Arctic Council Working Group Recommendations
| Project | Type | # | Outcome | Report | Year | FEC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Recommendation | 9 | Reduce the threat of invasive alien/non-native species to the Arctic by developing and implementing common measures for early detection and reporting, identifying and blocking pathways of introduction, and sharing best practices and techniques for monitoring, eradication and control. This includes supporting international efforts currently underway, for example those of the International Maritime Organization to effectively treat ballast water to clean and treat ship hulls and drilling rigs. | Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers | 2013 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Recommendation | 3 | Initiate collaboration between Arctic states, Indigenous Peoples organisations and relevant stakeholders to harmonize how climate and biodiversity benefits reached through wetland management and restoration efforts are reported to international conventions on climate mitigation and biodiversity. | Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands: Key Findings and Recommendations | 2021 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Recommendation | 19 | Support national and international evaluation and coordination of wetland inventory, research and monitoring programs as well as encouraging and strengthening interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary wetland research, Indigenous Knowledge, and citizen science within Arctic research networks. | Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands: Key Findings and Recommendations | 2021 | |
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Recommendation | 2 | Incorporate resilience and adaptation of biodiversity to climate change into plans for development in the Arctic. | Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers | 2013 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Recommendation | 12 | Strengthen wetland resilience through supporting meaningful engagement of Indigenous Peoples and/or Local Communities in wetlands inventories, and management plans. | Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands: Key Findings and Recommendations | 2021 | |
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Recommendation | 11 | Reduce the threat of pollutants to Arctic biodiversity. a. Support and enhance international efforts and cooperation to identify, assess and reduce existing and emerging harmful contaminants. b. Support the development of appropriate prevention and clean up measures and technologies that are responsive to oil spills in the Arctic, especially in ice-filled waters, such that they are ready for implementation in advance of major oil and gas developments. c. Encourage local and national action to implement best practices for local wastes, enhance efforts to clean-up legacy contaminated sites and include contaminant reduction and reclamation plans in development projects. | Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers | 2013 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Recommendation | 5 | 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. | Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands: Key Findings and Recommendations | 2021 | |
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Recommendation | 4 | Require the incorporation of biodiversity objectives and provisions into all Arctic Council work and encourage the same for on-going and future international standards, agreements, plans, operations and/or other tools specific to development in the Arctic. This should include, but not be restricted to, oil and gas development, shipping, fishing, tourism and mining. | Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers | 2013 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Recommendation | 14 | Support development of wetland classification systems and maps specific to different Arctic Indigenous Peoples based on the words and terms traditionally used to describe wetland types, properties, and functions. Such maps would support wetland stewardship and facilitate communication of their value locally and to policy makers. | Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands: Key Findings and Recommendations | 2021 | |
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Recommendation | 13 | Increase and focus inventory, long-term monitoring and research efforts to address key gaps in scientific knowledge identified in this assessment to better facilitate the development and implementation of conservation and management strategies. Areas of particular concern identified through the ABA include components critical to ecosystem functions including important characteristics of invertebrates, microbes, parasites and pathogens. | Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers | 2013 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Recommendation | 7 | Inventory and review existing national policies relating to wetlands with an eye on using a watershed approach and identifying conflicting or inconsistent goals, overlapping or unclear responsibility among governmental departments and entities, and gaps in communication. Identifying and addressing these issues would enable more effective governance of wetlands and balancing conservation and Indigenous and other user needs to achieve more effective stewardship. | Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands: Key Findings and Recommendations | 2021 | |
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Recommendation | 6 | Develop guidelines and implement appropriate spatial and temporal measures where necessary to reduce human disturbance to areas critical for sensitive life stages of Arctic species that are outside protected areas, for example along transportation corridors. Such areas include calving grounds, den sites, feeding grounds, migration routes and moulting areas. This also means safeguarding important habitats such as wetlands and polynyas. | Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers | 2013 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Recommendation | 16 | Support long-term development of open access spatial databases for wetland data that allow interactive use, application of different classification systems and on-the-fly wetland map production. | Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands: Key Findings and Recommendations | 2021 | |
| 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 | 15 | Promote public training, education and community-based monitoring, where appropriate, as integral elements in conservation and management. | Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers | 2013 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Recommendation | 9 | Wetland policy should recognize the legacy and future importance of Indigenous Peoples’ stewardship and the need for collaborative, integrated management of Arctic wetlands. As outlined in the Arctic Wetlands and Indigenous Peoples Study, develop pilot studies on comanagement practices to support meaningful participation of Indigenous Peoples in future Arctic wetlands projects, and encourage indigenous participation in developing wetlands inventories covering traditional use areas. | Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands: Key Findings and Recommendations | 2021 | |
| Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) | Recommendation | 8 | Reduce stressors on migratory species range-wide, including habitat degradation and overharvesting on wintering and staging areas and along flyways and other migration routes. a. Pursue or strengthen formal migratory bird cooperation agreements and other specific actions on a flyway level between Arctic and non-Arctic states with first priority given to the East Asian flyway. b. Collaborate with relevant international commissions, conventions, networks and other organizations sharing an interest in the conservation of Arctic migratory species to identify and implement appropriate conservation actions. 8.1. Establish an Arctic Migratory Bird Initiative (AMBI) to cooperate on the conservation of migratory Arctic birds and prepare collaborative flyway based work plans. 8.2. Broker commitments by non-Arctic countries to safeguarding important Arctic migratory bird habitats outside the Arctic, as part of the AMBI. c. Develop and implement joint management and recovery plans for threatened species with relevant non-Arctic states and entities. 8.3. Identify species that could benefit from, but are not covered by, range-wide adaptive management strategies and follow-up as appropriate. 8.4. Inventory on-going seabird projects and develop a common reporting template for all seabird conservation strategies. 8.5. Continue implementation of existing species conservation strategies and develop others as appropriate (Black-legged Kittiwakes, caribou). 8.6. Investigate the impact of shipping and off-shore development on seabirds. d. Identify and advance the conservation of key wintering and staging habitats for migratory birds, particularly wetlands. | Arctic Biodiversity Assessment: Report for Policy Makers | 2013 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Recommendation | 2 | Actively support efforts to maintain or strengthen natural ecosystem capacity for climate change mitigation, primarily through conservation and restoration measures in Arctic and Boreal wetlands. | Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands: Key Findings and Recommendations | 2021 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Recommendation | 18 | Inventory, harmonize and pool knowledge about financial models and frameworks being used to support restoration and conservation and investigate potential pan-Arctic or transboundary initiatives, with a particular focus on engagement by local and Indigenous Peoples. | Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands: Key Findings and Recommendations | 2021 | |
| 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 |