The Eu and the Arctic
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MAGAZINE Dealing the Seal 8 No. 1 Piloting Arctic Passages 14 2016 THE CIRCLE The EU & Indigenous Peoples 20 THE EU AND THE ARCTIC PUBLISHED BY THE WWF GLOBAL ARCTIC PROGRAMME TheCircle0116.indd 1 25.02.2016 10.53 THE CIRCLE 1.2016 THE EU AND THE ARCTIC Contents EDITORIAL Leaving a legacy 3 IN BRIEF 4 ALYSON BAILES What does the EU want, what can it offer? 6 DIANA WALLIS Dealing the seal 8 ROBIN TEVERSON ‘High time’ EU gets observer status: UK 10 ADAM STEPIEN A call for a two-tier EU policy 12 MARIA DELIGIANNI Piloting the Arctic Passages 14 TIMO KOIVUROVA Finland: wearing two hats 16 Greenland – walking the middle path 18 FERNANDO GARCES DE LOS FAYOS The European Parliament & EU Arctic policy 19 CHRISTINA HENRIKSEN The EU and Arctic Indigenous peoples 20 NICOLE BIEBOW A driving force: The EU & polar research 22 THE PICTURE 24 The Circle is published quar- Publisher: Editor in Chief: Clive Tesar, COVER: terly by the WWF Global Arctic WWF Global Arctic Programme CTesar@WWFCanada.org (Top:) Local on sea ice in Uumman- Programme. Reproduction and 8th floor, 275 Slater St., Ottawa, naq, Greenland. quotation with appropriate credit ON, Canada K1P 5H9. Managing Editor: Becky Rynor, Photo: Lawrence Hislop, www.grida.no are encouraged. Articles by non- Tel: +1 613-232-8706 brynor@uniserve.com (Bottom:) European Parliament, affiliated sources do not neces- Fax: +1 613-232-4181 Strasbourg, France. sarily reflect the views or policies Design and production: Photo: Diliff, Wikimedia Commonss of WWF. Send change of address Internet: www.panda.org/arctic Film & Form/Ketill Berger, and subscription queries to the ketill.berger@filmform.no ABOVE: Sarek glacier, Sarek National address on the right. We reserve ISSN 2073-980X = The Circle Park, Sweden. the right to edit letters for publica- Printed by St. Joseph Communications Photo: Kitty Terwolbeck/Creative Commons tion, and assume no responsibil- Date of publication: ity for unsolicited material. February 2016. Thank you for your interest in The Circle. Many of our subscribers have moved to an e-version. To receive an electronic copy in your email instead of a paper 2 The Circle 1.2016 copy, please write to us at gap@wwfcanada.org and help us reduce our costs and footprint. TheCircle0116.indd 2 25.02.2016 10.53 THE CIRCLE 1.2016 EDITORIAL Leaving a legacy THE ARCTIC IS STREWN with the names of Europeans Wildlife products have long provided livelihoods for drawn by the lure of trade and riches -- Dutch explorer Arctic Indigenous peoples, and it is important to ensure Willem Barentsz, Dane Vitus Bering, Britain’s William that their use and trade is based on sustainable practices. Baffin, for example and there are hundreds more. Close The EU can do much to educate consumers on wildlife behind them came fur traders, whalers, gold-seekers and products, perhaps through certification schemes. others who left a legacy of Indigenous oppression and The EU should also enforce compliance of European devastating ecological impacts. businesses operating in the Arctic with international, EU After a couple of centuries of relative neglect, the Arctic and national regulations, as well as with Arctic-specific is once again drawing Europeans and for many of the standards and guidelines to address marine noise, oil same reasons. At the same time, the region is at the very spill prevention, pollution, carbon intensity, and fisheries. centre of debates on climate change as it warms twice as As well, many internationally agreed goals such as fast as the global average and drives global impacts such limiting global temperature rise to well below 2C, halt- as rising sea levels and melting sea ice which is opening ing global biodiversity loss by 2020, up the Arctic Ocean and spurring and establishing renewed interest in Arctic resources marine protected and trade routes. THIS TIME THE PEO- areas, will benefit This time, however, the rule of the Arctic region, international law is more entrenched PLE OF THE ARCTIC ARE given its unique in the Arctic, and the people of the BETTER PREPARED TO exposure to cli- Arctic are better prepared to defend mate change and their rights and interests. DEFEND THEIR RIGHTS nature degrada- GENEVIÈVE PONS is As I write this, the European Com- tion. AND INTERESTS the Director of the mission is preparing to release a In this issue, European office of “communication” that is expected to officially set out our contributors examine the renewed WWF. the EU’s interests in the Arctic in the coming years. European interest in the Arctic through WWF provided input to this process that we hope will be the prism of the European Union – the economic and reflected in this upcoming policy paper. political bloc that includes 28 European countries. For example, WWF has recommended more research Alyson Bailes lists some common interests of the Arc- to help understand and predict Arctic