The environmental concerns of the Arctic tend to be common and shared by all Arctic countries. While individual nations have their own programmes for their particular parts of the Arctic, the region is characterized, like the Antarctic, by international co-operative policy and action. At the Third AEPS Ministerial meeting, in March 1996, held in Inuvik, Canada, the eight countries agreed to a set of work priorities for the Arctic and to the establishment of an Arctic Council with the involvement of Arctic indigenous communities and other Arctic inhabitants. Subregional co-operation on Arctic issues is also ongoing, mainly in Europe. The initiative includes efforts to deal with industry and nuclear waste in north-western Russia, and an environmental action plan was adopted in 1994 as part of the larger programme.
International agreements are a driving force for both.
A set of progressive and coherent measures exist to protect the marine environment. The harvesting of fish and marine mammals is addressed by a further set of conventions, some global and others specific to northern oceans. One hundred and nine countries were represented at the meeting, including the eight Arctic countries. During the negotiations of the Global Programme of Action, the need to address persistent organic pollutants, which are contaminating all oceans including those in the Arctic, was specifically recognized. The Secretariat of the Programme is to promote and facilitate its implementation at the national, subregional, regional, and global levels through, in particular, a revitalization of the Regional Seas Programmes.