The Arctic Coastal Biodiversity Monitoring Plan is the fourth and final circumpolar biodiversity monitoring plan to be completed under the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP). As the Coastal Monitoring Plan was being developed, the Coastal Steering Group (CSG) was able to learn from the experience of the first three CBMP plans, both through the published products, and through conversations with team members that developed the CBMP terrestrial, freshwater and marine monitoring plans.

The Coastal CSG developed a long term, integrated, multi-disciplinary, circumpolar Arctic Coastal Biodiversity Monitoring Plan that relies on science and Indigenous Knowledge (IK), and has direct and relevant application for communities, industry, governments, and other users. 

Arctic coastal ecosystems include those areas within the Arctic region where fjords, glaciers, rocky coasts, coastal wetlands, estuaries, rivers, lakes, and coastal ocean ecosystems meet and interact in complex ways that significantly influence their composition, structure, function, and their capacity to support a wide spectrum of the Arctic coastal biodiversity. These Arctic coastal ecosystems are the focus of the Coastal Monitoring Plan.

 An Executive Summary illustrates the information contained in the Arctic Coastal Biodiversity Monitoring Plan.