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The Arctic Council: A Model for Cooperation

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By Timo Koivurova, Director, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland

While ministerial meetings of the Arctic Council receive most media attention, it is at the level of working groups where most of the often tedious and not-so-exciting work takes place. From the beginning of the Arctic-wide cooperation, the strongest working group has been its science body, the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP).

Over the years, also other Arctic Council working groups have started to gear towards conducting large-scale scientific assessments that identify various threats to the Arctic environment. In conducting this work, the eight Arctic states’ governments need to consult indigenous peoples’ organizations – enjoying the status of permanent participants in the Council – before decisions are made. If permanent participants reject a certain proposal, it is extremely unlikely for the motion to even proceed to decision-making. There is no other regional intergovernmental forum that would give such power to indigenous peoples, the original residents of the region.

It is interesting to notice that it is these unique structures of the Arctic Council which have enabled the Council actors to influence global and regional environmental protection negotiations. Many pollutants from the mid-latitudes end up in the Arctic via prevailing wind patterns and ocean circulations systems, which means that the Arctic Council needs to influence environmental protection negotiations that take place on global level. The success of the Council has been manifest in these processes. Scientific assessments of environmental threats by AMAP and other working groups of the Council have served to catalyze global mercury and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) negotiations. Indigenous peoples have been able to concretize in these global negotiations what it means when pollutants arrive from outside to a region which does not even produce them. For instance, female Inuit have been exposed to POPs to the extent that their fetuses are in danger, which was conveyed by the Arctic Council indigenous organizations to the negotiation process which resulted in the 2001 Stockholm Convention on POPs.

In addition, by focusing on environmental protection and sustainable development, and intentionally avoiding to deal with military issues, the Council has been able to continue its work even in times when overall geopolitical cold period with Russia and most other Arctic Council member states is a reality.

The lessons from the Arctic Council to other regional levels of governance around the world are clear. In areas of geopolitical consternation, it is of utmost importance to keep dialogue open by focusing on sustainable development issues, that is, other than military security issues. It is not enough for the regional level to try to influence regional sources of pollution if many of the environmental problems are the result of many actions around the whole world. It is thus imperative for the regional level to try to effectively influence global environmental protection processes. One of the pathways for having such influence is assessment work that connects science with policy. By doing this together with the region’s original inhabitants, indigenous peoples, it is not only legitimate but also an effective way to influence these processes, as shown by the experience of the Arctic Council.

 

Table of Contents

  1. Letter from the Editor in Chief

    By Outi Snellman

  2. 20 Years of Peaceful Cooperation

    By Børge Brende

  3. Celebrating 20 Years of the Arctic Council

    By David Balton

  4. International Cooperation for Arctic Prosperity

    By Sergey Lavrov

  5. Minister Greetings: Finland

    By Timo Soini

  6. Minister Greetings: Iceland

    By Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson

  7. Setting the Stage for Arctic Cooperation

    By Eirik Sivertsen

  8. It All Started in Rovaniemi

    By Markku Heikkilä

  9. Interview with Mary Simon

    By Stig Brøndbo

  10. Interview with Thorvald Stoltenberg

    By Stig Brøndbo

  11. Interview with Alona Yefimenko

    By Stig Brøndbo

  12. Interview with Sheila Watt-Cloutier

    By Stig Brøndbo

  13. The Role of the Working Groups in the Work of the Arctic Council

    By David Stone and Lars-Otto Reiersen

  14. Science to Policy: Arctic Biodiversity Assessment

    By Tom Barry and Courtney Price

  15. The Arctic Council: A Victory for Soft Law & Soft Security

    By Heather Exner-Pirot

  16. The Arctic Council: Maintaining Peace Through Cooperation

    By Michael Byers

  17. Arctic Human Development

    By Joan Nymand Larsen and Gail Fondahl

  18. Towards Revival of Arctic Cooperation

    By Olli Rehn

  19. The Arctic Economic Council: Connecting with the Business Community

    By Tara Sweeney

  20. Love & Peace

    By Else Berit Eikeland and Gunn-Britt Retter

  21. Working Inside the Arctic Council: Arctic Change and World Reindeer Herders

    By Mikhail Pogodaev and Anders Oskal

  22. Observer States in the Arctic Council: A Way Forward to Better Cooperation

    By Justin Kim

  23. The Arctic: A Place for the Miraculous

    By Chen Yitong

  24. The Arctic Council Adapting to the Future

    By Arild Moe, Svein Vigeland Rottem and Olav Schram Stokke

  25. The Way Forward for the Arctic Council

    By Oran R. Young

  26. Student Profiles

    By students from Arctic states

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