Arctic biodiversity report calls for “decisive actions” from Arctic Council

Arctic Council ministers received this policy document May 15 in Kiruna, Sweden, which says “decisive action taken now can help sustain vast, relatively undisturbed ecosystems of tundra, mountains, fresh water and seas and the valuable services they provide.”

A report tabled May 15 in at the Arctic Council meeting in Kiruna, Sweden called for “decisive” action on biodiversity to protect more than 21,000 “cold adapted species” and to “help sustain vast, relatively undisturbed ecosystems of tundra, mountains, fresh water and seas and the valuable services they provide.”

But Arctic Council ministers would only encourage their officials to follow up on the report’s recommendations.

At the May 15 ministerial meeting in Kiruna, Sweden, Arctic Council ministers noted “with concern” that Arctic biodiversity is being “degraded” and that climate change is “the most serious threat” to the region’s plants and animals.

The Arctic Biodiversity Assessment, tabled May 15 at the Kiruna meeting, said the Arctic is home to more than 21,000 species, including many global populations of “unique and highly cold-adapted mammals, birds, fish, invertebrates, plants, fungi and microorganisms — some found nowhere else on the planet, the report noted.

The authors of the Arctic biodiversity report, from a council working group called the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, asked the Arctic Council for decisive actions.

Among the working group’s recommendations: calls for Arctic Council member-nations to forge pan-Arctic conservation and management plans for shared species, to support efforts to plan and manage commercial fisheries in international waters and to work internationally to identify, assess and reduce existing and emerging harmful contaminants.

They also asked the ministers to recognize the value of traditional ecological knowledge.

While the Arctic Council’s ministers said they welcomed the assessment, in their Kiruna Declaration they only said they would “encourage” Arctic council states to follow up on the recommendations made by the assessment’s authors.

The ministers agreed to “instruct” their senior Arctic officials to develop a plan for further work under the Arctic Council “to support and implement its recommendations” for 2015 — when Canada will pass the chair of the council to the United States.

The urgency to curb climate change was also put off — referring that task to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and some “protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome” to come into effect by 2015.

The science assessment report delivered a set of disturbing findings to the ministerial meeting, with the policy document that said “decisive action taken now can help sustain vast, relatively undisturbed ecosystems of tundra, mountains, fresh water and seas and the valuable services they provide.”

Among their key findings:

• many Arctic migratory species are threatened by overharvest and habitat alteration outside the Arctic;

• pollution from both long-range transport and local sources threatens the health of Arctic species and ecosystems; and,

• more alien species are expected with climate change and increased human activity;

“As climate belts move north, large parts of the Arctic may lose their specific Arctic ecosystems and biodiversity,” said Hans Meltofte, chief scientist for the Arctic biodiversity assessment, in a news release also translated into Inuktitut.

“The Arctic is home to thousands of unique cold-adapted species, many of which are found only there. But with climate change and increased interest in the region, if we do not act now we may lose the incredible assets and fascination that Arctic biodiversity offers us all.”