About Arctic Council

The Ottawa Declaration of 1996 formally established the Arctic Council as a high level intergovernmental forum to provide a means for promoting cooperation, coordination and interaction among the Arctic States, with the involvement of the Arctic Indigenous communities and other Arctic inhabitants on common Arctic issues, in particular issues of sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.

Member States of the Arctic Council are Canada, Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russian Federation, Sweden, and the United States of America.

In addition to the Member States, the Arctic Council has the category of Permanent Participants. This category is open equally to Arctic organizations of Indigenous peoples with a majority of Arctic Indigenous constituency representing:

• a single Indigenous people resident in more than one Arctic State; or
• more than one Arctic Indigenous people resident in a single Arctic State.

The category of Permanent Participation is created to provide for active participation of, and full consultation with, the Arctic Indigenous representatives within the Arctic Council. This principle applies to all meetings and activities of the Arctic Council.

• Aleut International Association (AIA)
• Arctic Athabaskan Council (AAC)
• Gwich'in Council International (GCI)
• Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC)
• Saami Council 
• Russian Arctic Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON)

Arctic Council Chairmanship

The Chairmanship of the Arctic Council rotates every two years.

• Canada: Inauguration of Arctic Council - 1998 (Ministerial Meeting held in Iqaluit, Canada 1998)
• United States of America: 1998 - 2000 (Ministerial Meeting held in Barrow, Alaska 2000)
• Finland: 2000-2002 (Ministerial Meeting held in Inari, Finland 2002)
• Iceland: 2002-2004 (Ministerial Meeting held in Reykjavik, Iceland 2004)  
• Russian Federation: 2004-2006 (Ministerial Meeting held in Salekhard, Russian Federation, 2006)
• Norway: 2006-March 2009
• Denmark: 2009-2011
• Sweden: 2011-2013

The Norwegian chairmanship

Norway took over the chairmanship of the Arctic Council from Russia on 26 October 2006. Denmark and Sweden will take over the chairmanship after 2008. Norway, Denmark and Sweden have agreed a set of common priorities for the three chairmanships.

The Arctic Council Secretariat will be established in Tromsø.

The Arctic Council website will be regularly updated to ensure that it remains a practical and useful tool for all interested parties.

Programme for the Norwegian chairmanship of the Arctic Council 2006-2008 can be found in the documentation section.

Meetings

The Arctic Council Ministerial Meetings are held biannually in the country holding the chairmanship. The host country serves as chair of the Arctic Council from the conclusion of a biennial Ministerial Meeting to the conclusion of the next biennial Ministerial Meeting, and thus coordinates arrangements for the Ministerial Meeting and meetings of the Senior Arctic Officials.

With the Norwegian Chairmanship, Ministerial Meetings will now be held in the spring rather than the late autumn. This change extends the Norwegian Chairmanship slightly to two years and 5 months.

Meetings of Senior Arctic Officials are held every six months in the host country.

The Working Groups

Working Groups of the Arctic Council and their supporting scientific and technical Expert Groups hold meetings at regular intervals throughout the year, ahead of the meetings of Senior Arctic Officials and Arctic Council Ministers. Each Working Group has a different meeting schedule, which can be obtained by contacting the respective Secretariats of the Working Groups.

There are six Working Groups of the Arctic Council:

• Arctic Contaminants Action Program (ACAP)
• Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP)
• Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF)
• Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response (EPPR)
• Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment (PAME)
• Sustainable Development Working Group (SDWG)

Each Working Group has a specific mandate under which it operates. Each Working Group has a Chair and Management Board or Steering Committee, and is supported by a Secretariat. Working Group Management Boards are typically comprised of representatives of national governmental agencies of the Arctic Council Member States, connected to the mandates of the Working Groups; and representatives of the Permanent Participants. Observer States and Observer Organizations are likely to attend Working Group meetings and participate in specific projects. In addition, Working Groups regularly have invited guests, or experts attending their meetings.

It is the responsibility of the Working Groups to execute the programs and projects mandated by the Arctic Council Ministers. These mandates are stated in the Ministerial Declarations, the official documents that result from Ministerial Meetings. Principle of Consensus:

All decisions of the Arctic Council and its subsidiary bodies are by consensus of the eight Arctic Member States.

Observers

Observer status in the Arctic Council is open to:

• Non-arctic states
• inter-governmental and inter-parliamentary organizations, global and regional
• non-governmental organizations.

Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy - 1991

In September 1989, on the initiative of the government of Finland, officials from the eight Arctic countries met in Rovaniemi, Finland to discuss cooperative measures to protect the Arctic environment. They agreed to work towards a meeting of circumpolar Ministers responsible for Arctic environmental issues. The September 1989 meeting was followed by preparatory meetings in Yellowknife, Canada in April 1990; Kiruna, Sweden in January 1991; and, Rovaniemi, Finland in June 1991.

In addition to the numerous technical and scientific reports prepared under this initiative,the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy was developed. This Strategy represents the culmination of the cooperative efforts of the eight Arctic countries: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, United States of America.

The eight Arctic countries were assisted in the preparation of the Strategy by the following observers: Inuit Circumpolar Conference, Nordic Saami Council, USSR Association of Small Peoples of the North, Federal Republic of Germany, Poland, United Kingdom, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, United Nations Environment Program, and the International Arctic Science Committee.