Our Mission

Our mission is to safeguard the biodiversity of the Arctic Ocean and the associated ecosystem services. To achieve this 90 North Foundation focuses proposed conservation measures on the international waters of the Central Arctic Ocean (CAO) surrounding the North Pole (ie the waters north of the Arctic coastal states Exclusive Economic Zones).

The conservation measures will seek to minimise the vessel-induced impacts, stressors and risks to the survival, health and abundance of the native and migrating non-native species.

By minimising these manageable vessel-based risks, the resilience of the region’s vulnerable marine life to adapt to the world’s fastest-changing ocean environment can be optimised.

Our work is therefore to catalyse the processes whereby the optimum conservation measures are agreed by policy-makers, within the wider context of sustainable development, through an international legal instrument by 2037. The most comprehensive long-term solution is likely to involve establishing an ‘Other Effective area-based Conservation Measure’ (OECM) for this unique and threatened marine habitat – referred to here provisionally as the North Pole Marine Reserve.

Consequently, the strategy to achieve our mission is:

  • To generate scientific research, analysis and insight about the wildlife, ecosystem, and ecosystem services of the region that informs the development of conservation measures
  • To deliver educational resources for schools and universities, and awareness programmes for the wider public that advance understanding of the rationale behind the conservation effort
  • To advocate for the appropriate conservation measures within the relevant biodiversity policy-making communities

Our Work-Streams

Scientific Research

To generate scientific research, analysis and insight about the wildlife and ecosystem services of the region that informs the development of conservation measures.

Through 90 North Foundation’s partnership with the world-class marine research faculty at the University of Exeter (UK), the Arctic Ocean Research Unit (AORU) was established this year, with some of the university’s leading marine researchers and policy-influencers engaged with 90 North Foundation’s vision.

The AORU’s focus is the biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Central Arctic Ocean, and how these relate to the wider Arctic Ocean. Its research only investigates subjects explicitly relevant to the scientific ‘Criteria for Declaration’ to be addressed within the formal application processes for any conservation measures proposed through the International Maritime Organization and the Convention on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction.

Over the coming years the ambition is to stimulate the delivery of a £100 million research effort, through the work of the Foundation and an array of other interested research bodies, that shifts the dial from generalised concern to informed and effective conservation action.

Public Education

To deliver educational resources for schools and universities, and awareness programmes for the wider public that advance understanding of the rationale behind the conservation effort

Few people witness first-hand the wildlife and seascape of the Central Arctic Ocean (CAO) which goes some way to explaining why it is the least disturbed, least explored, and at this critical juncture in its management, the least understood marine environment in the world.

Awareness and understanding of the role and value of the biodiversity and ecosystem services of the CAO is of special relevance to the people and nations living closest to the CAO, especially the circumpolar Indigenous Peoples who are all too aware of the changing Arctic environment, and are directly impacted by the degradation of these ecosystem services.

The Foundation’s educational work will also be engaging with increasingly international audiences, not simply because what happens in the far North will have impacts for everyone, but because the CAO is comprised entirely of international waters (aka high seas) making it a body of water for which all nations have an equal stake in its future.

Conservation Advocacy

To advocate for the appropriate conservation measures within the relevant biodiversity policy-making communities

90 North Foundation’s advocacy catalyses the processes within the marine policy-making communities to deliver its recommended conservation measures. The two highest-level bodies, the International Maritime Organization and the Convention on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction, require proposed conservation measures to be sponsored by one their member nation states.  The Foundation therefore works to secure a sponsoring member state for each of its conservation measures.

The majority of the envisaged protections for the Central Arctic Ocean (CAO) wildlife can be secured by: maintaining the existing voluntary agreement that prevents commercial fishing in the CAO, managed by the Arctic Council; agreeing the location and conditions for any northernmost shipping route in the event of an ice-free Arctic Ocean, to be delivered through the International Maritime Organization; and agreeing an exclusion zone for fossil fuel and mineral exploration and extraction in the CAO, delivered through the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association and the International Council of Mining & Minerals.

The Foundation’s end-goal is for an application to be made by 2037 for an ‘Other Effective area-based Conservation Measure’ (OECM) to be established for the CAO. This will be deliverable through the Convention on Biodiversity for Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (currently in process to become implemented by 2028). This envisaged OECM is provisionally referred to by the Foundation as the North Pole Marine Reserve.

Organisation

The 90 North Foundation is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation registered in 2021 with the Charity Commission for England and Wales (Charity No 1194573). The Foundation is governed by its Constitution, available on request from the Charity Commission.

Currently, no other non-governmental organisation is focused exclusively on the conservation of the biodiversity and ecosystem services within the international waters of the Central Arctic Ocean (CAO), the benefits of which will be felt in the more biologically active coastal waters of the Arctic Ocean surrounding the CAO.

It is this focus, supported by the scientific evidence and its collaborative approach with the key stakeholders, that underpins the Foundation’s work to catalyse policy-makers’ agreement for the proposed conservation measures.