AMAP

The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme /AMAP/ is one of five scientific Working Groups of the Arctic Council a forum of cooperation between the eight arctic countries (Canada, Greenland (Denmark), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and United States), and also between national governments and indigenous peoples.

Artic States and obseving countries in AMAP

AMAP was established in 1991 and its main objective nowadays is to: "provide reliable and sufficient information on the status of, and threats to, the Arctic environment, and providing scientific advice on actions to be taken in order to support Arctic governments in their efforts to take remedial and preventive actions relating to contaminants." source: http://www.amap.no.

AMAP is responsible for: "measuring the levels, and assessing the effects of anthropogenic pollutants in all compartments of the Arctic environment, including humans; documenting trends of pollution; documenting sources and pathways of pollutants; examining the impact of pollution on Arctic flora and fauna, especially those used by indigenous people; reporting on the state of the Arctic environment; and giving advice to Ministers on priority actions needed to improve the Arctic condition." source: http://www.amap.no.

The work of AMAP is directed by the AMAP Working Group (AMAP WG), which includes members from the eigth arctic estates and other observers, e.g. indigenous peoples.

The organization is supported by a permanent Secretariat located in Oslo, Norway.

A group of scientists, indigenous people’s representatives and other representatives of eight Arctic countries carry out AMAP assessment reports on pollution status of the Arctic area. These assessments are published both in popular readable and detailed scientific version on AMAP web page and they mainly concern:

• Persistent organic contaminants (POPs)
• Heavy metals (in particular mercury, cadmium, and lead)
• Radioactivity
• Acidification and Arctic haze (in a subregional context)
• Petroleum hydrocarbon pollution (in a subregional context)
• Climate change (environmental consequences and biological effects in the Arctic resulting from global climate change)
• Stratospheric ozone depletion (biological effects due to increased UV-B, etc)
• Effects of pollution on the health of humans living in the Arctic (including effects of increased UV radiation as a result of ozone depletion, and climate change)
• Combined effects of pollutants and other stressors on both ecosystems and humans

AMAP defines its activities in its Strategic plan /2004-2012/ that is approved by the Arctic Council Ministers and more detailed steps of implementation of this plan are described in AMAP Workplan. The AMAP Workplan is updated and agreed at meetings of the AMAP Working Group, and subject to approval of Arctic Ministers. The aim of the Strategy is to establish an overall framework for implementing the activities of AMAP. 

AMAP defined its area of observation as terrestrial and marine areas north of the Arctic Circle (66°32’N), and north of 62°N in Asia and 60°N in North America, modified to include the marine areas north of the Aleutian chain, Hudson Bay, and parts of the North Atlantic Ocean including the Labrador Sea.

In the following map we can see that within the AMAP area, 10 ‘key areas’ have been identified that are a special focus for coordinated and harmonized monitoring and research activities.

Sources:

http://www.amap.no 29.9.2006, 30.9.2007 

http://arctic-council.org 31.9.2006, 30.9.2007 

reading materials from course KASP1101 Introduction to the Arctic

http://www.wikipedia.org 30.9.2007

http://www.arcticpeoples.org/arctic-council/amap 30.9.2007

Jitka Pozdenova

Marcos Janini Alonso