Arctic Council Working Group Recommendations
| Project | Type | # | Outcome | Report | Year | FEC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Action | CHALLENGE Funding is inconsistent, often leaving out the involvement of Arctic Indigenous peoples. POTENTIAL ACTIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES Funding aimed at actively engaging Indigenous peoples and organizations in scientific activities and to improve the understanding and use Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom | Arctic Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom: Changes in the North American Arctic | 2017 | ||
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Action | CHALLENGE It can be difficult for researchers to understand Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom, how it is validated, how to best apply it, especially elder wisdom, and how to effectively partner. POTENTIAL ACTIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES Encourage equal partnerships and participation throughout biodiversity assessment projects that affect Indigenous peoples. | Arctic Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom: Changes in the North American Arctic | 2017 | ||
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Action | CHALLENGE Institutional structures can marginalize other forms of knowledge. POTENTIAL SOLUTION/AUTHOR RECOMMENDATION Work to remove institutional barriers and improve processes for the effective use of Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom and involvement of Arctic indigenous peoples. | Arctic Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom: Changes in the North American Arctic | 2017 | ||
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Key finding | 1 | Increase opportunities for cross-cultural learning, understanding and trust building. | Arctic Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom: Changes in the North American Arctic | 2017 | |
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Key finding | 2 | Create best practices through demonstration projects, and on-the-ground work, including an evaluation of past projects, what worked, and what didn | Arctic Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom: Changes in the North American Arctic | 2017 | |
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Key finding | 3 | Develop effective partnerships and/or formalized systems of sharing among indigenous peoples and scientists to more fully engage this wide range of human intelligence to understand the complexities of managing biodiversity in the Arctic; for example, TK&W can provide early warnings of environmentalchange, indicate connections between phenomena, and fill data gaps. | Arctic Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom: Changes in the North American Arctic | 2017 | |
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Key finding | 4 | Increase financial and other support for indigenous peoples and organizations to actively engage in research and science initiatives and to effectively address their concerns. | Arctic Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom: Changes in the North American Arctic | 2017 | |
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Key finding | 5 | Encourage equal partnership and participation at the outset and throughout research projects that affect Arctic Indigenous peoples. | Arctic Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom: Changes in the North American Arctic | 2017 | |
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Key finding | 6 | Work to remove institutional barriers and improve processes for the inclusion of TK&W and involvement of Arctic indigenous peoples. | Arctic Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom: Changes in the North American Arctic | 2017 | |
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | 1 | Facilitate a move to more flexible, adaptable wildlife and habitat management and marine spatial planning approaches that respond effectively to rapid changes in Arctic biodiversity. | Life Linked to Ice: A guide to sea-ice-associated biodiversity in this time of rapid change | 2013 | ||
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Recommendation | 2 | Identify measures for detecting early warnings of biodiversity change and triggering conservation actions.Move towards a stronger reliance on early warnings of ecosystem change, rather than on population trends as triggers for making decisions. Aside from catastrophic die-offs and breeding failure, impacts from changes in sea ice are often incremental, such as a reduced rate of reproduction or survival, or less energy intake from prey. Impacts may take years to be detected in population trends, especially for long-lived animals. Measures such as reduced body condition or changes in ice-dependent prey species are evidence of impacts that can be acted on before declines are detected in abundance or distribution. In some cases these earlier actions will prevent or lessen population declines. Factors to consider in selecting such measures of change include long-term costs and benefits, support by research, ability to be updated, and suitability for determining thresholds for action. | Life Linked to Ice: A guide to sea-ice-associated biodiversity in this time of rapid change | 2013 | |
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Recommendation | 3 | Make more effective use of local and traditional knowledge in Arctic Council assessments and, more broadly, in ecological management. We need the best available knowledge to detect and respond to rapid Arctic ecosystem change. Local and traditional knowledge sources, by their nature, bring a depth of knowledge and understanding of ecosystems, as well as early warnings of change, that complement science-based studies. However, these knowledge sources are generally underutilized in assessment and management except at the scale of the knowledge holders | Life Linked to Ice: A guide to sea-ice-associated biodiversity in this time of rapid change | 2013 | |
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Recommendation | 4 | Target resource managers when communicating research, monitoring and assessment findings. Increase efforts to communicate results of research and monitoring relevant to conservation of sea-ice associated biodiversity. Focus particularly on meeting the information needs of those making on-the-ground wildlife conservation decisions on, for example, conditions of development permits or fish and wildlife harvest regulations. Available information, including from recent Arctic Council assessments, may be hard for managers to sift through or to know what is most relevant to them. Work in this area should engage users of the information in designing content and delivery and should consider methods beyond print media. It should take into account time and resource constraints of the users and considerations such as keeping information up to date. Communication may best be delivered at a national or regional level, but benefits and efficiencies of collaboration through Arctic Council could be explored. | Life Linked to Ice: A guide to sea-ice-associated biodiversity in this time of rapid change | 2013 | |
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Key finding | 1 | Unique Arctic habitats for flora and fauna, including sea ice, tundra, thermokarst ponds and lakes, and permafrost peatlands have been disappearing over recent decades. | Arctic Biodiversity Trends 2010 – Selected indicators of change | 2010 | |
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Key finding | 2 | Although the majority of Arctic species examined in this report are currently stable or increasing, some species of importance to Arctic people or species of global significance are declining. | Arctic Biodiversity Trends 2010 – Selected indicators of change | 2010 | |
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Key finding | 3 | Climate change is emerging as the most far reaching and significant stressor on Arctic biodiversity. However, contaminants, habitat fragmentation, industrial development, and unsustainable harvest levels continue to have impacts. Complex interactions between climate change and other factors have the potential to magnify impacts on biodiversity. | Arctic Biodiversity Trends 2010 – Selected indicators of change | 2010 | |
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Key finding | 4 | Since 1991, the extent of protected areas in the Arctic has increased, although marine areas remain poorly represented. | Arctic Biodiversity Trends 2010 – Selected indicators of change | 2010 | |
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Key finding | 5 | Changes in Arctic biodiversity are creating both challenges and opportunities for Arctic peoples. | Arctic Biodiversity Trends 2010 – Selected indicators of change | 2010 | |
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Key finding | 6 | Long-term observations based on the best available traditional and scientific knowledge are required to identify changes in biodiversity, assess the implications of observed changes, and develop adaptation strategies. | Arctic Biodiversity Trends 2010 – Selected indicators of change | 2010 | |
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Key finding | 7 | Changes in Arctic biodiversity have global repercussions. | Arctic Biodiversity Trends 2010 – Selected indicators of change | 2010 |