The cooperation among the Nordic Ministers for the Environment builds on four-year action programmes for the environment. This brochure contains the Nordic environmental Action Plan 2005-2008. This plan forms the framework for the Nordic countries’ environmental cooperation both within the Nordic area and in relation to the neighbouring areas, the Arctic, the EU and other international forums. The plan strongly emphasizes the need for integrating the various sectors and for collaboration among the various working groups in environmental matters.The Environmental Action Plan focuses on four major themes: the environment and health, the sea, nature, the cultural environment and outdoor life, and sustainable consumption and production. These major themes were chosen because environmental matters should not be looked at in isolation but as part of a larger whole. Hazardous substances, for example, should be considered both on the background of how they affect peoples’ health and on their effects on the environment.Much weight is placed on protecting the marine environment, an area where the Nordic region has been an international leader for many years and which was given high priority in the programme for the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2004 under the Icelandic chairmanship.The Environmental Action Plan is the framework for the cooperation in the coming four years and paves the way for resultsthat will cement the position of the Nordic region as a frontrunner in environmental matters.