The Reflection of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) in the Barents Environmental Cooperation

• Author: Nikolas Sellheim
• Pages: 70-95

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[start kap]

The Reflection of Multilateral

Environmental Agreements (MEAs)

in the Barents Environmental

Cooperation

Nikolas Sellheim1

LL.D. Student, Legal Cultures in Transnational World (LeCTra), Faculty of L aw;

Researcher, Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority L aw (NIEM), Arc tic

Centre, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland. E-mail: nikolas.sellheim@ulapland.fi .

Received January 2012, accepted March 2012

Abstract: e Barents Euro-Arctic Region (BEAR) which was founded in 1993

is a dual-layered forum of cooperation between governments and regions in the

Barents Region. It is based on the lega lly non-binding Ki rkenes Declaration,

whose overarching aim is to promote sustainable development in the region. To

this end, the protection of the environment is to be included in all its activities.

is article ana lyzes the inclusion of the concept of sustainable development in

the cooperative structure of the BEAR based on the 1992 Rio Declaration and

Agenda 21. Several selected Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEA) are

analyzed against the background of their reection in the BEAR working proce-

dures. In the case of some MEAs, dierent statuses of ratication in Russia and

the Nordic Barents states aggravate their implementation in the BEAR context.

Notwithstanding , the forum has developed dierent strategies which enable

their successful application for the Barents Region.

1. e author would like to thank the sta at the International Barents Secretariat and the CPESC

as well as Prof. Timo Koivurova for their support. Special thanks go to the anonymous reviewers

for their invaluable input.

Arctic Revie w on Law and Politics, vol. 3 , 2/2012 pp. 218–243. ISSN 1891-6252

the reflec tion of multilat eral e nvironm ental ag ree ments

219

Keywords: Barents Euro-Arctic Region; Barents Environmental cooperation;

Multilateral Environmental Agreements; So-law cooperation; Sustainable

Development; Russian non-ratication.

1. Introduction

e collapse of the Soviet Union marked the new beginning of cooperation in the

Arctic. Formerly an arena of the Cold War, Mr. Mi khail Gorbachev’s speech in

1987 in Murmansk ma rked the turning point in Arctic politics and opened the

door for cooperative dialogue.2 While t he new cooperative environment yielded

the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS) 1991 which resulted in the

establishment of the Arctic Council (AC) in 1996, also another Arctic area – the

Barents Region – was aected by the new political ecology and several states

3

launched a cooperative initiative to mitigate the pressing issues at hand – the

Barents Euro-Arctic Region (BEAR) in 1993. Parallel to the end of the Cold War,

international environmental law beca me subject to new standards, in particular

since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de

Janeiro 1992 (henceforth referred to as the Rio Conference) and the conclusion of

several groundbreaking international environmenta l agreements.4

Since the early 1990s, both international environmental law and cooperation

under the BEAR have undergone signicant developments, and its Member States

have managed to cooperate deeply and to improve the environmental conditions

in the Barents Region under the umbrella of the BEAR.

Although there is no specic international treaty governing the Barents Region,

the Barents states have committed to and shaped a framework of governance for

the region, and in particular on the environmental level5 by becoming parties to

international treaties and endorsing legally non-binding agreements. erefore, by

reecting international standards of environmental governance through its work-

ing structure, the BEAR can serve as an example for a sophisticated and eective

2. Heininen, Lassi. 2004. Chapter 12 – “Circumpolar International Relations and Geopolitics.” In:

Arctic Human Development Report, Stefansson Arctic Institute, Akureyri, pp. 207–225, p. 208.

3. Norway, Russia, Finland, Sweden as those states located in the Barents Region, as well as Den-

mark, Iceland and the European Commission representing the EU.

4. Both legally binding and legally non-binding agreements that have increased the environmental

standards in international law have been concluded in Rio. Two legally-binding conventions,

the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the United Nations Framework Convention

on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as well as the legally non-binding Agenda 21; the Rio Declara-

tion on Environment and Development; and the Statement of Principles for the Sustainable

Management of Forests constitute the outcome of the summit.

5. Ibid.