fill the knowledge gaps on various aspects of biodiversity conservation. Coordinated action is essential to facilitate agreement on joint action plans and strategies with which to meet these challenges.

Addressing missing aspects on governance and management of biodiversity in the Arctic

The most urgent issues that need to be more comprehensively addressed in current discussions are concerned with what we can do in these times of rapid changes. Some of the questions that need to be examined include: • Do we need a conservation approach that is better suited to the environmental and ecological changes that are approaching?

• How can environmental conservation, including that of protected areas, be managed in the most beneficial way as biodiversity changes in response to climate change?

• How can we mitigate and adapt to these new circumstances and ensure the sustainability of the Arctic’s living resources?

Traditionally, Arctic research has tended to focus on the physical environment, which is generally more easily quantifiable. Research on a circumpolar scale into Arctic biodiversity has proved challenging to address. Changes in biodiversity are often taken for granted by virtue of research into the physical sciences. Still, how biodiversity and its associated ecosystem services reacts remains little known. This is all the more pressing an issue given the current effects of climate change on Arctic biodiversity.

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In order to address these issues effectively, we need better information and understanding of the Arctic environment and of what is happening to Arctic biodiversity. The task to find ways in which to respond to the challenges we face will require not only increased monitoring and related research but also better and improved cooperation between all involved parties, to allow us to consider the most effective way forward. An example of such cooperation is the Memorandum of Cooperation recently signed between CAFF and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Both the CBD and CAFF activities complement one another in that CAFF, as a working group of the Arctic Council, provides a vehicle for knowledge and action in the Arctic region, while the CBD provides an important global framework for biodiversity efforts. The CBD can help place Arctic biodiversity within a global framework while CAFF can help inform the CBD on the status and trends of biodiversity in this globally significant region.

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