The Government's High North Policy

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Norway and thank you for the opportunity to address this audience on aspects of the Norwegian Government’s High North policy.
I myself am a true Northern from the Sami people, situated 200 km from the Russian boarder and 70 km from the Finnish boarder, in Finnmark county. I have studied at the university in Tromsø. Now I am minister of fisheries and coastal affairs.

And I will speak a lot about fish – not only because this is my daily responsibility, but because fisheries are essential to the people of the north and why people live here, and why Norway and other countries harvest the sea.

The Norwegian Government presented its High North strategy in December 2006.

With roughly half of Norway’s land area north of the Arctic Circle and with responsibility for enormous ocean areas, the High North has a natural place at the top of the political agenda.

The High North has always been on the political agenda in Norway. Previously this was primarily on account of the strategic – military – importance of the Barents Sea. Today the High North tops the agenda on account of the natural resources in the Barents Sea, and because we have challenges connected to economic development in the North, we are also facing environmental changes.

The High North is also among the regions of the world where profound transformations are taking place, as a consequence of climate change and of the growing interest of states and private players.

Let me dwell a bit on climate change, since future activity in the north is fundamentally linked to it. Climate change is occurring twice as fast in the Arctic as in other places on the earth. The Arctic is becoming warmer and wilder; snow, ice and permafrost are melting; sea levels are rising and sea water is becoming less salty and more acid.

Scientists tell us that we may have underestimated the speed of these changes. Climate change appears to be a self-reinforcing process, the outcome of which we do not know, either in the Arctic or at the global scale.

The northern oceans are facing significant transformations. The rapid melting of ice may have profound consequences on ecosystems and then also on the people dependant on them.

Firstly: A change in the Arctic climate will affect the region’s flora and fauna.

Secondly: Climate change may have an impact on the migratory patterns of fish stocks, and thus on the economic activity connected with these stocks. The question of how these stocks are to be shared among various states as a consequence of changes in migratory patterns may become an issue.

Thirdly: A melting of the ice will affect maritime transport in the Arctic by lengthening the sailing season and opening up new waters for shipping. Less sea ice may also open up new areas to exploration for petroleum and other resources. And then: climate change will change the everyday life of fishermen, reindeer herders and people as such.

We must meet these future challenges by applying the best available scientific knowledge and a responsible, precautionary approach to our resource management decisions, and adapt to the changes we know will come anyway.
 
As Minister of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs, I have noted, admittedly with a certain amount of amazement, that some contributions to the debate on the implications of climate change in the north assume that the High North is a kind of management-free space, an area without multinational standards and regulations.

This, of course, is untrue. I shall not go into this in detail, but will simply say that the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea provides a comprehensive legal framework for addressing a number of these challenges. This multilateral regime applies to the Arctic. The Convention gives the states rights and obligations for the peaceful exploitation of the oceans and seabed and for addressing environmental concerns.

As far as the fisheries are concerned, the situation is that Norway has sovereign control over large expanses of ocean off our coasts – our economic zone, the fishery protection zone adjacent to Svalbard and the fishery zone around Jan Mayen. And it is generally within these zones that the fish are found.

We have a comprehensive and long-standing cooperation with our neighbour Russia on research and resource management, a cooperation that is constantly expanding into new areas. This is important, not only because it is economically vital fishery resources we are co-operating on, but also because we jointly agree that it is the stocks in their entire geographic range that is the subject of cooperation. And, by and large, this cooperation works well, and in our relations with our Russian neighbours it has a uniquely long history.

It is also important in this context that we at the regional level have the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission or NEAFC. As you are aware, the primary interest of the NEAFC is the international marine areas. We also have a similar arrangement for the north-west Atlantic. So, by and large, with regard to fisheries we are reasonably well covered in respect of responsibilities and structures for cooperation in the North. There is therefore no basis for any talk of a management-free space.

Let me also mention the International Maritime Organization’s guidelines for navigation in ice-covered waters to underscore this last point.

The oceans are a main source of the world’s food. Norway exports 27 million meals of seafood every day, and in addition to that, the oceans contain a biobank that medicine and other industries can utilize for the benefit of humanity. And the oceans of the north are also sources of energy, both renewable and non-renewable.

