Arctic Peoples

The Arctic council is a grouping of the eight countries that have territory in the Arctic. The eight countries are: Canada, Denmark (Greenland, Faeroe Islands), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States.

The Arctic Council includes the Permanent Participants, six international Indigenous Organisations whose work with the Council is facilitated by the Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat. The Arctic Council is the first intergovernmental forum to give Indigenous Peoples’ Organisations such a status. It ensures the Indigenous Peoples’ full participation in the work of the Arctic Council . Observers also attend meetings of the Council. Observer status is granted to governments, international governmental organisations and non-governmental organizations.

How the Council Works

There is no permanent secretariat for the Arctic Council , although the Council’s working groups each have a small number of people to co-ordinate their work. The work of the Council itself is co-ordinated by the Chair, a position that rotates every two years. For the period 2006-2008, Norway is chairing the Council.

Senior Arctic Officials representing the eight countries, together with the Permanent Participants, meet twice a year to oversee the Council’s work. Once every two years, the meetings are also attended by government Ministers from the Arctic countries.

In addition to the national delegations and Permanent Participants, a variety of observer organisations also attend the meetings.

History

In 1991, government environment representatives of the 8 Arctic countries Canada, Denmark [Greenland, Faeroe Islands], Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, United States of America and the USSR (as it was then known) met in Rovaniemi, Finland, to address the “common threats to the Arctic environment and the impact of pollution on the fragile Arctic ecosystems”.

The meeting resulted in the adoption of the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS), committing the 8 Arctic Governments to “co-operate on protection and preservation of the Arctic environment, recognising the special relationship of the Indigenous Peoples and local populations of the Arctic to the Arctic, and their unique contribution to the protection of the Arctic environment”.

To carry out the objectives of the AEPS, four working groups were established: AMAP, PAME, CAFF, and EPPR. The Sustainable Development Working Group was added later.
To guide and monitor AEPS activities, each member state appointed “Senior Arctic Affairs Officials”.

After a few years of working together on environmental issues, the Arctic states decided to expand the areas in which they would work together. The Declaration on the Establishment of the Arctic Council was signed by the government representatives of the eight Arctic countries, at a meeting in Ottawa, Canada in 1996.

Although the Council is now looking issues such as transportation, its focus is still largely the environment and sustainable development. The Council also has been promoting Arctic issues at international meetings, such as the recent World Summit on Sustainable Development.