Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment

The Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment Working Group (PAME) is one of six working groups^[1] encompassed by the Arctic Council. Founded as part of the 1991 Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy, it assimilated into the structure of the Council following the signing of the 1996 Ottawa Declaration by the eight Arctic states.^[2][3] The Working Group claims to operate across the domains of Arctic shipping, maritime pollution, marine protected areas, ecosystem approaches to management, resource exploitation and development, and associations with the marine environment.^[4] Where necessary, it is tasked with producing guidelines and recommendations for policy improvement, with projects approved every two years by the council.

The working group includes representatives from each state, (Canada, Denmark (representing both Greenland and the Faroe Islands), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States) as well as its Permanent Participants (Aleut International Association (AAI), Arctic Athabaskan Council (AAC), Gwich'in Council International (GCI), Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC), Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON), and the Saami Council) representing the region's indigenous populations, and a number of observers.^[5][6] The Secretariat for PAME is located in Akureyri, Iceland.