ABSTRACT
Climate change with melting sea ice in the Arctic Seas opens up new opportunities for industrial developments in resource exploitation, including petroleum exploration and exploitation, offshore mining, shipping, fishing, and tourism. Increased activity increases the environmental risk associated with industrial developments. Issues of Arctic environmental protection and sustainable development of the northern regions are on the agenda of international fora, including the UN and the Arctic Council (AC), where updated strategies, recommendations, and program documents are approved. The Arctic Seas are geographically distributed among eight sovereign states, each with its own system for environmental monitoring, impact assessment, and management. This chapter looks at the environmental monitoring and assessments carried out in the Arctic and presents the roles of the six working groups organized under the AC. The geographic focus is on the Barents Sea, shared by two neighboring Arctic states – Norway and Russia.
