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Circumpolar biodiversityMonitoring program

2006 ANNUAL REPORT

CAFF Designated Agencies:Environment Canada, Ottawa, CanadaFinnish Ministry of the Environment, Helsinki, FinlandGreenland Homerule, Ministry of the Environment, Nuuk, GreenlandIcelandic Institute of Natural History, Reykjavik, IcelandDirectorate for Nature Management, Trondheim, NorwayRussian Federation Ministry of Natural Resources, Moscow, RussiaSwedish Environmental Protection Agency, Stockholm, SwedenUnited States Fish and Wildlife Service, Anchorage, Alaska

This publication should be cited as:CAFF 2006. Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program 2006 Annual Report.CAFF CBMP Annual Report 2006. CAFF International Secretariat, Akureyri, Iceland.

Cover photo:Swans in Iceland. Photo copyright: Daniel Bergmann.

For further information andadditional copies, pleasecontact:

CAFF International SecretariatBorgirNordurslod600 AkureyriIcelandPhone: +354 462-3350Fax: +354 462-3390Email: [email protected]: http://www.caff.is

CAFF Designated Area

Layout and printing byPrentstofan Stell ehf.

2006 annual reporton the

Circumpolar Biodiversity monitoring program

For more information on the CBMPplease visit www.cbmp.is

CAFF CBMP Annual Report 2006October 2006

Presented to the Arctic Council MinistersSalekhard, Russian Federation

24-26 October 2006

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History of the CBMP

Recognizing the need for coordination and closer collaboration for Arctic biodiversity, Arctic scientistsand communities started to integrate their research and monitoring efforts through CAFF-sponsoredworkshops with the first one in Reykjavik in 2000. This initial groundwork led to presentation ofthe Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program Framework Document and eight supportingdocuments to Arctic Council Ministers in November 2004, at the Reykjavik Ministerial Meeting.Arctic Council Ministers formally endorsed the CBMP and requested that CAFF begin implementationof the program (Reykjavik Declaration, 2004).

Iceland initially lead the CBMP, with Canada assuming the lead in April, 2005. The CBMP was formallylaunched at a meeting of over 50 Arctic scientists and representatives of the Indigenous organizationsin Cambridge, U.K. in September 2005. The program has quickly grown, and partnerships havebeen secured with over 40 key organizations worldwide. An international Steering Committee andsix task teams have been established:

IndicatorsData managementCommunity-based MonitoringRemote SensingFundingAssessment and Outreach

The Senior Arctic Officials in their October, 2005 meeting in Russia endorsed the work to date andexpressed their support for continued development of the program. All Arctic Council countriespledged support to the CBMP at the CAFF XI Biennial in Ylläs, Finland in June 2006 and committedtheir national monitoring programs to coordinate with the CBMP. The CBMP is well under way toachieving coordinated monitoring in the Arctic.

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Photo copyright Carsten Egevang, www.arc-pic.com Photo copyright Carsten Egevang, www.arc-pic.com

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Introduction - Globalsignificance of Arcticbiodiversity

The Arctic’s brief, but intensely productivesummers, in both the marine and terrestrialenvironments, attract hundreds of migratoryspecies, linking the Arctic’s biodiversity tobiodiversity around the globe.Two-hundred and seventy nine species ofmigratory birds breed in significant numbers inthe Arctic. Of these species:• Thirty reach southern Africa• Twenty-six reach Australia and New Zealand• Twenty-two reach southern South America• Several pelagic species reach the southern oceansAlso participating in the global migration, areseveral species of land and marine mammals,such as the Gray and Humpback Whale whotravel to the Arctic each year. While the Arcticis often thought of as having relatively lowbiodiversity i.e. few species, compared to otherparts of the globe, it harbours very high geneticdiversity, reflecting the many unique adaptationsspecies have developed in response to theextreme conditions of the Arctic environment.These genetically distinct sub-species actessentially as species, filling critical ecologicalniches. The Arctic also hosts globally significantfish stocks, contributing twenty-eight percentof the global marine commercial fish catch.

While Arctic ecosystems are clearly of economicimportance, one of their special assets is thefact that they are some of the world’s fewremaining pristine, undeveloped environments,encompassing vast wilderness areas, whereecosystem processes continue to function in alargely natural state. The Arctic plays a key rolein the physical, chemical and biological balanceof the globe.

