Recommendations

Project Type # Outcome Report Year FEC
Inspiring Arctic Voices Through YouthGoalYouth voices and perspectives are empowered to advance the goals of CAFF in the conservation of Arctic biodiversity, international collaboration, and raising public awareness of Arctic issues.CAFF Arctic Youth Engagement Strategy: 2021-20262021
Inspiring Arctic Voices Through YouthGoalArctic youth are given access to diverse learning and leadership opportunities in which their perspectives are valued and respected, and their skills and effectiveness are expanded.CAFF Arctic Youth Engagement Strategy: 2021-20262021
Inspiring Arctic Voices Through YouthGoalOpportunities for youth engagement and increasing levels of leadership continue to expand.CAFF Arctic Youth Engagement Strategy: 2021-20262021
Inspiring Arctic Voices Through YouthGoalArctic youth are engaged in conservation, raising public awareness, and promoting Arctic biodiversity in their own home countries and in collaboration with other Arctic nations.CAFF Arctic Youth Engagement Strategy: 2021-20262021
Inspiring Arctic Voices Through Youth

Increase opportunities for youth to engage meaningfully with the work of CAFF, including but not limited to:

  • Education and training
  • Cultural exchanges
  • Professional growth development
  • Involvement in projects, decision-making, policy, and diplomacy.
  • Youth roles in professional convenings such as the Arctic Biodiversity Congress.
  • Mentoring opportunities
CAFF Arctic Youth Engagement Strategy: 2021-20262021
Inspiring Arctic Voices Through YouthIncrease numbers of youth engaged and actively participating and strive for diverse representation of youth from all Arctic nations, and beyond.CAFF Arctic Youth Engagement Strategy: 2021-20262021
Inspiring Arctic Voices Through YouthFacilitate long-term youth engagement opportunities and continuity or linkages between programs where it makes sense.CAFF Arctic Youth Engagement Strategy: 2021-20262021
Inspiring Arctic Voices Through YouthFoster collaborations such as exchanges, meetings, or training with important Indigenous constituencies through the permanent participants and their associated youth programs.CAFF Arctic Youth Engagement Strategy: 2021-20262021
Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Arctic MiningAdvice

A lack of trust and coordination:

(1) within and among permitting agencies;

(2) among agencies and the mining industry; and

(3) across agencies, mining industry, and the public, especially in relation to Indigenous communities. Lack of coordination, meaningful communication (e.g., listening), transparency and follow-through among parties often results in enduring mistrust and missed opportunities for collaboration that could benefit biodiversity. Coordination and agreement on good sustainability practices could result in an improved public image and greatertrust of the mining industry.

Advice to address Key Finding A:

Government agencies could:

  • Engage with industry and communities early and, as possible, outside of the permitting process, with the caveat that conflicts of interest can be an issue during the permitting process.
  • Ensure in the pre-project phase, alignment within and between government entities involved.
  • Ensure effective communication of relevant information, helping to minimize misinformation that is sometimes conveyed about proposed mining projects.
  • Support creation and maintenance of an entity to help facilitate sustainable mining practices.

Mining industry could:

  • Engage with communities and permitting agencies early and often, recognizing that industry may not have all of the answers early in the process.
  • Continue to engage regularly with agencies and communities after permits are granted.
  • Recognize the importance of participation and knowledge of Indigenous Peoples and communities, especially Elders.
  • Create agreements with communities to ensure participation and interests are considered that can lead to mutually beneficial outcomes.
  • Engage local people in research design, data gathering and analysis (Challenge E).
  • Provide support for and participate in national and international sustainable mining initiatives, groups or networks (e.g., the International Council on Mining and Metals, Convention on Biological Diversity’s Mainstreaming Biodiversity in the Energy and Mining, Infrastructure, and Manufacturing and Processing, and Health Sectors).

