Increased protection, conservation and restoration of degraded Arctic and Boreal wetlands would yield substantial benefits to ecosystem services, biodiversity, and climate mitigation.
- Develop pan-Arctic inventory of protected wetlands and completed, ongoing or planned restoration projects, Indigenous led and partnership projects, with country cases contributed by each Arctic State and with the list to be managed by CAFF. Such cases can serve as pilot and demonstration projects for other rapid action.
- Use short-lists of known northern wetland sites in need of protection, conservation or restoration to support national-level action plans. Such actions should be targeted to the most promising sites, including those that may be located outside the Arctic. Wetland protection, conservation and restoration would be more effective if done in direct collaboration with Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities and/or stakeholders and applied at the landscape level.
- Develop a uniform inventory of degraded Arctic wetlands with potential for restoration. Many candidate sites for restoration are known, but the exact extent and location of other damaged or degraded wetland systems remains poorly known. Encourage Arctic states to identify data gaps where wetland extent and condition are unknown and can be prioritized for inventory.
