PAME, which is one of the working groups of the Arctic Council, had held a regular meeting in Quebec City, Canada, on February 11~14. About 90 participants from Arctic Council Member States, Permanent Participants and Observers and invited experts gathered in the meeting.
In the meeting, latest updates of the PAME projects such as Framework for a Pan-Arctic Network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), Protection from Invasive Species, AMSA(Including HFO use in the Arctic and Alternative fuels, Specially Designated Arctic Marine Areas, Addressing Impacts on Marine Mammals, Arctic Marine Traffic Systems), Meaningful Engagement of Indigenous Peoples and Communities in Marine Activities project (MEMA), Ecosystem Approach to Management, Desktop Study on Marine Litter and so on were discussed. Like so, PAME’s activity overreaches to wide area and various actual activities. And the meeting checked upon the deliverables that will be reported in the second meeting of Senior Arctic Officials(SAO) during Finnish Chairmanship on March 2018.
The PAME meeting is usually conducted in an open way to allow observers to make the remarks after member’s discussion. And usually, some of experts were invited to give a presentation that related to PAME’s projects. For example, Korea reported about the Korea’s Arctic Partnership Week Event, in which some of PAME Shipping Expert Group members were invited and was held in Korea on Dec. 2017. And UK represented “UK’s Arctic interests in particular regarding Marine Protected Areas and Marine Litter” as well.
The PAME working Group meets twice a year and the next meeting will be held in Vladivostok, Russia in fall 2018.
Natsuhiko Otsuka (Hokkaido University / A member of Theme 7)
PAME 2018-I Meeting
