Despite the most recent efforts to improve the understanding of Arctic biodiversity trends and issues, information is currently insufficient, and available only in a piecemeal fashion and on an irregular basis7
. Indeed, the Arctic
Biodiversity Trends 2010 report notes: “Significant difficulties were encountered in preparing this report because most countries do not have internal long-term biodiversity monitoring programs. Where such programs do exist, the data collected is not consistent across the circumpolar region.”
Although efforts to monitor Arctic species exist, the lack of coordination, long-term commitment, integration and involvement of local people has resulted in weak linkages between monitoring and decision-making2
. The
ongoing work of the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Programme is another important initiative to improve data on key components of Arctic ecosystems. Numerous research results from the IPY 2007–2008 have been, or will be, published and new initiatives such as the Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON) and the Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment’s (PAME) examination of Arctic legal instruments are being developed.
The Arctic is viewed as a barometer that is highly responsive to global processes. However, the effects are not unidirectional: change in the Arctic might also trigger changes in globally-important processes relating to ocean circulation and weather systems. Recent Arctic climate science indicates that climate change in the Arctic is already affecting the rest of the world through a number of feedbacks – namely atmospheric circulation; ocean circulation; ice sheets and sea-level rise; marine and land carbon cycle; and methane hydrate feedbacks8
. In other words, the Arctic is a
component of tightly-linked global biophysical, geopolitical, and socio-economic systems. The blurring of the line between the far north and the rest of the planet is a critical development that carries with it a range of important new considerations. Increasingly, there are concerns that climate change could produce impacts in the Arctic that overwhelm existing governance systems and adaptive capacity, not only in the Arctic, but in other regions of the globe.
LIMITATIONS AND STRENGTHS OF ENVIRONMENTAL AGREEMENTS 23 I
II
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100