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PART II - WORKING TOGETHER

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2015

David P. Stone
Affiliation:
Former Chair of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP)
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Summary

When the Cold War dominated world politics, the Arctic held the longest common boundary or front line between East and West. It was an area of great military significance and sensitivity. If there had ever been a major nuclear exchange between the Soviet Union and the United States, missiles and aircraft would have passed over the Arctic, which was therefore encircled by radar stations and other military installations. Cooperation to investigate the health of the Arctic environment was not high on the agenda of Arctic country governments.

In this section, we look at how quickly this hiatus changed after Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union, an event that at last provided real and meaningful opportunities for all the Arctic countries to work together. In particular, we will recognize the foresight of the Finnish (Rovaniemi) Initiative that began in 1989 and resulted in the Rovaniemi Declaration of 1991. The declaration and its accompanying Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS) were adopted by all eight Arctic countries (Canada, Denmark/Greenland, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Russia and the United States). From the perspective of this story, the most important element of both documents was the creation of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP). This new institution was charged with providing Arctic governments with comprehensive and reliable information on the state of and threats to the Arctic environment. In addition, AMAP was to provide advice on actions to help Arctic governments put in place appropriate preventative and remedial environmental actions. Today, AMAP remains a key element of the Arctic Council (which subsumed the AEPS in 1996).

AMAP is quite a remarkable organisation, deserving several pages to describe how it was built and how it operates. It has essentially no guaranteed operational budget to conduct monitoring. It functions primarily due to the skill of its secretariat supported by Norway and the dedication of hundreds of scientists and indigenous peoples who volunteer to prepare AMAP assessments. When you have reached the final page of this book, I think you will share my appraisal.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Changing Arctic Environment
The Arctic Messenger
, pp. 21 - 22
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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  • WORKING TOGETHER
  • David P. Stone
  • Book: The Changing Arctic Environment
  • Online publication: 05 February 2015
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316146705.021
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Save book to Dropbox

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  • WORKING TOGETHER
  • David P. Stone
  • Book: The Changing Arctic Environment
  • Online publication: 05 February 2015
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316146705.021
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • WORKING TOGETHER
  • David P. Stone
  • Book: The Changing Arctic Environment
  • Online publication: 05 February 2015
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316146705.021
Available formats
×