The Central Arctic Ocean Fisheries Agreement

Abstract

The Agreement to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean (CAOFA) is a unique treaty that deals with a unique scenario: in an area of the high seas where no fishing has ever taken place, it determines the conditions under which future fishing may commence. The chapter first examines the origins and drivers that led to the adoption of the CAOFA – such as climate change, lack of knowledge, the precautionary approach and the needs of, and impacts on, Arctic Indigenous peoples. It then turn to the key elements of the CAOFA’s qualified, temporary and treaty-based abstention from fishing in the high seas portion of the central Arctic Ocean, an element that managed to secure consensus among the ten participants in the negotiations on the CAOFA.