Following up on the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment

The AMSA report focused on ships, their uses of the Arctic Ocean, their potential impacts on humans and the Arctic marine environment, and their marine infrastructure requirements.

The 2015 Progress Report on Implementation of the 2009 Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment (AMSA) Report Recommendations is the third such report developed by the Arctic Council’s Working Group on the Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment (PAME). The aim is to document progress that has been made in implementing the 17 recommendations contained in the 2009 AMSA Report, which was approved by Arctic Council Ministers. These 17 recommendations will be discussed in detail at the PAME Working Group meeting in Tromsø.

Six years after its original publication, the AMSA Report continues to resonate as both a comprehensive and an authoritative analysis on the subject of Arctic shipping. The AMSA report focused on ships, their uses of the Arctic Ocean, their potential impacts on humans and the Arctic marine environment, and their marine infrastructure requirements.

As with the two previous AMSA Progress Reports, the 2015 Progress Report once again uses the original AMSA recommendations as markers against which progress by the greater community of Arctic stakeholders is measured. While primarily focused on joint efforts made by Arctic States acting through various international or regional fora, the report also highlights examples of individual Arctic State initiatives, as well as certain efforts by Permanent Participants, industry associations and NGOs operating in the Arctic. Inasmuch as the content captured within this report acknowledges success and progress in several areas, the 2015 Progress Report should not been seen as exhaustive, nor should it divert attention away from areas where additional work remains to be done.

At the PAME Working Group meeting in Tromsø in September, the AMSA Recommendations will be discussed for a whole day, highlighting the importance of the report. In addition, PAME’s expert groups all work in relation to the AMSA recommendations.

Link: Updating AMSA – Status of implementation (2015 report)