Photo courtesy of Oleg Mineev, Institute of Biology, Komi ScientificCentre of Ural Division of Russian Academy of Sciences

Arctic biodiversityunder threat

Dramatic changes now underway in the Arctic,anthropogenic and natural, are severelythreatening the resilience and sustainability ofthe Arctic’s living resources. Of most concernis climate change, where serious impacts toArctic biodiversity are already being seen, andwhere much larger impacts are expected thiscentury. By the year 2100, the Arctic is expectedto warm by between 3 to 5˚C over land, and7˚C over the oceans, contributing to dramaticchanges to Arctic ecosystems. There is predictedto be:

(1) a greater than 50% decline in summer sea ice extent; and

(2) the northward expansion of southern species and ecosystems displacing currentlyexisting Arctic species and ecosystems suchas Polar Deserts and tundra.

Climate change is increasingly challenging theresiliency of the Indigenous Peoples of the North,as the affects to plants and animals and theirhabitats, have direct impact on Indigenouscultures and livelihoods. In addition to climatechange, the still relatively pristine Arcticenvironment is also under increasingly severepressures from regional development in the formof roads, pipelines, oil and gas seismic lines,urbanization, forestry, mining, agriculture, hydro-electric development and so on.

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Circumpolar BiodiversityMonitoring Program(CBMP) and the ArcticClimate Impact Assessment(ACIA)

In 2004, the Arctic Council released the ArcticClimate Impact Assessment (ACIA). In responseto the global importance of the Arctic’sbiodiversity, the increasing pressures on thisbiodiversity, and our limited capacity to monitorand understand these changes, the ACIArecommended that long-term, Arctic biodiversitymonitoring be expanded and enhanced. TheConservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna WorkingGroup of the Arctic Council (CAFF), receivedMinisterial endorsement in 2004 for the CBMPas CAFF’s cornerstone program. The CircumpolarBiodiversity Monitoring Program, was formallylaunched in September of 2005 in cooperationwith the UNEP-World Conservation MonitoringCentre in Cambridge UK, and is the primaryvehicle through which CAFF will follow-up tothe ACIA. Refer to Annex I for detail onspecifically how the CBMP addresses thebiodiversity-related recommendations of theACIA.

The Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Programis, first and foremost, a coordinating entity:

• for existing Arctic biodiversity monitoring programs;

• for initiating new programs to address gapsin knowledge;

• for data gathering and data analyses;• for coordinating the communication of

results.It is a mechanism for harmonizing monitoringefforts across the Arctic in order to improve ourability to detect significant trends within areasonable time frame and improve our abilityto effectively report on these trends, engagingdiverse audiences such as northern communities,scientists, governments and the globalcommunity. Information on exactly how Arcticspecies are responding to these anthropogenicand natural changes is currently widely scatteredamong scientists, government institutions andnorthern communities. The CBMP has beendesigned to integrate existing information andmonitoring efforts to understand the types andextent of change; and to develop strategies foradaptation to and mitigation of impacts. TheCBMP functions as an international forum ofkey scientists and conservation experts from alleight Arctic countries, the six internationalIndigenous Organizations of the Arctic Council,and a number of global conservationorganizations.

Purpose: The purpose of the CBMP is to strivefor conservation of biological diversity, to haltor significantly reduce its loss, and provideinformation for the sustainable use of the Arctic’sliving resources for the Indigenous Peoples ofthe Arctic, and other Arctic residents andstakeholders inside and outside the Arctic.

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Photo copyright Carsten Egevang, www.arc-pic.com Photo copyright Carsten Egevang, www.arc-pic.com

Objectives and products of the CBMP:

• Identify and communicate:- Status and trends of biodiversity in the circumpolar Arctic

- Populations, species, key habitats, and ecosystems under threat

- Emerging issues (provide early warning ofchanges to habitat and species)

• Provide information and work with researchers and managers to increase knowledge and action on biodiversity loss- Are trends regional or circumpolar?- What are the main threats to biodiversity?- What actions can we take?

• Build and maintain cost-effective monitoringcapacity (identify links and overlaps amongprograms; identify and fill gaps)

• Help address the critical needs of the Indigenous Peoples in preserving their communities, cultures and livelihoods.

• Assist policy and decision-making regardingsustainable development in the Arctic as itrelates to biodiversity, and provide the information needed to develop mitigationand adaptation strategies.

Products envisioned include annual data reports,interactive mapping of databases, a user friendlywebsite, and a comprehensive 2010 ArcticBiodiversity Assessment.

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Justification for the CBMP:

• Comprehensive circumpolar information is needed to make the best conservation decisions as pressures on the Arctic increase.

