Address to a joint dinner for the Arctic Council’s programs on Arctic monitoring and assessment (AMAP) and on the conservation of Arctic flora and fauna (CAFF)

Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues of the Arctic,

On behalf of the Norwegian Ministry of the Environment, I have the honour and privilege to address you at this joint dinner between two important programs of the Arctic council.

As you may know, Norway attaches great importance to environmental co-operation in the Arctic. These northern areas are important to us in many ways, and I believe all of us want to see these areas kept in a good state also in the future.

For Norway, it is special that we this year celebrate the 75 ^th> anniversary of the Svalbard Treaty, which entered into force in 1925. Much has happened since then, and not least can we say that the rest of the world has come much closer to the Arctic. This makes it easier for people to see and to experience these areas, as I have for example returned from a trip to Svalbard two hours ago. But we are now starting to see alarming signs of pollution and negative impacts in these areas which we until recently believed to be largely untouched.

I am therefore proud that the Norwegian government stands firmly behind a policy that focuses on environmental protection on Svalbard.

Environmental research on Svalbard is important, and Norway give priority to this.Yesterday at exactly this time, i was on the top of a mountain in Sassendalen on Svalbard, listening to a young Norwegian scientist, Nina Eide, telling about her important research on arctic fox in the valley. There is a political commitment behind making Svalbard one of the best managed wilderness areas in the world. During my trip to Svalbard, I also visited New Ålesund, truly an international research community at 79 degrees North, where scientists from 18 countries do valuable and important research.

But there is also a need for close co-operation between those who share these circumpolar areas. Norway has therefore during the last decade keenly promoted and supported environmental co-operation between the Arctic states and its indigenous peoples’ groups. Next year we may celebrate that it will be ten years since the beginning of the Arctic environment protection strategy (AEPS), in many ways the forerunner for broader co-operation under the Arctic council.

In this co-operation, your two programmes AMAP and CAFF have played key roles. Norway has supported these two programmes in various ways, not least by providing substantial funding for the AMAP Secretariat.

Yesterday was the first larger meeting between two programs of the Arctic Council. I understand that this meeting was successful, and that you made progress for the work you are doing in developing an Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA).

Such progress is necessary if we are to better understand how we are to cope with climate change as a major challenge. In this way, your programs also contribute to us meeting obligations that we have under the Framework Convention on climate change.

In the same way, I welcome how the CAFF program helps us meet obligations under the Convention on biological diversity. Important progress has been made for example on protected areas. I also welcome your efforts on conserving biological diversity in Russia, a neighbour with whom we look forward to continued good co-operation also in this area.

This is important, as Norway puts great importance on these two conventions, and on the development of sound knowledge underpinning our decisions. Norwegian polar research also plays an important role here.

It is also very nice for me to be able to welcome you to my own home town. I have grown up 500 meters from here, and I therefore hope you may see some of the town and what it has to offer.

From the position as political adviser in the Ministry of the Environment, it is with special pleasure I see how Trondheim has put itself on the international environmental map. This has been done for example through three major Trondheim conferences on biological diversity, all of which have given important decision support to the Convention on biological diversity.

Earlier this summer, I also had the pleasure of opening here in Trondheim the first board meeting of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. This is a broad and major process designed to improve the management of ecosystems and their contribution to human development. This is to be done by helping to bring the best available information and knowledge on ecosystem goods and services to bear on policy and management decisions. It could also very well be that AMAP and CAFF could contribute to this work.

Trondheim in my eyes has substantial resources in the field of environmental knowledge. Important actors here are the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research and the Directorate for nature management. The latter being an agency under my ministry and present chair of the CAFF programme. Many of you were also present yesterday at a reception hosted by my Ministry at the Academy of Science, another important institution in this regard.

Once again, I wish you wholeheartedly welcome to the beautiful city of Trondheim, and I wish all of you good luck with your important work.

Thank you very much.