Marc-André Dubois is Advisor on External Relations, Alexander Shestakov is Director, & Clive Tesar is
Head of Communications for the WWF Global Arctic Programme.
237
The Arctic Ocean Review, the Arctic Voice, & Dealing
with the Interplay of Global & Regional Regimes
Marc-André Dubois, Alexander Shestakov & Clive Tesar
Evidence from earlier regime effectiveness studies and niche-oriented analysis suggests that the Arctic Council and its
member-states should use the Council‘s work to influence and shape action in other regional and international fora.
The article highlights the need for the Arctic Council and its members to move beyond knowledge-building and norm-
building to actively support regulatory advances in broader institutions by the establishment of a coordinated Arctic
voice enabling Arctic states to provide collective leadership in global instruments with an Arctic agenda, such as
finalizing the Polar Code. Such an approach would also be consistent with the recent Ministerial declaration of the
Arctic Council. The Council‘s Arctic Ocean Review recommendations will serve as the example to illustrate the
opportunities for member states to provide collective leadership in addressing those recommendations in international
fora.
Introduction
The bounty of Arctic marine biodiversity and ecosystems services is of major importance to Arctic
indigenous peoples, other Arctic residents and for humanity as a whole. The recognized fast pace
and large scale of biophysical changes occurring today in the Arctic are opening the region to further
industrial development and are challenging governance systems designed for a more inaccessible and
less dynamic Arctic. The Arctic Council and its member governments decided in 2009 to initiate the
Arctic Ocean Review (AOR) project under the leadership of the Protection of the Arctic Marine
Environment (PAME) working group. The AOR phase I project considered existing global and
regional measures that are relevant for the Arctic marine environment. The final AOR report