PRESS CONFERENCE BY MINISTER FOR ENVIRONMENT OF NORWAY

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY MINISTER FOR ENVIRONMENT OF NORWAY

At a Headquarters press conference this morning, the Minister for Environment of Norway, Thorbjorn Berntsen, told correspondents that Arctic issues had become global issues. Cooperation among the eight Arctic countries on key issues in the region was essential, but domestic and international action was also crucial to reduce the threat to the Arctic environment.

Minister Berntsen and a representative of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), Lars Erik Liljelund, briefed correspondents on action being taken to protect the environment in the Arctic region.

Speaking also on behalf of the other "Arctic countries" -- Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Russian Federation, Sweden and the United States, Minister Berntsen reported on the fourth ministerial meeting under the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy, held on 12 and 13 June in Alta, Norway. At that meeting, environment ministers from the eight Arctic countries met with indigenous peoples from the region to discuss more effective international action to protect the Arctic environment.

He said concern for the region, which was rich in natural resources, had grown considerably, reflecting the mounting pressure on that unique and vulnerable environment due, in part, to increased harvesting of fish stocks. The challenge facing the countries in the region was to preserve "the wilderness quality" of the region while ensuring sustained economic development. It meant finding the proper balance between environmental protection and sustainable use of natural resources.

The state of the pollution of the Arctic environment had been highlighted in a recent report from the AMAP, he said. One of its main conclusions was that although the Arctic still remains a clean environment with large areas of unspoiled nature, the area faced environmental risks and problems that were largely caused by contaminants transported from sources outside the Arctic. The Ministers had agreed that special attention had to be given to the impact of contaminants on human health and to the need to identify and inform on the impacts of contaminants on human beings and on animals. They had also stressed the need to cooperate to reduce emissions.

Lars Erik Liljelund, of the AMAP secretariat, then gave a brief audio- visual presentation of the main conclusion of the report of the AMAP. He said the three-year assessment, conducted by 160 scientists in the eight Arctic countries, was based on data collected over the past six years. The priorities for the scientists were the contaminants in the region which had resulted from the use of persistent organic pesticides and heavy metals and from radioactivity.

There were three main messages in the report, he said. The first was that the Arctic was the final storage area for many contaminants used

Norway Press Conference - 2 - 25 June 1997

globally, but especially in the northern hemisphere. The contaminants reached the region by wind, ocean currents and by freshwater flowing into the Arctic. The second message was that the concentrations of contaminants increased (biomagnified) in the region. For example, there was a trend of increasing concentration of heavy metals, such as mercury. The report's third conclusion was that there was an increase in radioactivity in the region which had resulted from nuclear weapon fallout, among other sources, including the Chernobyl accident.

The effects of those concentrations on human beings were also recorded in the report, Mr. Liljelund said. Humans were consuming the contaminants through animals and fish in the region. The assessments of the levels of the contaminants were based on tests of blood samples of human beings. Although they were found throughout the region, higher levels were found in blood samples taken from people in areas around east Canada and west Greenland. Their level of the contaminants was higher than in populations south of the Arctic.

Mr. Liljelund said the report stressed the importance of international action to ensure reduction in persistent organic pesticides. The situation was not improving, particularly for heavy metals, such as mercury, radioactivity and acidification. Because of those trends, the region could also have a dramatic negative effect on greenhouse gases.

Asked about the international action that was necessary, Mr. Liljelund said progress on the ongoing negotiations on two protocols to reduce persistent organic pesticides and heavy metals in the region was important. All countries should sign them when they had been agreed on.

A correspondent asked about the negotiations among the eight Arctic countries. Minister Berntsen agreed that the most important instruments were the international protocols by which the countries would commit themselves to reducing the use of persistent organic pesticides and heavy metals in their own countries. Such an agreement would have a direct impact on the food chain in the region. The negotiations were ongoing under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) was also working on the protocols. All such negotiations were being done within the context of the Framework Convention on Climate Change.

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