Depending on how it is delimited, the Arctic is home to between four million4

and nine million people1 , including Indigenous

Peoples for whom the Arctic has been a homeland for thousands of years. Arctic communities differ in their lifestyles and livelihoods across the circumpolar region4

. The economic and

cultural significance of Arctic biodiversity to local and Indigenous Peoples of the region is particularly relevant to assessing the effectiveness of measures to preserve Arctic biodiversity.

Sustainable development of the Arctic When considering measures to preserve biodiversity while pursuing sustainable development in the region, it is important to understand various competing perceptions of the Arctic and how these perceptions can influence the approaches to this challenge.

In this regard, the Arctic can also be analysed using four broad and often competing perceptions: Homeland, Laboratory, Frontier and Wilderness. Understanding the implications of these perceptions of the Arctic is relevant to the development and implementation of MEAs:

Homeland: Resource extraction, including traditional pursuits such as hunting, herding, fishing, trapping, and gathering remain important components of local and Indigenous cultures and economies. Understandably, for the people who know the region through this homeland conceptualization, there is some concern about the influences on their local and regional affairs by those who share one or more of the other three conceptualizations listed below.

I

II

LIMITATIONS AND STRENGTHS OF ENVIRONMENTAL AGREEMENTS

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