• Collaboration increases efficiency in theuse of human and financial resources

• Circumpolar collaboration increases effectiveness of conservation work by creating “the big picture” - providing the critical circumpolar perspective, as opposed to each country working alone on these issues.

• Public interest in Global Change is high and increasing. Key question: ‘What is happening to the climate and the Arctic environment?’

• The Arctic Climate Impact Assessmentand its recommendations moved the Arctic into the spotlight, requesting that muchmore work is needed to understand what ishappening.

• Melting sea ice is creating increasingly more accessible oil and gas prospects in the region, possibilities for regional development, and shipping traffic across the North Pole.

• Political support is high: the Arctic Council Ministers from all eight Arctic member states endorsed the CBMP as CAFF’s cornerstone program.

• Convention on Biological Diversity’s 2010 target to significantly reduce the globalrate of biodiversity loss.

• International Polar Year 2007-2009

Photo courtesy of Dr. Christoph Zöckler

Photo copyright: Daniel Bergmann

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The Arctic Monitoring and AssessmentProgramme (AMAP), another Working Group ofthe Arctic Council, and CAFF will join efforts indeveloping joint monitoring projects to combinebiodiversity data with contaminants and climatedata. The CBMP will make use of the broadwealth of biodiversity data and monitoringcapacity, providing an opportunity for integrationof data and coordination of monitoring andallowing for the integration of biodiversity datawith physical and chemical data in order tofacilitate a better understanding of the processesdriving changes in Arctic environments.

Key developments over the last year:

• The CBMP was officially launched in Cambridge, U.K. in September 2005

• Biodiversity indices and indicators have beendeveloped for the program

• UNEP’s World Conservation Centre has beenidentified as a key partner for the web-based data portal for the CBMP.

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• The CBMP received formal endorsement from the International Polar Year committeeand was considered a key ‘cluster’ program.

• Draft Data Management, Indicator and Remote Sensing Strategies have been developed.

• Several pilot projects have been launched.• A funding application to the Canadian

International Polar Year was submitted 30March 2006.

• Funding from other sources has been pursued and decisions are pending.

• A joint workshop with the oil and gas industry’s International Petroleum IndustryEnvironmental Conservation Association (IPIECA) was held in June 2006 in Tromsø,Norway to discuss common Arctic conservation issues and areas for potentialcollaboration.

• Canada has taken the lead of the CBMP, following Iceland, and has established an international secretariat. Canada is provid-ing two full time and one half-time staff tothe program.

• An international Steering Committee (twelvemembers from six countries) has also beenestablished along with six task teams (Indicators, Data Management, Community-based Monitoring, Remote Sensing, Funding, and Assessment and Outreach).

• All eight Arctic Nations have confirmed their support for the program and are providing resources.

• Over forty organizations have establishedformal linkages to the CBMP thus far.

• Dr. Martin Raillard, CBMP chair from Environment Canada, started a one year sabbatical, concentrating full time on the CBMP, in June 2006, based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Photo copyright: Chardon Bertrand

Photo copyright Carsten Egevang, www.arc-pic.com

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This organizational structure will be updated at the next CBMP workshop in November2006 in Anchorage, Alaska, to include representatives from all Arctic Council Nations.

Program ChairDr. Martin Raillard

([email protected])

CBMP International SecretariatMike Gill / Manager ([email protected])

TBA / Project CoordinatorCarole LeMay / Administrative Coordinator

Data Management Task TeamChair: Dr. Christoph Zockler

([email protected])

Funding Task TeamChair: Dr. Janet Hohn([email protected])

Remote Sensing Task TeamChair: Bernt Johansen

([email protected])

Indicators Task TeamChair: Mike Gill

([email protected])

Community-based Monitoring Task TeamChairs: Joan Eamer ([email protected])

Victoria Gofman ([email protected])

Assessment and Outreach Task TeamChairs: Christian Nelleman ([email protected])

Maria Victoria Gunnarsdottir ([email protected])

