Executive summary

The Arctic region is characterized by some of the largest continuous intact ecosystems on the planet, but is facing increasingly larger threats. These threats include the full range of stressors known from other parts of the world, namely habitat loss and fragmentation from infrastructure and industrial development, chemical pollution, overharvesting, climate change and invasive species infestations. Many of these pressures are mainly globally driven, including climate change, long-range transported pollution and invasive species infestations. Others, such as harvesting and fragmentation are directly under Arctic governance, though often driven from demands outside of the Arctic region.

This report takes a broad view of existing multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and examines the role of the global environment in impacting and influencing the efficiency of Arctic MEAs in protecting biodiversity and in sustainable development.

The report identifies four major areas where the Arctic nations must strengthen further their funding, ambitions and activities, addressing both Arctic and global issues that influence the future sustainable management and development in the Arctic:

Firstly, climate change is increasingly impacting Arctic biodiversity. With low emissions originating from the Arctic itself, Arctic governance must focus primarily on increasing adaptation and resilience of wildlife, fisheries and societies in the Arctic, including through the promotion of indigenous knowledge. As the sources of greenhouse gas emissions are not actually located in the Arctic, the primary search for mitigative solutions needs to be outside the Arctic region.

8 PROTECTING ARCTIC BIODIVERSITY

The Arctic region should strengthen investments in co- management and in supporting programmes of adaptation. However, a coordinated global approach is needed with actions required at all levels.

Secondly, Arctic nations need to substantially increase the extent of protected areas, especially in the coastal zone as well as the marine environment. Currently, only a fraction of the marine environment is protected. Only a small part of this is adjacent to terrestrial protected areas, so crucial for Arctic ecosystems. There seems to be a consensus in the literature that existing MEAs are not being implemented to the full extent of their terms for the Arctic. It is difficult, therefore, to determine whether there are inherent problems within the substantive provisions of an agreement or whether a failure of political will, lack of resources and capacity, or other factors