CAFF could:

  • Continue to facilitate workshops and other opportunities for dialogue, partnerships, and other actions to help build common understanding and trust among parties.
  • Continue to increase awareness about and help facilitate opportunities for cross-sector engagement. For example, continue to invite industry to biodiversity meetings and conferences; and collaborate on sessions, presentations and events at mining industry meetings and conferences.
  • Work with Permanent Participants and industry to facilitate design of good practices for engaging communities and government agencies throughout all aspects of mining operations.
Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Arctic Mining Challenges and Proposed Solutions2019
Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Arctic MiningAdvice

Establishment of mutually beneficial partnerships with communities impacted by mining operations.

In order to operate effectively, the mining industry needs buy-in from impacted communities (i.e., Social License to Operate). This is especially important across much of the Arctic where Indigenous Peoples and/or local communities often depend on ecosystem services for food security, cultural and spiritual connections and other purposes. Because of differences in cultures and/or values, limited shared understanding and lack of trust, it can be difficult to meaningfully engage with Indigenous and/or local communities, develop positive relationships and work towards common goals. Although there are good examples of where the mining industry operating in the Arctic is working collaboratively with government agencies, communities and others to minimize their impacts on biodiversity, public perception of the mining industry in impacted communities is not always favourable.

Mining industry could:

  • Engage in community partnerships where community members have real input and decision-making authority (e.g., co-management of resources) (Box 4).
  • Provide tangible economic incentives for community residents (e.g., employment at mine or related support jobs and community enhancement efforts)
  • Use of agreements (e.g., “good neighbour”/Impact and Benefit Agreements) (Tolvanen 2018) to attain social license to operate prior to mining activities taking place (Boxes 2 and 4). Agreements could designate, for example, how to monitor impacts and address compensation for unavoidable effects (Tolvanen 2018).
  • Ensure protection of traditional uses of the surrounding area, including linkages to food security and the biodiversity it supports as an important consideration during all phases of the project.

CAFF could:

  • Work with the mining industry and others to continue to develop and share good practices for community engagement and partnerships specific to mining operations.
  • Continue to explore opportunities for further dialogue among Permanent Participants, government agencies and the mining industry to help identify and ultimately achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.
Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Arctic Mining Challenges and Proposed Solutions2019
Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Arctic MiningAdvice

Lack of alignment among government agencies in regard to environmental permitting, particularly environmental review requirements. Local, state/territory and national permitting requirements can be perceived by industry to be arduous, repetitive and/or misaligned causing unnecessary burdens that do not clearly translate into useful information or benefits for biodiversity conservation or sustainable development. For example, excessive data collection and reporting requirements without strategic coordination and partnering that could benefit government agencies, industry and the public. This can lead to separate government agencies asking for the same information in different ways or seeking extraneous information that does not help inform decision-making, resulting in unnecessary time and resources expended.

Government agencies could:

  • Engage with industry as early as possible, outside of the permitting process, with the caveat that conflict of interest can be an issue during permitting so relevant laws and policies must be adhered to (Box 1).
  • Align/organize internally and among different government entities who may need to be involved in particular projects and the permitting process. This alignment should happen from the outset of a project or permitting process to identify ways to streamline permit requirements without compromising the quality or integrity of the process or outputs.

Mining industry could:

  • Engage with permitting agencies early regarding all aspects of the proposed project, including by offering ideas for how to streamline the permitting process while still delivering the necessary inputs.
  • Ensure there is regular and meaningful communication with government agencies.

CAFF could:

  • Share and gather information and report on good practices in environmental assessment/permitting and share broadly with Arctic States, industry and others.
  • Continue to facilitate dialogue and information sharing among industry and government agencies regarding mainstreaming of biodiversity as a way to build common understanding and establish enduring relationships.
Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Arctic Mining Challenges and Proposed Solutions2019
Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Arctic MiningAdvice

Agreement on data (e.g. cultural and ecological indicators of change) collection, management, and sharing of information. Baseline data and other information about the status and health of plants, animals and ecosystems in and around mine sites are important for the mining industry, communities, government agencies and CAFF. An important challenge is to ensure that data generated by the mining industry are accessible in a form that can inform broader understandings of Arctic biodiversity status and trends.

Government agencies could:

  • Agree to participate in collaborative processes to identify and use common indicators that capture thecultural, social, and economic impacts of mining.
  • Provide data to a common repository where data could be available to be shared.