Updates from Task Teams

1) IndicatorsThe Indicator Task Team hosted three workshopsover the past year to identify the prioritybiodiversity indices and indicators which will formthe core of the CBMP. The workshops helpeddefine the criteria and approach for selecting theindicators and indices, identified the priorityindicators and indices and identified lead agenciesfor the various indicators/indices. The workshopswere well attended by scientists and communityexperts representing all Arctic Nations,international Indigenous organizations and anumber of international non-governmentalorganizations mandated with conservation ofArctic biodiversity. The indicators chosen stronglyrepresent the Convention on Biological Diversity’sHeadline Indicators as well as existing Arcticbiodiversity monitoring capacity and expertise.A draft Indicator Strategy has been circulatedwithin the CBMP Steering Committee and thetask team, and a final draft is currently underdevelopment. The final draft will be sent out fora wide peer review involving community experts,scientists and others across the Arctic, involvingexperts representing the key internationalconservation organizations. With the strategyin place, next steps will include conducting ananalysis of current Arctic biodiversity monitoringcapacity, investigating the elemental, geographic

and design deficiencies in our current monitoring,and development of an Arctic biodiversitymonitoring strategy that addresses the outcomesof the analysis. Target ranges for indicators willbe developed with full consultation.

2) Data ManagementAt present a draft document has been circulatedwithin the CBMP Steering Committee and theCAFF Management Board, outlining the overallmanagement of the data. This document is anearly draft featuring the areas of data collection,data presentation, integration and dissemination.It also identifies a few pilot projects to test thedata interoperability and explore the issues andconstraints in managing a range of very differentbiodiversity data. The pilots aim to address thedifferent data areas, such as remote sensing,community-based monitoring and the speciesnetworks, already well established within CAFF.The Seabird Information Network (SIN) is thefirst pilot where work has already begun toestablish a web-based interface to enhanceinteroperability between the many differentdatabases joining SIN. Other pilots follow suit,once financial resources have been established.

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Photo courtesy of Oleg Mineev, Institute of Biology,Komi Scientific Centre of Ural Division of Russian Academy of Sciences


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3) Community-based MonitoringThis task team has identified a number of issuesthat discourage regional CBM projects fromjoining larger networks. Concerns about datamanagement processes in larger programs ornetworks present the strongest impediment ingarnering communities’ support and interest inparticipation in the CBMP. Considering that theCBMP will have to rely on available and newinformation collected and held by communitiesincluding traditional ecological knowledge, it isimportant that this issue is addressed immediately.For this purpose, together with other task teams,CBM leads are planning a workshop to ensureeffective, scientifically and culturally appropriateorganization of community-based monitoringand research in the Circumpolar BiodiversityMonitoring Program. The workshop that will beheld in November in Anchorage will developrecommendations for the CBMP datamanagement strategy and will devise a draftimplementation plan for the Bering Sea Sub-Network (BSSN) as one of the key CBMcomponents of CBMP.

Key participants to this CBM workshop willinclude representatives from community-basedorganizations (CBO) that have the most advancedenvironmental data management programs;representatives from the expert task teams ofthe CBMP Steering Committee, and therepresentatives from the BSSN partneringorganizations.

4) Remote SensingThe remote sensing task team is now draftinga remote sensing strategy, and will identifycircumpolar pilot projects to establish some ofthe baseline data needed for ecosystem analysesrelated to climate change and other natural andanthropogenic impacts.

5) FundingA donor agency workshop will be planned inWashington DC in early 2007, for additionalcontributions, and the funding task team willcontinue to raise resources for the program.

6) Assessment and OutreachA proposal for a 2010 Arctic BiodiversityAssessment was submitted to Arctic CouncilMinisters for endorsement at the 2006 ACMinisterial meeting in Salekhard, RussianFederation. The CAFF International Secretariatand the CBMP International Secretariat areworking together to develop the CBMP website.This project is part of the larger project to upgradethe CAFF website. The CBMP website will bethe main source of information for the CBMPand the website address is www.cbmp.is.The CBMP and CAFF International Secretariatsare also working together to develop promotionalmaterials such as posters and brochures for theCBMP. An extensive communications plan foreducation and outreach will be developed andexecuted as financial resources become available.Part of this plan will include interactive mappingof the CBMP data, combined with remotesensing data on a circumpolar scale. The twosecretariats will also continue to jointly produceannual reports.


Photo copyright Carsten Egevang www.arc-pic.com

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International Polar Year –the CBMP as a project

The CBMP was endorsed as an IPY project, anda major funding proposal was submitted to theCanadian IPY Secretariat in March of 2006. Thissubstantive proposal seeks funding to bringtogether existing biodiversity information in acomprehensive database, to conduct a thoroughanalysis of the gaps in current Arctic biodiversitymonitoring capacity, to develop an internationalmonitoring program that addresses these gapsand to make this information available to allusers through the development of a web portal,regular newsletters and reports. The proposalalso seeks funding for assistance in staffing the

International Secretariat, for developing coursecurriculum (related to biodiversity monitoringand conservation) for northern universities andfor development of the 2010 Arctic BiodiversityAssessment. Decisions regarding Canadianfunding for the IPY program are expected byDecember.

