Wednesday, 28 April 2010 14:39
The World Wildlife Fund is calling on Arctic nations to put new environmental and security rules in place to protect the Arctic Ocean and coastline amid growing commercial activity.
In three reports released this week, the international conservation group concludes there are large gaps and loopholes in current regulations that apply to activity in the Arctic Ocean.
In reviewing those regulations, the three reports say the current rules were established at a time when year-round Arctic sea ice closed off access to the natural riches beneath the ocean.
But as the sea ice melts, there will be more shipping, fishing and oil and gas exploration — and a rising risk of more environmental accidents such as oil slicks, according to the reports.
"The melting of the Arctic ice is opening a new ocean, and this of course brings new opportunities for commercial activities in a part of the world that has previously been totally or almost totally inaccessible," Lasse Gustavsson, CEO of WWF Sweden, told CBC News on Tuesday.
Gustavsson said the regulation loopholes could allow irreversible harm to the Arctic environment and to indigenous peoples in Arctic coastal communities.
"We might face pollution, oil spills, overfishing and maybe even illegal fishing," he said.
Arctic Council should lead efforts: reports
The reports call for Arctic nations to adopt new rules to protect the sensitive marine environment.
It also calls for the Arctic Council, a high-level political forum of eight countries — including Canada and the U.S. — to lead efforts to regulate shipping, fishing and environmental protection in the North.
"What is important is that our political leaders take a serious look at what ... we need to secure that there is enough protection for nature and ecosystem functions, but at the same time that there is a management system in place that allows us to use the marine resources in the Arctic in a long-term sustainable way," he said.
Members of the Arctic Council on Wednesday began two days of meetings in Ilulissat, Greenland. Of the eight member countries, five have coastlines in the Arctic: Canada, Russia, the United States, Norway and Denmark, which administers Greenland.
Gustavsson said it can take forever for those countries to agree on new environmental rules, but it can also be done quickly, as shown when some European nations recently got together to protect a mountain region in southeastern Europe.
"A new framework convention was agreed [on] in only 24 months between five or six different national states," he said of the European mountain case.
"So if the time is right and the political will is in place, this can be a rapid process."