The Ottawa Declaration Signing. Photo credit: Markku Heikkila / Arctic Council Secretariat
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30 years on, the Arctic Council still matters
- Governance
- Pan-Arctic
As the Arctic Council celebrates its big anniversary, WWF Global Arctic Programme’s director Vicki Lee Wallgren reflects on the intertwined history between WWF and the Arctic Council and why pan-Arctic cooperation is not a nostalgic ideal but a practical necessity.
There is a piece of traditional Inuit wisdom that says, “No one survives in the Arctic alone.”
Thirty years ago, on 19 September, 1996, in a room in Ottawa, eight Arctic states put that wisdom into practice, establishing the Arctic Council.
In the same act, it formally recognized Arctic Indigenous Peoples’ organizations as Permanent Participants. This is a status unlike anything in other international forums.
The start of the Arctic Council – and us
WWF’s relationship with the Arctic Council predates the council itself. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the eight Arctic states worked through what became known as the Rovaniemi Process, culminating in the 1991 Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy.
This was the direct forerunner of today’s Arctic Council.
That process, and the promise of pan-Arctic environmental cooperation it represented, was one of the two founding reasons WWF launched its own Arctic Programme in 1992.
In other words, before the council had its name, WWF had already built a programme around the idea that it might exist.
Photo credit: Jessica Cook, Arctic Council
Real work and real wins
WWF’s Global Arctic Programme (GAP) was one of the first environmental NGOs to be formally admitted as an observer. This happened at the Iqaluit Ministerial in 1998.
In the years since, that seat has meant real work:
- Providing scientific and technical expertise to working groups such as the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, and the Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment.
- Pushing for ecosystem-based management as a guiding principle for Arctic governance.
- Submitting recommendations ahead of nearly every Ministerial Declaration.
Together, progress includes efforts such as:
- The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme was a crucial influence in ending the global production of Persistent Organic Pollutants.
- The Council’s Framework for Action on Black Carbon and Methane helps us push for safe and sustainable shipping in the Arctic.
- The Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program have contributed to better tools to assess Arctic biodiversity, thanks to a combined effort from scientists, governments, Indigenous organizations and conservation groups.
This work is grounded in the council’s inclusive approach to decision-making. Six Indigenous Peoples’ organizations have been granted Permanent Participants status, giving them full consultation rights in negotiations and decisions.
Dealing with geopolitical shocks
We are committed to enhancing an inclusive and precautionary approach to ecosystem-based management in the Arctic.
We have pushed the Council when implementation lagged behind ambition, and weathered the same geopolitical shocks, most recently the pause in cooperation following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This tested whether pan-Arctic collaboration could survive outside a period of calm. It did, but not unscathed. The council under Norway’s chairship and later under the Kingdom of Denmark’s chairship has resumed work at the Working Groups but has not managed to do the same at the higher political level.
For instance, there is still much work to be done to reach the targets set by the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), which calls for the conservation of 30 percent of the Earth’s land, waters, and seas by 2030.
No time for nostalgia
As the Arctic Council enters its fourth decade, pan-Arctic cooperation is not a nostalgic ideal but a practical necessity. The Arctic’s environmental challenges don’t observe geopolitical boundaries, even if governments may.
With Sweden set to take over the chairship in 2027, the Nordic states will have led the council for six consecutive years. Last time this happened, it produced two of the council’s landmark binding agreements.
So, happy 30th birthday, Arctic Council, we hope this next chapter brings an Arctic Council bold enough to match the scale of change already underway in the region and true to the wisdom it was built on: that no one survives in the Arctic alone.
We intend to stick around for whatever comes next.
By Vicki Lee Wallgren
Director, WWF Global Arctic Programme
Vicki leads on WWF’s pan-Arctic work, bringing together a core team of senior specialists who provide thought leadership, technical and policy input, and help facilitate cooperation and joint strategizing of the Arctic Programme’s goals and strategies among the various offices in the network.