LinkagesThe CBMP is an umbrella organization that hasestablished professional linkages with manypartners. In addition to CAFF’s CircumpolarSeabird Expert Group (CBird) and Flora ExpertGroup (CFG) which are circumpolar, the followingorganizations have been engaged in the CBMPto this point:


10 1

Canada• Environment Canada, Canada• Arctic Borderlands Ecological Knowledge

Cooperative, Canada• Inuit Circumpolar Conference, Canada

Denmark• Indigenous Peoples Secretariat, Denmark

Faroe Islands• Faroese Museum of Natural History, Faroe

Islands

Finland• Ministry of the Environment, Finland• Saami Council, Finland• Finnish Environment Institute, Finland

Greenland• Greenland Ministry of Natural Resources

Iceland• Icelandic Institute of Natural History, Iceland

Netherlands• Wetlands International, Wageningen, The

Netherlands• University of Groningen, The Netherlands

Norway• Norwegian Polar Institute, Norway• UNEP/GRID-Arendal, Norway• NORUT Information Technology Ltd., Tromsø,

Norway• The University Centre in Svalbard, Norway• Directorate of Nature Management, Norway



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Russia• Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Russia• Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples

of the North, Russia (RAIPON)• Moscow State University, Russia• Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia• Ministry of Natural Resources, Russia

Sweden• Swedish Environmental Protection Agency,

Sweden

Switzerland• International Union for the Conservation

of Nature, World Headquarters, Switzerland• University of Basel, Switzerland

United Kingdom• UNEP World Conservation Monitoring

Centre (UNEP-WCMC), Cambridge, UK• University of Stirling, United Kingdom• Microsoft Research Cambridge,

United Kingdom

United States of America• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Anchorage,

Alaska• Aleut International Association, Anchorage,

Alaska• National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration, United States• National Snow and Ice Data Center,

United States• Marine Mammal Commission, United States• University of Alaska Fairbanks, United States• Census of Marine Life, United States

scope, intent and role of this element of the program.

• A donor agency workshop will be plannedin Washington DC in early 2007, for additional contributions, and the fundingtask team will continue to raise resourcesfor the program.

• As resources are secured, the CBMP implementation plan will be put into action,and the CBMP will begin development ofstrategies for adaptation to and mitigationof impacts.

The CBMP Secretariat and task teams will directlycontribute to the 2010 Arctic BiodiversityAssessment, and the Assessment itself will alsoassist in further defining the long-term directionand development of the CBMP.

As resources are secured, the CBMP Secretariatis expected to grow with the hiring of acommunicat ions coordinator, projectcoordinators, database managers and GIStechnicians.

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CBMP Species Networks as of 2006• CAFF Flora Expert Group (CFG) – also serves

as the IUCN Arctic Plant Specialist Group• Human-wild Rangifer Systems (CARMA)• International Tundra Experiment (ITEX)• Seabirds (CAFF Seabird Expert Group (CBird))• Shorebirds (CHASM)• Bering Sea Sub-Network

In process of being established:• Arctic Char• Polar Bears• Geese

Future Actions

• The CBMP is preparing a detailed imple-mentation plan and has scheduled a workshop in Anchorage, Alaska from Nov.29 – Dec. 1, 2006 that will bring togetherArctic experts to assist with this task. ArcticCouncil countries will then be able to identify the elements of the CBMP that they are prepared to fund.

• The Indicators, Data Management, and Remote Sensing Strategies will be finalizedand published.

• A community-based monitoring workshopis also scheduled in Anchorage, Alaska (Nov. 27 and 28) in order to define the

Chapter 3

ACIA Recommendation: For some areas, suchas the central and eastern Russian Arctic, fewor no current records of indigenous observationsare available. To detect and interpret climatechange, and to determine appropriate responsestrategies, more research is clearly needed.

Community-based monitoring techniques willbe employed by the CBMP to track the statusand trends of Arctic biodiversity and understandthe mechanisms driving this change, such asthose from human-induced climate change.The CBMP’s approach will likely be throughseveral regional partnership programs, new orexisting, that utilize indigenous observations onchanges, specific to Arctic biodiversity.