change, particu- tic and the EU, while Lord Robin Teverson argues that larly regarding ecosystems, the sustainability of fisheries accepting the EU into its ranks would strengthen the and the transition from fossil fuels (especially diesel) to Arctic Council. Diana Wallis reflects on past policies that renewables for energy production. This should go hand- haunt the EU’s place in the Arctic today. When asked how in-hand with support for investments in alternative socio- the EU can contribute, member of the Norwegian Sami economic models fostering economic diversification into Parliament Christina Henriksen put it succinctly: “Buy sectors other than extractive industries. our products, respect our rights and ensure our future.” The EU should also provide political support for nature This time around, the people of the EU can explore the conservation in the region, and for the creation and Arctic’s potential more ethically and sustainably than management of a pan-Arctic network of protected areas, they did centuries ago. Instead of leaving their names on including areas of particular ecological importance in the map, they can leave a legacy of support for the Arctic terms of climate change resilience, communities and spe- environment, and for Arctic peoples. l cies conservation. The Circle 1.2016 3 TheCircle0116.indd 3 25.02.2016 10.53 IN BRIEF Oceans, Hunter Tootoo told groups to the Arctic Council. Nunavut sealing the Canadian Broadcasting Arctic Council Heavy fuel oil powers Corporation. “It’s all about almost all the large cargo industry gets opening new markets for our support sought ships that ply Arctic waters. Indigenous seal products.” Unlike other fuels, it doesn’t federal boost The EU had imposed by environmental evaporate but combines a ban on seal products in with seawater and expands THE GOVERNMENT of Canada 2009 causing international groups for heavy in volume. It also sinks and has pledged $150,000 to pro- demand and prices for seal- sticks to anything it contacts, mote Nunavut’s ailing sealing skin products to plummet. making cleanup impossible industry and take advantage In 2015 the EU approved the fuel oil ban as seen during a recent spill of Nunavut’s exemption to Government of Nunavut’s ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS in Russian waters that killed the European Union’s ban on application for an exemption want the eight circumpolar hundreds of seabirds. seal products. to the ban under the Indig- countries to take a stand on “There’s just no way to The funding is the first enous Communities Exemp- banning the use of heavy fuel respond to it,” said Kevin installment from the 5-year, tion of the EU Seal Regime. oil, considered one of the Harun of Pacific Environ- $5.7 million Certification and This means the Government greatest threats to the Arctic ment, an environmental Market Access Program for of Nunavut will be able to ecosystem. group that works with abo- Seals. certify that sealskins were “We believe that measures riginal communities to pro- “I think it’s a big step harvested according to the are desperately needed to tect the Pacific Rim. between Canada and Nuna- rules of the exemption, there- reduce the environmental Burning heavy fuel oil vut to be able to find differ- by allowing Nunavut hunters impacts from Arctic shipping, also creates “black carbon,” ent ways for marketing our to sell their sealskin pelts and and that a logical place to fine soot that falls on snow seal products,” Nunavut’s products in the European focus attention is vessel fuel and ice and hastens melting. Member of Parliament and market again. quality,” said a letter from 15 Cleaning up black carbon has the Minister of Fisheries and international environmental been identified as one of the Proposed Greenland mine lacks crisis plan: WWF ping before consultation ried out and several stud- Proposed zinc DISASTER PREPAREDNESS and lead mine plans are incomplete or on the mine proceeds. ies were incomplete. Citronen Fjord missing for a zinc and WWF found it “very Following WWF’s lead mine proposed troubling that the plans criticism, the Greenlandic Washington Land North East in the world’s largest do not follow Råstofde- Cabinet, in cooperation Greenland polynya national park, according partementets Guidelines with the company, Iron- Northeast Greenland to an analysis by WWF- on preparation of the bark Zinc Ltd., decided National Park Denmark. The mine in assessment of the effects to publish several of the Mestersvig Northeast Greenland on the environment.” missing reports on Iron- National Park would The guidelines stipulate bark’s website. The area require increased ship- that all studies conducted in question, in the north- ping through an open- should be made pub- east of Greenland, is an Arctic Circle water area important for lic. WWF found several environmentally sensitive narwhal, walrus, polar reports were not included area which contains one bears and bowheads.