Recommendations

Project Type # Outcome Report Year FEC
Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA)Key finding4Disturbance and habitat degradation can diminish Arctic biodiversity and the opportunities for Arctic residents and visitors to enjoy the benefits of ecosystem services.Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers2013
Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA)Key finding5Pollution from both long-range transport and local sources threatens the health of Arctic species and ecosystems.Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers2013
Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA)Key finding6There are currently few invasive alien species in the Arctic, but more are expected with climate change and increased human activity.Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers2013
Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA)Key finding7Overharvest was historically the primary human impact on many Arctic species, but sound management has successfully addressed this problem in most, but not all, cases.Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers2013
Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA)Key finding8Current knowledge of many Arctic species, ecosystems and their stressors is fragmentary, making detection and assessment of trends and their implications difficult for many aspects of Arctic biodiversity.Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers2013
Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA)Key finding9The challenges facing Arctic biodiversity are interconnected, requiring comprehensive solutions and international cooperation.Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers2013
Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA)Recommendation1Actively support international efforts addressing climate change, both reducing stressors and implementing adaptation measures, as an urgent matter. Of specific importance are efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to reduce emissions of black carbon, methane and tropospheric ozone precursors.Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers2013
Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA)Recommendation2Incorporate resilience and adaptation of biodiversity to climate change into plans for development in the Arctic.Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers2013
Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA)Recommendation3Advance and advocate ecosystem-based management efforts in the Arctic as a framework for cooperation, planning and development. This includes an approach to development that proceeds cautiously, with sound short and long-term environmental risk assessment and management, using the best available scientific and traditional ecological knowledge, following the best environmental practices, considering cumulative effects and adhering to international standards.Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers2013
Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA)Recommendation4Require the incorporation of biodiversity objectives and provisions into all Arctic Council work and encourage the same for on-going and future international standards, agreements, plans, operations and/or other tools specific to development in the Arctic. This should include, but not be restricted to, oil and gas development, shipping, fishing, tourism and mining.Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers2013
Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA)Recommendation5

Advance the protection of large areas of ecologically important marine, terrestrial and freshwater habitats, taking into account ecological resilience in a changing climate.

a. Build upon existing and on-going domestic and international processes to complete the identification of ecologically and biologically important marine areas and implement appropriate measures for their conservation.

b. Build upon existing networks of terrestrial protected areas, filling geographic gaps, including underrepresented areas, rare or unique habitats, particularly productive areas such as large river deltas, biodiversity hotspots, and areas with large aggregations of animals such as bird breeding colonies, seal whelping areas and caribou calving grounds.

c. Promote the active involvement of Indigenous peoples in the management and sustainable use ofprotected areas.

Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers2013
Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA)Recommendation6Develop guidelines and implement appropriate spatial and temporal measures where necessary to reduce human disturbance to areas critical for sensitive life stages of Arctic species that are outside protected areas, for example along transportation corridors. Such areas include calving grounds, den sites, feeding grounds, migration routes and moulting areas. This also means safeguarding important habitats such as wetlands and polynyas.Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers2013
Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA)Recommendation7

Develop and implement mechanisms that best safeguard Arctic biodiversity under changing environmental conditions, such as loss of sea ice, glaciers and permafrost.

a. Safeguard areas in the northern parts of the Arctic where high Arctic species have a relatively greater chance to survive for climatic or geographical reasons, such as certain islands and mountainous areas, which can act as a refuge for unique biodiversity.

7.1. Develop options for safeguarding potential marine and terrestrial refuge areas, including areas that will maintain multi-year ice (related to AMSA IID).

b. Maintain functional connectivity within and between protected areas in order to protect ecosystem resilience and facilitate adaptation to climate change.

7.2. Assess options and recommend most effective methods to manage connectivity, in light of climate change, including identification of sub-populations, species and regions for which connectivity is most critical (including for increasing genetic resilience).

7.3. Identify management actions that will enhance resilience of species in adapting to rapid change.

Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers2013
Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA)Recommendation8

Reduce stressors on migratory species range-wide, including habitat degradation and overharvesting on wintering and staging areas and along flyways and other migration routes.

a. Pursue or strengthen formal migratory bird cooperation agreements and other specific actions on a flyway level between Arctic and non-Arctic states with first priority given to the East Asian flyway.

b. Collaborate with relevant international commissions, conventions, networks and other organizations sharing an interest in the conservation of Arctic migratory species to identify and implement appropriate conservation actions.

