Today the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial meeting was convened in Rovaniemi, Finland. Minister-level representatives from of the eight Arctic States, the delegations from the Council's indigenous Permanent Participant organizations and the Chairs of the Council’s six Working Groups convened the meeting. At the meeting, Iceland took over the Arctic Council Chairmanship from Finland.PAME delivered seven ministerial documents for approval:
- Underwater Noise in the Arctic: A State of Knowledge report
- Desktop study on Marine Litter, including microplastics, in the Arctic
- Guidelines for Implementing an Ecosystem Approach to Management of Arctic Marine Ecosystems
- Meaningful Engagement of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in Marine Activities (MEMA) Part II Findings for Policy Makers
- 2nd reporting on progress/implementation of the 2015-2025 Arctic Marine Strategic Plan (AMSP)
- 2019-2021 PAME Work Plan
- PAME 2017-2019 PAME Achievements Report
In addition, the following were submitted as informational documents for the meeting:
- Arctic Shipping Best Practice Information Forum Status Report, Web-portal and Press Release
- Report on the environmental, economic, technical and practical aspects of the use by ships in the Arctic of alternative fuels
- Arctic Ship Traffic Data Project Status Report, Database and Press Release
- Regional Reception Facilities project titled: Proposal for a new output to amend MARPOL to allow the establishment of regional arrangements in the Arctic for joint submission by all Arctic States to the 74th Session of IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) (13-17 May 2019)
- MEMA database
- Progress report on the EA-EG 2017-2019 work plan
- Various communication and outreach products
All documents are available here.