PAME is the focal point of the Arctic Council’s activities related to the protection and sustainable use of the Arctic marine environment and provides a unique forum for collaboration on a wide range of activities in this regard.
PAME carries out activities as set out in bi-annual work plans approved by the Arctic Council on the recommendation of the Senior Arctic Officials. These activities led by PAME include circumpolar and regional action programmes and guidelines complementing existing legal arrangements aimed at protection of the Arctic marine environment from both land and sea-based activities. PAME works in close collaboration with the other five Arctic Council Working Groups.
The PAME Working Group generally meets twice per year. Each meeting produces Records of Decisions (RoD's) which form the basis for the meeting reports The RoD's are decisions taken by PAME by consensus.
Participation between meetings varies, but each Arctic Council Member State nominates experts for the meetings, which are also open to the Permanent Participants, Observers in addition to experts invited by PAME.
Ministerial deliverables are documents which PAME produced for each Ministerial Meetings. The Arctic Council Ministers can either approved, welcome or note the deliverables.
Deliverables are generally the main documents associated with each PAME project.
The reports to the Senior Arctic Officials are generally short and concise overviews of the PAME working group proceeedings between SAO meetings. They give an update and overview on ongoing projects. SAO meetings are held regularly but progress reports are generally released once or twice per year.
The purpose of the PAME Work Plan is to provide a framework for PAME´s work related to the protection of the Arctic marine environment for every two year working period.
The PAME Work Plan includes information on all ongoing PAME projects and gives insight into activities ongoing at the given time.
PAME activities are guided by the Arctic Marine Strategic Plan and biennial Work Plans, which are developed by the PAME Working Group for approval by the Arctic Council Senior Arctic Officials.
The AMSP articulates how the Arctic Council can increase its understanding of the impacts of human activities, climate change and ocean acidification.
The AMSP recognizes the importance of acquiring a better understanding of Arctic change so that actions can be taken that allow Arctic inhabitants, including Arctic indigenous peoples to further adapt to the change.
The strategic actions identified in the AMSP will guide the work of the Arctic Council and its subsidiary bodies in the coming decade.
The status of implementation of EA in the marine Arctic ecosystems:
Third International Conference on Ecosystem Approach to Management (EA) in the Arctic Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs)
Venue: Fram Center, Tromsø, Norway
Dates: 15-19 April 2024
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Objective:
To exchange innovative examples of best practices in implementation of the Ecosystem Approach to Management (EA) and identify priorities for future collaboration.
Specific goals:
- Identify the national policy mechanism within the Arctic Marine Ecosystems. - Show methods for Integrated Ecosystem Assessment and sources for data. - Find solution for Indigenous Knowledge to enter EA. - Opening communication between Management and Science - Mapping solution for area-based measures.
The EA is about holistic ecosystem knowledge transferred into operational management measures. This is communication between the science-knowledge and national authorities. This communication must be adaptive and iterative, and based on national objectives and understandable advice.
How to establish and maintain this interface between research and management, depends on how the Arctic nation works. We therefore invite national and international scientific institutions, Indigenous knowledge and management authorities to present how they handle and develop the communication gates between science-knowledge and management.
The conference will summarize and share the experiences and knowledge and safeguard a continuous development of the EA by involving young scientists to lead the discussion and ask the difficult questions. The insight and conclusions will be brought further to next International Conference. Here the EA expert group will identify the possible germs that has grown, and the exchange of experiences and the development of the EA will continue.
More information provided in 2023.
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Conference Sessions
Session 1:
Status and experiences from National EA Implementation
We ask management authorities of the Arctic nations how they operate the EA into national policy and measures. We also ask how Ministries and Directorate meet the science institutions and people voices and make use of an existing holistic ecosystem understanding that is necessary to understand how to regulate existing human activities (point 6 in box 2) in a fast-changing marine system.
Session 2:
Integrated Ecosystem Assessment in the Arctic LMEs
We ask scientific Institution what type of methods are used to make a holistic ecosystem assessment that includes all human activities and its pressures (point 2 and 4 in box 2). We ask if national and international data are being made available and how these are standardised and made useful for obtaining the necessary information of all relevant parts of the ecosystem and its habitats.
Session 3:
The peoples voice in the EA
Humans are a part of, and make an impact on, the marine Arctic ecosystem. We ask how the values (point 5 in box 2) of the indigenous (and local?) people, in a still more globalised world, are being implemented into both the Scientific and the Management part if the EA. What is the message and how is the solutions to communicate this message.
Session 4:
The communication gates between Science and Management
Between the authoritative management and the exploring science there are two communication gateways that shall maintain the iterative and adaptive process: the Ecological Goals (point 3 in box 2) defined by national and international authorities, and the Science advice define by the scientific institutions. We ask if the “Goal” should widen up to also include Social-Economic perspectives, and how. We also ask how a science advice should be formed to obtain the best outreach for the relevant authority.
Session 5:
Area based measures for protecting species and habitats
Marine Protected areas (MPA) and Other ecological conservation measures (OECM) shall protect whole or parts of the ecosystem within an area or in nested areas. We ask - what national or multinational tools and management techniques exist to identify valuable and vulnerable species and habitats, and how does “area-measures” fit into the EA framework.
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First International Conference (2016)
Second International Conference (2019)
Session 1: Integrated Ecosystem Assessment Session 2: MPAs and other special areas Session 3: Voices from the North – a conversation about people, nature, and sustainability Session 4: National EA implementation Session 5: Central Arctic Ocean
Session 1: The Vision and Role of the Arctic Council Session 2: Status and Experiences from National Implementation Session 3: Making EA operational: Developing the knowledge base and enabling activities Session 4: Case studies: Steps toward implementation Session 5: Pan-Arctic Marine Science and Policy Session 6: Status of Implementing the Ecosystem Approach to Management in the Arctic
The EA is about holistic ecosystem knowledge transferred into operational management measures. This is communication between the science-knowledge and national authorities. This communication must be adaptive and iterative, and based on national objectives and understandable advice.