Our responsibility is to preserve this area of opportunities for coming generations as well to the benefit of the people of Europe and the rest of the world, and of the people living in the north. This Northern part of the country has lagged behind the rest of the country in many respects – we want to change this.

The Government’s High North policy is about a responsible resource management, protecting the basis and development of thriving communities and ensuring a credible assertions of sovereignty and fruitful collaboration with neighbouring countries and allies. This commitment to the High North involves a wide-ranging and long-term mobilization to pursue these interests further.

From where I stand as Minister of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs, the High North has been key to a number of significant actions that have been taken. Let me mention just a few of the most important.

The integrated management plan for the Marine Environment of the Barents Sea and the Sea Areas off the Lofoten Islands was a milestone. The plan represents a broad compromise among petroleum, fisheries, shipping and environmental interests. The plan aimes at developing economic activities in the Barents Sea in a sustainable manner. This means that we have reopened the Barents Sea to petroleum activities, but certain areas are closed because of the importance they have to the fisheries. The plan also includes measures to secure safety at sea and strengthening the oil spill preparedness.

The integrated management plan will be revised in 2010, and one of the main questions will then be whether the areas outside Lofoten should be opened for petroleum activities or not. We are now collecting data on seabirds, sea bottom and seismic data to have the very best basis for making this decision in 2010.

One priority area is marine bioprospecting. Organisms living in the cold waters in the north are adapted to living conditions through special biochemical processes that may have applications in medicine. We have launched an ambitious project to survey the sea floor in the north where we record the physics, chemistry and biology of the sea floor. The project will provide us with a knowledge bank that will also be relevant for possible bioprospecting.

Sustainable resource use is, as I have pointed out, a key factor in our High North policy.

In recent years the Government has given high priority to measures aimed at illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Illegal fishing is a global phenomenon.

The Norwegian government has a main priority to reduce overfishing in the Barents Sea, where the vital cod stocks were overfished in the amount of around 100,000 tonnes each year between 2002 and 2005. I am proud that our countermeasures have worked. The figures for 2007, show that overfishing of cod is down to 40,000 tonnes. Progress like this would not have been possible without cooperation with Russia and the European Commission and EU member states.

However, we have not put this fight behind us. This is because there is still overfishing in the Barents Sea, because criminal players  find ways to circumvent the new measures and, not least, because they move some of their operations to new areas. The political will around the North Atlantic to combat this scourge is strong, which was confirmed at the meeting of North Atlantic fisheries ministers in Malta in May.

For that reason, Norway has taken the initiative through the FAO towards a global regime of port state control for fisheries. Already this year there will be consultations at the FAO on a binding instrument of this kind.

At the same time, we have studied with great interest the European Commission’s draft council regulation to create an EU system to combat IUU fishing. We think the proposal is both ambitious and interesting on a number of points, and have therefore supported the Commission’s aims for the new regulation.

To conclude, the main goal of our High North strategy is to secure sustainable growth and development of the Northern areas.
We have a very broad approach and generations perspective to these questions, dealing with questions such as:

• Environmental challenges and climate change
• Indigenous issues - in these  four countries six different languages are spoken.
• The Sami parlament
• The Finnmark act
• The rights to coastal marine resources
• Energy issues
• Research and knowledge in the North and about the North
• International cooperation on Northern issues
• Strengthening ties and developing further the cooperation with our neighbours in the North, and Russia is of course important in that regard. The development has been fast. I was 5 years old when I saw the Russian boarder for the first time. After the Soviet Union we have the organised cooperation of the Barents region with trade, friendship and cultural exchange.

The Government is now preparing to make labour migration to Norway easier. In the north, it will be easier for Russians to obtain temporary work permits, commuters over the border will be able to obtain part-time work, and it will be easier for residents of Murmansk and Archangel to obtain multiple-entry visas. We are now doing what we can from the Norwegian side to facilitate labour migration. This is a proof that the world actually moves forward sometimes – and in the High North many things are definitely moving in a good direction.

The High North issues are both local and global. I am therefore glad that you are here to discuss them!

Thank you for your attention!