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ANNEX I:

ACIA Recommendationsand relationship to CAFF’sCircumpolar BiodiversityMonitoring Program

Review of ACIA Chapters in context of ongoingand future work

CAFF has reviewed the scientific chapters of theACIA in the context of ongoing and future work.The CAFF 2006-2008 Work Plan reflects thepriorities of executing projects called for in theACIA scientific recommendations for follow-up. Please refer to the CAFF 2006-2008 Work Planfor details.

In addition, special focus has been placed on theCircumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program(CBMP) endorsed by the Arctic Council Ministersin 2004 as a cornerstone program of CAFF.Although the CBMP is clearly focused on trackingthe status and trends of Arctic biodiversity, it will,to a large extent, be accounting for and trackingimpacts to biodiversity derived from climatechange, thereby fulfilling, fully or in part, manyof the recommendations made by the ArcticClimate Impact Assessment. The following liststhe ACIA recommendations partially or fullyrelevant to the CBMP and provides a shortexplanation as to how the CBMP might addressthem.


Photo courtesy of Association of Nenets people of "Yasavey"

Chapter 7

ACIA Recommendation: There is also a needto identify and monitor currently widespreadspecies that are likely to decline under climatechange, and to redefine conservation andprotection in the context of climate and UVradiation change.

The CBMP will be monitoring a number of Arcticspecies, some of which are likely to decline underclimate change. Pilot projects will be developedwith AMAP. One likely project will focus on thepolar bear as a species threatened with a highrisk of extinction.

ACIA Recommendation: The dominantresponse of current Arctic species to climatechange is very likely to be relocation rather thanadaptation. Relocation possibilities are verylikely to vary according to region and geographicbarriers. Some changes are already occurring.However, knowledge of rates of relocation,impact of geographic barriers, and currentchanges is poor. There is a need to measureand project rates of species migration bycombining paleo-ecological information withobservations from indigenous knowledge,environmental and biodiversity monitoring, andexperimental manipulations of environment andspecies.

ACIA Recommendation: In Eurasia andGreenland, little systematic work on indigenousknowledge has been done, and research in theseregions is clearly needed. Indigenous observationnetworks have been set up in Chukotka, Russia,and some projects have taken place in Alaska,but little systematic work has been done to setup, maintain, and make use of the results fromsuch efforts.

Systematic long-term community-basedbiodiversity monitoring programs that involveindigenous observations are expected to bedeveloped in different parts of the Arctic suchas in parts of Eurasia, where feasible.

ACIA Recommendation: Problems to be tackled:determining how indigenous knowledge canbest be incorporated into scientific systems ofknowledge acquisition and interpretation; and;finding ways to involve indigenous communitiesin scientific research and to communicate scientificfindings to indigenous communities.

Through the CBMP’s development of pilotcommunity-based biodiversity monitoringprograms, the program will be exploring waysfor involving, utilizing and synthesizinginformation regarding that the status and trendsof Arctic biodiversity derived from scientific,indigenous and citizen science-based approaches.

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Photo courtesy of Inger Marie Gaup EiraPhoto courtesy of Dr. Christoph Zöckler

115

The CBMP will be monitoring, over time, thedistribution of a number of biodiversity elements,such as the distribution and extent of Arcticbiomes.

ACIA Recommendation: Long-termenvironmental and biological monitoring arebecoming increasingly necessary to detectchange, to validate model projections and resultsfrom experiments, and to substantiatemeasurements made from remote sensing.Present monitoring programs and initiatives aretoo scarce and are scattered randomly. Data fromthe Arctic are often not based on organizedmonitoring schemes, are geographically biased,and are not long-term enough to detect changesin species ranges, natural habitats, animalpopulation cycles, vegetation distribution, andcarbon balance. More networks of standardized,long-term monitoring sites are required to betterrepresent environmental and ecosystem variabilityin the Arctic and particularly sensitive habitats.Because there are interactions among many co-varying environmental variables, monitoringprograms should be integrated. Observatoriesshould have the ability to facilitate campaignsto validate output from models or ground-truthobservations from remote sensing. There shouldbe collaboration with indigenous and other localpeoples’ monitoring networks where relevant.

It would be advantageous to create adecentralized and distributed, ideally web-based,meta-database from the monitoring andcampaign results, including relevant indigenousknowledge.