Mining industry could:

  • Agree to participate in collaborative processes to identify and use common indicators that capture the cultural, social, and economic impacts of mining.
  • Provide data to a common repository where it could be available to be shared.

CAFF could:

  • Provide a common repository to make relevant data about the status and health of plants, animals and ecosystems in the Arctic available for other uses (Box 8).
  • Work in cooperation with others to help develop common methodologies for data collection, analysis, management and reporting by the mining industry.
  • Collect and share good practices for data collection and sharing.
  • Work to ensure data provided to the CAFF is compatible with agency-mandated data collection or other standards where appropriate.
  • Help to develop indicators that capture the relevant cultural, social and economic impacts of mining.
  • Encourage and provide assistance for national and industry adoption of CAFF monitoring plans and indicators as minimum standards for the Arctic.
  • Help to develop relevant/common questions that could be asked of mining activities across the Arctic.
  • Initiate a pilot project(s) that could incorporate elements of data collection and sharing.
  • Create an expert group to address data quality and sharing, to consider how groups can work together and how TK might be equitably utilized with a focus on the engagement of TK holders.
  • Optimize use of information by ensuring that CAFF data initiatives take into account ongoing mining industry data needs, activities and approaches so that they are clearly defined.
Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Arctic Mining Challenges and Proposed Solutions2019
Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Arctic MiningAdviceE. Difficulty establishing clear processes for engaging Indigenous Peoples and utilizing TK. A need exists to work together with Indigenous communities in a meaningful way that respects and utilizes TK along with science to inform decisions regarding biodiversity (e.g., key research questions informing biotic and abiotic monitoring decisions). There are existing examples of design, operations, and reclamation plans of some mines located in the Arctic region that have been influenced by TK and through consultations with local communities, but there is not a consistent or systematic way for gathering and utilizing TK and science so outcomes are useful, credible and benefit communities and the mining industry to the greatest extent possible.Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Arctic Mining Challenges and Proposed Solutions2019
Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW)Key findingResearch findings make it clear that restoration of damaged or compromised Arctic wetlands ecosystems offers substantial benefits across multiple areas of interest – water-centric ecosystem services, biodiversity, and increasingly over the past decade, climate mitigation.Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands Phase 2 Report2021
Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW)Key findingComprehensive information on Arctic wetlands ecosystems is currently lacking but needed to adequately identify the location and type of wetlands with high levels of accuracy. Recent developments in the use of geospatial data and artificial intelligence provide the basis for substantial improvements in mapping of the extent and condition of Arctic wetlands, opening up valuable opportunities for pan-Arctic collaboration to improve wetlands inventories and keep them up-to-date.Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands Phase 2 Report2021
Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW)Key findingA considerable and broad experience with wetlands restoration and conservation dates back many decades. Expressed in an extensive body of publications by government agencies, practitioners’ organizations, trade organizations and consultancies, NGOs and scientists, a significant portion of this literature is Arctic-specific or Arctic relevant.Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands Phase 2 Report2021
Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW)Key findingThe key obstacles to scaling up and expanding wetlands restoration and management efforts in the Arctic are not due to a lack of knowledge about wetlands ecosystems processes and functions, or steps that can be taken to improve their status. Policy design and difficulties with implementation appear often to be obstacles, however, and accurate, up-to-date mapping is needed to target policy initiatives.Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands Phase 2 Report2021
Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW)Key findingThe ways in which public opinion influences the development and implementation of wetlands restoration and stewardship in the Arctic are important, but largely unresearched.Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands Phase 2 Report2021
Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW)Key findingThere is relatively little comparative analysis of national-level policies that impact Arctic wetlands.Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands Phase 2 Report2021
Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW)Key findingWhile policy pertaining to Arctic wetlands is expansive, preliminary evidence points to three key challenges for effective policy: inconsistency and/or conflict between policies and goals addressed to different aspects of wetlands, the distribution of responsibility for policy implementation into agencies and departments with differing, sometimes contrasting missions, difficulties with good communications between responsible agencies and departmentsResilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands Phase 2 Report2021
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