Marine Litter in the Arctic

4 March 2020

As an observer to the Arctic Council, the OSPAR Secretariat attended the Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment Working Group (PAME) in Oslo in February 2020. PAME progressed its work on shipping, non-indigenous species, marine litter, Marine Protected Areas, the ecosystem approach and resource exploitation in advance of its 2021 ministerial meeting.

As part of the event, OSPAR attend a marine litter workshop and shared experience from the OSPAR Marine Litter Regional Action Plan, including the grouping and management of the themes within the plan, and the setting of outcome-based objectives which could be monitored through indicators, as well as having impact measures more closely aligned to the strategic actions. Attended by around 30 experts, the workshop discussed the Regional Action plan on Marine litter in the Arctic which PAME is currently working on. It is co-led by 7 of the 8 Arctic States, in addition to AIA and OSPAR. PAME conducted the Desktop Study on Marine Litter, including Microplastics in the Arctic as part of the first phase of a Marine Litter Project included in the 2017-2019 Work Plan.

You can watch PAME's short video about the issue of marine litter in the Arctic here