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A wide-ranging partnership of international experts and others with a stake in the changing arctic, the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Workshop recently met to lay the foundations for informed research into, and management of, natural resources in this changing portion of the globe.

The event was held March 6th and 7th at the World Wildlife Fund’s Washington, D.C headquarters, and organized by the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP), the International Union for the Conversation of Nature’s USA Multilateral Office, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. (The organizational steering committee was chaired by the Service’s Dr. Janet Hohn.) In attendance were representatives from a variety of government agencies (from the U.S. and other Arctic nations), academia, and international NGOs and foundations. The goal of this diverse coalition was “to harmonize and enhance monitoring across the Arctic to improve detection, understanding, and reporting, and to strengthen efforts to conserve biodiversity.”

In working toward this objective, the meeting achieved short-term goals and, perhaps more importantly, established a groundwork to effectively guide future shared conservation and monitoring efforts across the circumpolar Arctic. Looking forward, the products of this workshop will provide a climate-change early-warning system and inform policy and decision making at the global, national, regional, and local levels.

As defined by the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna Working Group (CAFF), the circumpolar Arctic covers some 14.8 million square kilometers of land and 13 million of ocean. While this huge region has relatively few species in comparison to the richly diverse tropics, its contributions to world biodiversity—particularly in the form of the wealth of migratory bird and marine mammal species that depend upon the area’s brief but productive summers—are substantial. In fact, the Arctic supports more than half of the planet’s shorebird species, more than three-quarters of the world’s geese, millions of reindeer and caribou that are essential to northern human communities, and more than a quarter of the world’s commercial marine fish harvest.

Mike Gill, Chair of the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program, characterized the Workshop’s accomplishments: “With the help of some of our existing partners,” he said, “we were able to leverage new strategic partnerships in several key areas of the program. The program is very well positioned to deliver on the key products and activities planned over the next five years. We are confident that our vision of expanded and enhanced Arctic biodiversity monitoring and improved conservation and adaptation decisions for the Arctic will be achieved.” The CBMP is the primary tool which CAFF will use to respond to the recent Arctic Climate Impact Assessment’s call for additional long-term monitoring of Arctic biodiversity.

Among other things, Workshop participants helped advance a five-year implementation plan, along with specific strategies to deal with shared communications, data management, and “indicators strategies,” which involve selecting representative species, habitats, and critical ecosystem services and functions that will effectively reflect the challenges faced by the Arctic as a whole. Emphasizing the value of these contributions, Dr. Janet Hohn of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service noted that "the results of this workshop will make a significant contribution to CAFF's 2010 summary report to the Arctic Council Ministers, which will be based on the CBMP indicators".

With these accomplishments as a basis, the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program hopes to develop a comprehensive strategy for monitoring Arctic resources; to establish five ecosystem expert teams (focusing on, respectively, marine resources, coastal resources, fresh water resources, terrestrial vegetation, and terrestrial fauna) which will conduct ongoing biodiversity monitoring and collaborate on circumpolar solutions; and to ultimately develop an online database to integrate, synthesize, and report key trends in Arctic biodiversity. Special attention will also be paid to community-based observations, in order to augment scientific-based monitoring with valuable Traditional Ecological Knowledge.

Just as the natural riches of the circumpolar world are not restricted by international boundaries, so will the challenges that this region faces require cooperation among a diverse assortment of nations and other stakeholders. The Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Workshop provides a platform upon which those future successes can be built.

Panelists David Carlson, Skip Walker, Craig Fleener, and Fae Korsmo lead a discussion on expanding CBMP targeted partnerships and sustaining the CBMP and its related monitoring networks. Photo Credit: IUCN

Craig Fleener (Gwich'in Council International) stresses that Northern communities need tools to adapt to a changing arctic, and the ability to access resources.  He urged CBMP to create useful, scientific, and "popular" products.  Photo Credit:  IUCN

Last updated: October 9, 2008