The document below lays out Global Choices’ Blueprint-for-Action. Strategies are integrated in order to amplify and support one other to achieve protection from commercial, exploitive and hazardous activities in the Central Arctic Ocean.

The Central Arctic Ocean (CAO), is a vital ecosystem teeming with unique marine life and is where the Arctic sea ice now melts in retreat during the summer when most vulnerable. It consists of approximately 3 million square kilometers, making it the largest area classified as High Seas in the Arctic. It is enclosed by the 200 mile exclusive economic zones (EEzs) of six countries and is non-jurisdictional – owned by none and for the benefit of all – under the 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Thus, it can be entered in principle by vessels or commercial interests of any state unless an international agreement stipulates otherwise. The Global Choices petition calls for a 10-year moratorium on all activity in this sensitive region of our fragile planet. The proposed Moratorium is rooted in the understanding of whole systems and interconnected ecosystems, both aligning with millennia of Indigenous knowledge and validated by scientific evidence.

Serving as a ‘first line of defense’, the Moratorium safeguards the Central Arctic Ocean, its global ecosystem services and its unique ice dependent biodiversity.

Decades of scientific research highlight the interconnectedness of Earth systems and have warned of this unfolding situation for decades. Yet, the urgency to protect the Arctic and the still remaining sea ice has been grossly underestimated by global leaders. The International Agreement to Prevent Unregulated Fishing in the High Seas of the Central Arctic Ocean is just such an instrument as it pauses commercial fishing for 16 years. However, it doesn’t protect the full spectrum of biodiversity and increasingly fragile sea ice cover of this far North ocean realm from harm, that results from hazardous activities and the commercial quest for other resources.