USA)
4. Arctic Social Indicators Phase II (Iceland)
5. Assessment of Cultural Heritage Monuments and Sites in the Arctic (Norway)

Oceans:

Areas of Heightened Cultural Significance – Follow-up on AMSA Recommendation IIC (Norway)

Download SDWG 2009-2011 deliverables 

The PAME Working Group's activities are directed towards protection of the Arctic marine environment. Increased economic activity and significant changes due to climatic processes are resulting in increased use, opportunities and threats to the Arctic marine and coastal environments.  These predicted changes require more integrated approaches to address both existing and emerging challenges of the Arctic marine and coastal environments. 

PAME's mandate is to address policy and non-emergency pollution prevention and control measures related to the protection of the Arctic marine environment from both land and sea-based activities. These include coordinated action programmes and guidelines complementing existing legal arrangements.

Download PAME publications here

EPPR website: 

http://eppr.arctic-council.org/

Current chairmanship:

Norway

 

Contact:

Chair

Ole Kristian Bjerkemo

Department for Emergency Response

Norwegian Coastal Administration

E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Tel: +47 33 03 48 18
Fax: +47 97 04 26 40

Vice chair

Ann Heinrich

Deputy Director

Office of International Emergency Management and Cooperation, US Department of Energy

202-586-8165
Fax: 202-586-2164

 

Executive secretary

Synnøve Lunde

E-mail:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response Working Group (EPPR) addresses various aspects of prevention, preparedness and response to environmental emergencies in the Arctic. Members of the Working Group exchange information on best practices and conduct projects to include development of guidance and risk assessment methodologies, response exercises, and training. The goal of the EPPR Working Group is to contribute to the protection of the Arctic environment from the threat or impact that may result from an accidental release of pollutants or radionuclides. In addition, the Working Group considers issues related to response to the consequences of natural disasters.

EPPR works with Arctic Council Working Groups and other organizations to ensure that the emergencies are appropriately addressed in Council products and work. EPPR also maintains liaison with the oil industry and other relevant organizations with the aim of enhancing oil spill prevention and preparedness in the Arctic.

In 2010 EPPR revised its Strategic Plan of Action to clearly express the vision, guiding principles, and objectives of the EPPR Working Group.

During the Danish Chairmanship, from 2009 through 2011 EPPR conducted the following projects:

• Behavior of Oil and other Hazardous Substances in Arctic Waters (BoHaSA)
• Arctic Rescue
• Development of Safety Systems in Implementation of Economic and Infrastructural Projects
• Conduct of Radiation Emergency Exercises
• Co-operation on oil spill and HNS response in the Arctic
• Managing the cold conditions – A systematic approach
• Guidelines and Strategies for Oily Waste Management in the Arctic Regions
• Preventing Radiological Incidents and Emergencies: Source Control Project

EPPR sponsored specific technical projects to improve capabilities to analyze and respond to radiation related incidents or accidents. These included:

• Delivery of updated radiation survey and personal monitoring equipment to the Emergency Response Team at the Zvezdochka facility in the Russian Federation
• Development of a computer-based training tool, the Radiation Survey Simulation System which employs realistic scenarios and site-specific data to train facility responders
• Under the Community Radiation Information project, EPPR produced the Glossary for Nuclear Enterprise Information Services in Russian to assist public information
  specialists in communicating about radiation and accidents to the public and media

For the 7th Ministerial Meeting EPPR prepared the following documents:

• Behavior of Oil and other Hazardous Substances in Arctic Waters (BoHaSA report)
• Source Control (Prevention Project) Phase Four Report
• A Ten-Year Summary of Source Control Prevention Projects
• Report on the radiological emergency response exercise conducted at “Nerpa” Shipyard facility in the Russian Federation

At its meeting in Whitehorse, Canada, June 15-16, EPPR focused on the following main priority activities during the Swedish Chairmanship from 2011-2013:

• Support the work of the Task Force established by the Arctic Council to develop an international instrument on Arctic marine oil pollution preparedness and response
• Develop recommendations and/or best practices in the prevention of marine oil pollution
• Consider the BoHaSa report recommendations for future projects and activities within EPPR
• Arctic Rescue
• Safety Systems in Implementation of Economic and Infrastructural Projects
• Exercises and training in radiological emergency management
• Technical projects to improve capabilities to analyze and respond to radiation related incidents or accidents
• Pilot project “Arctic Automated Mutual Assistance Vessel Rescue Network”
• Pilot project “Arctic Region Oil Spill Response Resource and Logistics Guide”

Working Group Administration: Projects undertaken in EPPR are generally accomplished by each country funding its own effort. Certain projects have been funded substantially by one country, for instance Norway’s generous funding of the BoHaSa project. Financing of projects is projected and planned in the project framework developed in the proposal phase and agreed when the project is approved by EPPR. EPPR has no standing budget and the United States is currently funding the EPPR Secretariat. EPPR meets twice a year.

Download documents and reports from the EPPR website http://eppr.arctic-council.org/

AMAP:  Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme Working Group

AMAP Secretariat is based in Oslo, Norway

AMAP Chairmanship is currently held by Canada.

AMAP's current objective is "providing reliable and sufficient information on the status of, and threats to, the Arctic environment, and providing scientific advice on actions to be taken in order to support Arctic governments in their efforts to take remedial and preventive actions relating to contaminants".

AMAP is responsible for measuring the levels, and assessing the effects of anthropogenic pollutants in all compartments of the Arctic environment, including humans; documenting trends of pollution; documenting sources and pathways of pollutants; examining the impact of pollution on Arctic flora and fauna, especially those used by indigenous people; reporting on the state of the Arctic environment; and giving advice to Ministers on priority actions needed to improve the Arctic condition.

AMAP's priorities include the following contaminant groups and issues:

• Persistent organic contaminants (POPs)
• Heavy metals (in particular mercury, cadmium, and lead)
• Radioactivity
• Acidification and Arctic haze (in a subregional context)
• Petroleum hydrocarbon pollution (in a subregional context)
• Climate change (environmental consequences and biological effects in the Arctic resulting from global climate change)
• Stratospheric ozone depletion (biological effects due to increased UV-B, etc)
• Effects of pollution on the health of humans living in the Arctic (including effects of increased UV radiation as a result of ozone depletion, and climate change)
• Combined effects of pollutants and other stressors on both ecosystems and humans

AMAP has produced a series of high quality scientifically-based assessments of the pollution status of the Arctic. The AMAP assessment reports (both the popular readable versions and detailed scientific background documents) are available on the AMAP website.

Please click the link to download the AMAP work plan for 2011-2013.

View recent reports on the AMAP website