Recommendations

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 harvestand 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 importantinformation source.

10.1. Improve data and assessments on populations, harvest and harvest management, including both traditional knowledge and science, as foundation for harvest management (e.g., Arctic Geese).

10.2. Further develop community-based monitoring as a tool to aid in tracking populations, harvest and harvest management.

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, population assessments, harvesting regimes, guidelines for best practices in harvest methodology and consider maintenance of genetic viability and adaptation to climate change as guiding principles.

10.3. Develop range-wide adaptive management strategies for those harvested species identified under Action 8.3.

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

10.4. Provide biodiversity and ecosystem information to the proposed US Chairmanship priority of developing a Regional Seas Program for the Arctic Ocean.

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.

10.5. Update CAFF reports on incidental take of seabirds in commercial fisheries in the Arctic.

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

10.6. Maintain and further develop sustainable and resilient reindeer husbandry (EALLU Arctic Indigenous Youth Climate Change and Food Culture).

CHALLENGE Fragmented research, lack of people working across disciplines.

POTENTIAL ACTIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom can provide information that may indicate connections between phenomena; it can assist the scientists and researchers in developing ecosystem approaches to monitoring, research, and management.

The CBMP is an adaptive, integrated monitoring program that provides timely information about status, trends, and changes in Arctic biodiversity and ecosystems.

Objective 2.1: Integrate lessons learned and advice for monitoring outlined in the SABRs into next steps of CBMP.

• Activity 1: After completion of major products such as SABRs, CBMP will initiate a scoping process to evaluate and prioritize FECs as indicators of change. This process will use lessons learned and SABR key findings and advice and result in a revised monitoring plan or long-term implementation plan.
• Activity 2: Review and consider lessons learned, when developing work plans.

Objective 2.2: Evaluate the effectiveness of existing and new methods and technologies as a tool to support biodiversity monitoring and assessment.

• Activity 1: Continue to improve and update Arctic Biodiversity Monitoring Plans based upon the SABR advice and lessons learned.
• Activity 2: Explore the use of remote sensing and e-DNA in CBMP activities.
• Activity 3: Consider impacts of stressors and drivers, including cumulative impacts, within reviews of the Arctic Biodiversity Monitoring Plans.•Activity 4: Consider how to understand the impact and effect of extreme events (e.g., wildfires, invasive species, extreme weather events etc.) on biodiversity, within revisions of Arctic Biodiversity Monitoring Plans.

Objective 2.3: Identify expert networks relevant for CBMP.

• Activity 1: Invite relevant networks to participate in the CBMP, including regional, Indigenous, and citizen science networks, e.g., eBird, iNaturalist.
• Activity 2: Enhance engagement of experts from Observer states and organisations.

Objective 2.4: Increase access to Arctic biodiversity data.

• Activity 1: Further develop interoperability of the ABDS with national and global data centres to facilitate access to existing and new data.
• Activity 2: Continue to work with Steering Groups, Expert Networks, and partners (such as the Arctic Spatial Data Infrastructure) to improve and consider issues of data access, visualization, metadata, comparison, and standardization.
• Activity 3: Develop a data management manual describing the flow of data from the field to CAFF assessments, including the harmonization of data across sites and scales.
• Activity 4: Increase the awareness of the ABDS amongst target audiences and other partners, including industry and other sectors.

Objective 2.5: Continue and strengthen cross-cutting activities among the CBMP Steering Groups.

• Activity 1: Hold bi-monthly telephone meetings between CBMP Co-leads and CBMP Steering Group Co-Chairs align and coordinate activities between CBMP Steering Groups. In-person meetings will also be held in conjunction with CAFF Board meetings when possible.
• Activity 2: Consider how to develop more targeted and integrated reporting
• Activity 3: Initiate steps to integrate work between the four groups.
• Activity 4: Design and develop a plan to include modelling and predictive science within CBMP, to be aligned with the 2023 CAFF Action Plan for Biodiversity.
• Activity 5: Conduct a landscape analysis of existing synergies within CBMP and other CAFF initiatives, as well as Arctic Council working groups, including the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP) and the Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment (PAME), to be aligned with the 2023 Action Plan for Biodiversity.

Objective 2.6: Via expert networks, develop user manuals and test implementation of CBMP Arctic Biodiversity Monitoring Plans in the field.

• Activity 1: CBMP Terrestrial and Freshwater Groups will, together with the CAFF Secretariat and the CBMP Co-leads, continue to work on best practices for field trials on selected FECs and, as resources allow, produce site-specific user manuals at selected stations.
• Activity 2: CBMP Marine and Coastal Group will together with the CBMP co-leads consider how to replicate Activity 1 and/or implement these approaches into the Marine and Coastal Monitoring Plans.
• Activity 3: The CAFF Secretariat will, through the CAFF webpage and the ABDS, publish recommended methods and link to internationally agreed-upon standardized monitoring methods to implement CBMP monitoring at monitoring stations.

Improvement of knowledge on limiting demographic factors.

4.2.1. Develop a comprehensive research agenda for each population specifying what information is most needed, how it will be used, and which countries will be involved. Relate this to the Circumpolar Seabird Monitoring Plan and evaluate if necessary.

4.2.2. For each major kittiwake breeding population, estimate population size, productivity, adult survival rates, and identify migration routes and wintering grounds. Also investigate survival rates and distribution of the immature birds.

4.2.3 Investigate the breeding success and population estimates for a larger proportion of the circumpolar population.

4.2.4. Investigate the genetic structures in the different populations.

4.2.5. Implement the Circumpolar Seabird Monitoring Plan (CBird 2015) throughout the circumpolar Arctic.

Research and monitoring:

22. Coordinate circumpolar murre population monitoring and store data in standardized databases.

23. Conduct research on population demography at circumpolar monitoring sites.

24. Develop a coordinated circumpolar murre banding program.

25. Monitor murre feeding ecology and food availability.

26. Monitor murre mortality due to oil pollution, commercial fisheries, and hunting.

27. Conduct research to develop techniques to reduce entrapment in fishing nets.

28. Develop management techniques to restore habitats and populations.

29. Consider the effects of global warming and local eutrophication on murre populations.

30. Assess the need to conduct research into the genetics of murre populations.

Understand the expansion of white geese populations in Arctic shorebird habitat

1.1 Understand impacts of populations of white geese on other bird species in western Canada

1.2 Understand trends in the populations of white geese in Alaska and their impacts on shorebird breeding habitats

Address other threats to Arctic migratory birds along Central and East Asian Flyways and improve international cooperation

5.1 (All countries): Analyse and assess development aid funding structures in high-income-countries and explore opportunities to help identify how AMBI can empower communities to support conservation of important priority species’ habitats, and develop solutions to address illegal hunting where pressures exist.

5.2. (All countries): Initiate work on evaluation of the effect of contaminants and/or pathogens on Arctic-breeding migratory birds as factors possibly decreasing their survival and reproduction potential and estimate bio-transition along the flyway to the Arctic.

5.3. (All countries): Promote cooperation between EAAFP’s Spoon-billed Sandpiper Task Force and AMBI in addressing Spoon-billed Sandpiper conservation activities identified in this workplan.

5.4. (All countries): Create an intervention tool box to ensure resilience of Arctic-breeding migratory birds along Central and East Asian Flyways with the involvement of Arctic Council Observer countries as recommended by the draft AMBI crosswalk analysis under the PSI funded project.