The CBMP will be integrating and standardizinginformation from current monitoring programsusing a decentralized, distributed web-baseddata portal and will be filling gaps in geographic,temporal and elemental biodiversity monitoringcoverage as resources become available. Theapproach taken will utilize both remote sensinginformation as well as community-basedmonitoring techniques involving indigenousobservations. CBMP will also compile a list offield stations in the Arctic, and theirfunctions/applicability to CAFF’s work. Pilotprojects developed jointly with AMAP will alsoassist in filling knowledge gaps.

ACIA Recommendation: Monitoring requiresinstitutions, not necessarily sited in the Arctic,to process remotely sensed data. Muchinformation from satellite and aerial photographsexists already on vegetation change, such astreeline displacement, and on disturbances suchas reindeer/caribou overgrazing and insectoutbreaks. However, relatively little of thisinformation has been extracted and analyzed.


activities should be established in areas wherethey are presently lacking and these should bedesigned to address the effects of climatechange. Issues to be addressed include the timingand amount of primary and secondaryproduction, larval fish community composition,and reproductive success in marine mammalsand seabirds. Key ecosystem components,including non-commercial species, must beincluded.

The CBMP is working with marine biodiversitymonitoring partners to develop monitoringstrategies and build capacity and coverage ofcurrent monitor ing and ass i s t withstandardization, compilation, analysis, synthesisand reporting of marine biodiversity status andtrends information.

ACIA Recommendation: An Arctic databaseshould be established that contains all availablephysical and biological data.

The CBMP is currently developing a web-baseddata portal that will access distributed databases,including ones containing marine biodiversitymonitoring data, for the compilation, analysisand synthesis of biological information todetermine status and trends.

ACIA Recommendation: Past physical andbiological data from the Arctic should berecovered. There are many data that are notpresently available but could be recovered.

If resources became available, the CBMP willassist with the recovery of archived biodiversitymonitoring data that is not currently accessible.

Chapter 10

ACIA Recommendation: Monitoring isimportant for understanding how the Arctic’sbiodiversity is changing and whether actions toconserve biodiversity are being successful;monitoring needs to occur at both the systemlevel and the species level.

With a circumpolar perspective, the CBMP willbe implementing some remote sensing pilotprojects that utilize remotely sensed data todetermine the status and trends in the distributionof various arctic biomes as well as the extent ofhuman impact on these biomes. The CAFF FloraGroup has already begun work on mappingvegetation change and is setting up a workshopfor mapping the boreal forests.

Chapter 8

ACIA Recommendation: Integrated circumpolarmonitoring of freshwaters – key scientific gaps:the limited records of long-term changes inphysical, chemical and biological attributesthroughout the Arctic; differences in thecircumpolar availability of biophysical andecological data (e.g., extremely limitedinformation about habitat requirements of arcticspecies); a lack of circumpolar integration ofexisting data from various countries and disparateprograms; a general lack of integrated,comprehensive monitoring and researchprograms, at regional, national, and especiallycircumpolar scales; a lack of standardized andnetworked international approaches formonitoring and research.

The CBMP’s mandate includes Arctic freshwatersystems where they pertain to the monitoringof biodiversity. Through partnerships with existingmonitoring programs, the CBMP will assist inbuilding capacity and coverage for long-termmonitoring of Arctic freshwater biodiversity andwill assist in the standardization, compilation,analysis, synthesis and reporting of status andtrends information.

Chapter 9

ACIA Recommendation: The existingmonitoring programs should be continued andexpanded (high priority), both spatially and inbreadth of measurement. New monitoring

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The CBMP’s mandate is to coordinate monitoringof Arctic biodiversity including the tracking ofthe effectiveness of conservation efforts and themonitoring of species and systems.

ACIA Recommendation: There needs to be asupply of trained ecologists who can deviseappropriate circum-Arctic classifications ofhabitats and then survey them so as to measuretheir extent and quality and to establish theirdynamics.

Through collaborations with its partnermonitoring networks, the CBMP will bedeveloping a Circumpolar Boreal Vegetation Map,involving standardized habitat classifications andacting as a baseline for future monitoring of thetrends in extent and quality of these habitats.This is a follow-up to the joint project with theCAVM – Arctic vegetation mapping group thatcompleted the Circumpolar Arctic VegetationMap.

ACIA Recommendation: Inventories need tobe generated for the Arctic’s biodiversity (bothspecies and habitats), indicating for each entryin the inventory where it occurs and either thesize of the overall species population or the extentof the habitat. Such inventories need to be ona circum-Arctic basis rather than on a nationalbasis as nations with arctic territory also haveterritory south of the Arctic.

