EMERGING MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL-PROTECTION STRATEGIES FOR THE ARCTIC

Although the open seas of the Arctic ocean remain among the least polluted of the world's oceans, escalating human pressures on marine ecosystems are causing a gradual deterioration of environmental quality in the Arctic, especially in the coastal zones of Russian Arctic seas. A wide spectrum of legal, technical and management environment protection measures, adapted from international and regional frameworks, are available to the Arctic rim States. Prospects for marine environmental cooperation can be viewed as favourable, especially with regional policy priorities in many Arctic rim States shifting from military towards environmental and socio-economic concerns.