Protecting the Arctic

Forest and Bird, Issue 282, 1 November 1996, Page 9

Protecting the Arctic

COUNTRIES bordering the Arctic Ocean have set up a joint council to provide more coordinated protection of the region’s fragile environment. The vast Arctic region is sparsely populated but suffers disproportionately from pollution and other human activities. With more striking climatic changes taking place in the polar regions than elsewhere, the Arctic is an important environmental early warning system for the globe. The council, formed in September, links Canada, Denmark (responsible for Greenland), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States. While it aims to provide a permanent forum for governments to work to protect the environment in the face of development pressures, the question is whether it will have enough teeth to combat many of the increasing problems of the region and its wildlife. Scientists are worried, for example, that polar bears might be facing sterility from high accumulations of the toxic pollutants polychlorinated biphenyls. In the North Atlantic, the bowhead whale population remains critical at

only 200 or 300. One challenge is to encourage stronger environmental protection in Russia, which circles half the Arctic but whose increasingly deregulated economic development provides a growing threat.