8.1. Establish an Arctic Migratory Bird Initiative (AMBI) to cooperate on the conservation of migratory Arctic birds and prepare collaborative flyway based work plans.

8.2. Broker commitments by non-Arctic countries to safeguarding important Arctic migratory bird habitats outside the Arctic, as part of the AMBI.

c. Develop and implement joint management and recovery plans for threatened species with relevant non-Arctic states and entities.

8.3. Identify species that could benefit from, but are not covered by, range-wide adaptive management strategies and follow-up as appropriate.

8.4. Inventory on-going seabird projects and develop a common reporting template for all seabird conservation strategies.

8.5. Continue implementation of existing species conservation strategies and develop others as appropriate (Black-legged Kittiwakes, caribou).

8.6. Investigate the impact of shipping and off-shore development on seabirds.

d. Identify and advance the conservation of key wintering and staging habitats for migratory birds, particularly wetlands.

Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers2013
Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA)Recommendation9Reduce the threat of invasive alien/non-native species to the Arctic by developing and implementing common measures for early detection and reporting, identifying and blocking pathways of introduction, and sharing best practices and techniques for monitoring, eradication and control. This includes supporting international efforts currently underway, for example those of the International Maritime Organization to effectively treat ballast water to clean and treat ship hulls and drilling rigs.Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers2013
Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA)Recommendation10

Promote the sustainable management of the Arctic’s living resources and their habitat.

a. Improve circumpolar cooperation in data gathering and assessment of populations and harvest and in the development of improved harvest methods, planning, and management. This includes improving the use and integration of traditional ecological knowledge and science in managing harvests and in improving the development and use of community-based monitoring as an important information source.

b. Develop pan-Arctic conservation and management plans for shared species that are, or will potentiallybe, harvested or commercially exploited that incorporate common monitoring objectives, populationassessments, harvesting regimes, guidelines for best practices in harvest methodology and considermaintenance of genetic viability and adaptation to climate change as guiding principles.

c. Support efforts to plan and manage commercial fisheries in international waters under common international objectives that ensure long-term sustainability of species and ecosystems. Encourage precautionary, science-based management of fisheries in areas beyond national jurisdiction inaccordance with international law to ensure the long-term sustainability of species and ecosystems.

d. Support efforts to develop, improve and employ fishing technologies and practices that reduce bycatch of marine mammals, seabirds and non-target fish and avoid significant adverse impact to the seabed.

e. Develop and implement, in cooperation with reindeer herders, management plans that ensure the sustainability of reindeer herding and the quality of habitat for grazing and calving.

Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers2013
Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA)Recommendation11

Reduce the threat of pollutants to Arctic biodiversity.

a. Support and enhance international efforts and cooperation to identify, assess and reduce existing and emerging harmful contaminants.

b. Support the development of appropriate prevention and clean up measures and technologies that are responsive to oil spills in the Arctic, especially in ice-filled waters, such that they are ready for implementation in advance of major oil and gas developments.

c. Encourage local and national action to implement best practices for local wastes, enhance efforts to clean-up legacy contaminated sites and include contaminant reduction and reclamation plans in development projects.

Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers2013
Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA)Recommendation12Evaluate the range of services provided by Arctic biodiversity in order to determine the costs associated with biodiversity loss and the value of effective conservation in order to assess change and support improved decision making.Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers2013
Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA)Recommendation13Increase and focus inventory, long-term monitoring and research efforts to address key gaps in scientific knowledge identified in this assessment to better facilitate the development and implementation of conservation and management strategies. Areas of particular concern identified through the ABA include components critical to ecosystem functions including important characteristics of invertebrates, microbes, parasites and pathogens.Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers2013
Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA)Recommendation14Recognize the value of traditional ecological knowledge and work to further integrate it into the assessment, planning and management of Arctic biodiversity. This includes involving Arctic peoples and their knowledge in the survey, monitoring and analysis of Arctic biodiversity.Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers2013
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