| Summary: | In 1991, Environment Ministers of the eight Arctic states (Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and USA), adopted the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS). The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) was established to implement part of this strategy. In 1996 the AEPS, including all its working groups, was reorganized to form the Arctic Council (AC) (see Annex 1 for a more complete historical account). AMAP delivered its fourth major comprehensive series of assessments (AMAP 2009) which included human health, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), radioactivity and an update on climate change science issues. This assessment followed those in 1997, 2002 and 2004-2008, which included the groundbreaking Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA, 2004/05 in cooperation with the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) and the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF)), update on acidification and Arctic haze (2006), and the Arctic Oil and Gas assessment (2007-2010). The reports have been widely acclaimed by key stakeholders and have significantly influenced the development of international agreements such as the global Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and the regional United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Long- Range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP) to curb pollutant emissions. An external review of AMAP undertaken in 2010 found that “AMAP products were widely known and respected in Arctic governments, in intergovernmental, scientific and education organizations, and by indigenous people’s organizations; for a wide variety of stakeholders, AMAP has focused on the important and relevant environmental issues for the Arctic region.” The AMAP’s strategic framework and implementation plan have been updated and modified over the years as new work was assigned from the AC. The most recent update was in 2004, following the publication of the ACIA. This Strategic Framework document represents an update to the 2004 document ...
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