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Despite its vast area, small human population, and limited industrial and economic development, the European Arctic is affected by several aspects of human activity. This large area of sparsely populated land and sea has been seen as a region for unlimited resource harvesting, into which large amounts of contaminants, such as nuclear wastes, can be deposited. The Kola Peninsula and surrounding areas are particularly affected by heavy industrial pollution, large scale physical encroachments and military installations and activities. Large amounts of improperly stored radioactive material in this area are serious threats to all of the European Arctic. Intensive, partly unregulated fisheries in the Barents and Norwegian Seas, have over-exploited key species. Even in remote, high arctic areas, high levels of long-range transported contaminants are found in mammals and birds.
Oil exploration, and other activities based on obsolete technologies, cause heavy pollution in some areas. The expected large scale oil and gas development in the region will increase the potential for major environmental impacts seriously.
While the European Arctic is substantially influenced by humans in some areas, it is at the same time an area with environmental assets which are unique in Europe. Its large wilderness areas are virtually pristine and intact, and the habitats, vegetation and populations of fish, birds and mammals are far less affected by man than elsewhere in Europe. The marine ecosystems are highly productive and of great economic, social and cultural importance, not only to the region itself, but also to many other European nations. Geophysical processes in the region are of major importance in the regulation of the global climate. The region offers unique opportunities for monitoring changes in the global environment, and for studying other natural processes of global significance. It can confidently be predicted that in a world where areas unaffected by man are rapidly decreasing in size and number, the European Arctic wilderness and its ecosystems will - if properly managed - become an increasingly valuable asset.
The state of the European Arctic environment can be summarised as follows:
(Svalbard, Franz Joseph Land, the northern part of Novaja Zemlja and the surrounding areas of the Barents and Kara Seas)
(Eastern Barents, Pechora and Kara Seas, adjacent coastal and tundra areas and large river estuaries)
(Icelandic waters, the Greenland Sea and northern Norwegian Sea)
(Northern Scandinavia and Finland, Kola Peninsula/ Murmansk area, and the White Sea).
The main current threats to the European Arctic environment are:
Three characteristics of human activities both threaten (challenge) the integrity of the European Arctic environment and provide opportunities for reconciling such activities with environmental needs:
The following long term goals are proposed for the European Arctic environment:
Based on the current threats, future development trends and long term goals, the following objectives and actions are recommended:
Objective I
Integrate environmental concerns into the economic and industrial activities in the area, in particular in north-western Russia.
Both Russian and other European Arctic national legislation include environmental regulations and standards for most types of activities. It still remains a challenge to ensure that these are enforced and complied with, particularly in Russia.
Actions needed:
Objective II
Ensure sustainable management of European Arctic marine living resources and ecosystems.
If properly co-ordinated, the existing management tools and scientific knowledge of the European Arctic countries could probably provide a sufficient basis for sustainable management of the marine resources in the area. Currently, however, these tools are insufficiently co-ordinated and partly disputed.
Actions needed:
Objective III
Protect European Arctic wilderness areas and important habitats.
Large parts of the European Arctic can still be characterised as wilderness. While the northern parts of the area have many established and planned protection regulations, wilderness areas are being challenged in the north-west of the Russian Federation and Fennoscandia, and partly in Iceland.
Actions needed:
Objective IV
Reduce long-range transportation of pollution to the Arctic.
Some agreements restricting the production and use of certain environmentally hazardous substances are to a large degree in force (i.e. ozone depleting substances), while others (organochlorides, heavy metals, C02), are being negotiated. Economic and political interests, as well as insufficient scientific data, slow the progress of this work.
Actions needed:
Objective V
Ensure safe storage of radioactive wastes in the region and operation of nuclear facilities.
Radioactivity levels in the European Arctic environment are currently relatively low. Marine dumping sites and most land storage facilities and installations are recorded.
Actions needed:
Objective VI
Utilise the relatively intact ecosystems and low impact levels in the area as a reference for regional and global environmental monitoring, and for research to provide new knowledge on fundamental ecological processes.
Several international long term monitoring programmes are operating or being established in the European Arctic. European and other nations are currently increasing their co-operative research effort in the area.
Actions needed:
This report gives a brief overview of the environmental situation in the European Arctic. It presents the main environmental challenges for the region, and recommendations for policies and management. Several European nations have been and are still active in exploration, resource exploitation, and research in the region. This international activity is likely to increase. As such, the European Arctic is a part of Europe's common environmental and cultural heritage.
The aim of this report is to increase the European awareness of the fact that the region is of great value to all of Europe, and that it is also facing serious environmental threats. Therefore there is a strong need for a common European effort to manage the Arctic environment in a sustainable manner for the future.
The report does not attempt to give a fully comprehensive picture of the region, its ecosystems, or its plant and animal species. It is produced over a brief time period, based on the information available. The references are restricted to the most basic literature. The background text is primarily intended to facilitate an understanding of the important and characteristic features of the European Arctic environment, and the impacts of human activity upon it.
Several international processes are underway producing detailed and well documented status reports for various aspects of the Arctic, such as:
The above reports are to be published in late 1996 or 1997.
There is no single geographical definition of the extent of the Arctic, and even less so of the European Arctic. There is also no political agreement on the definition of the concept. The definition used in this report is therefore deliberately imprecise, as the geographical distribution of the various phenomena, species, impacts, characteristics, etc. of importance to the region do not always coincide (Figure 1.0).
For the purpose of this report, the European Environment Agency has identified the European Arctic as follows:
The report has been prepared for the European Environment Agency by the Norwegian Polar Institute with support from GRID Arendal and several other institutions (see Acknowledgement).
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/MON3/page002.html or scan the QR code.
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