While the CBMP is not directly developinginventories, its partners will, in many cases, bethe holders of information such as speciespopulations and extent of habitats that will beaccessible, in most instances, through the CBMP’sweb-based data portal. CAFF’s Flora expert group,and seabird expert group are creating comparativeinventories and red lists.

ACIA Recommendation: Models need to befurther developed to explore changes inbiodiversity under the various scenarios of climatechange. These models will need to explorebiodiversity change in the sea, in freshwater, andon land.

Biodiversity monitoring information managedby the CBMP will contribute to modeldevelopment through the comparisons ofregional differences in climate change impactsand the response of biodiversity to these impacts.

ACIA Recommendation: Circum-Arcticmonitoring networks need to be fullyimplemented throughout the Arctic. Data onthe state of the Arctic’s biodiversity, on thedrivers of change in that biodiversity, and onthe effectiveness of responses to those changes,need to be collected, analyzed, and used in thedevelopment of future arctic biodiversity policy.

The CBMP will directly address all of theserecommendations. Pilot projects developedjointly with AMAP will also address theserecommendations.

ACIA Recommendation: Attention needs tobe given to establishing the kinds of subsidiaryaspects of monitoring, such as integratedmonitoring and monitoring of phenology, geneticdiversity, and invertebrate fauna. These are vitalif a holistic view is to be taken of the Arctic’sbiodiversity, its conservation in the face of achanging climate, and the management of thebiodiversity resource for future generations ofpeople to use and enjoy.

The CBMP’s biodiversity indicators includephenology and the monitoring of someinvertebrate fauna.

ACIA Recommendation: A suite of indicatorsneeds to be devised and agreed, monitoring forthem undertaken, and the results made publiclyavailable in a format (or formats) so as to informpublic opinion, educators, decision-makers, andpolicy-makers.


ACIA Recommendation: All nations with Arcticterritory should be working toward fullimplementation of the Convention on BiologicalDiversity, coordinating their work on acircumpolar basis, and reporting both individuallyand jointly to the regular Conferences of theParties.

The CBMP has adopted many of the CBDbiodiversity indicators, when relevant to theArctic. These indicators will allow the entireArctic region to be able to report on progressmade towards the 2010 CBD target.

Chapter 11

ACIA Recommendation: Achieving effectiveconservation and management of wildlife in achanging Arctic will require a team-buildingapproach among governments at all levels thatrelate to the environment and human well-being, and with all other groups with an interestin the Arctic. This effort should include theindigenous peoples and other residents of theArctic, and scientists undertaking research inthe Arctic, representatives of industry andbusiness seeking development of arctic resourcesor other economic opportunities in the Arctic,those who travel to the Arctic for recreation ortour ism, and the non-governmentalorganizations seeking to protect or sustainenvironmental, aesthetic, and other less tangiblevalues of the Arctic in the broader interest ofsociety. The successful management andconservation of arctic wildlife requires that thesegroups be represented in the managementprocess and that adequate information isavailable for equitable consideration of thediverse interests that relate to arctic wildlife. Therole of international, non-governmentalenvironmental organizations is particularlyimportant in maintaining focus of the public onthe broad spectrum of environmental valuesexisting in the Arctic when proposals for large-scale industry- or government-sponsored projectsbecome politicized at the regional or nationallevels.

The CBMP now has a draft list of biodiversityindicators for circumpolar monitoring. Theresulting status and trends information fromthese indicators will be reported on regularly ina diversity of formats to reach the wider publicas well as decision and policy makers.

ACIA Recommendation: Best practice guidelinesneed to be prepared for managing all aspects ofthe Arctic’s biodiversity. These need to be preparedon a circumpolar basis and with the involvementof all interested parties.

While not directly focusing on best managementpractices, the CBMP’s biodiversity informationwill aid industry and governments in thedevelopment of best practices as the CBMP willnot only track changes in biodiversity butinvestigate the causal mechanisms driving thosechanges, thereby informing best managementpractices.

ACIA Recommendation: Integrated forms ofmanagement, incorporating the requirement forbiodiversity conservation, need to be exploredfor all uses of the land, freshwater, and sea inthe Arctic.

The CBMP will produce policy recommendationsbased upon the status and trends it produces,especially where information regarding themechanisms driving biodiversity change isavailable. This information could be used todevelop integrated management approaches forthe conservation of biodiversity.

ACIA Recommendation: Biodiversity conser-vation needs to be incorporated into all policydevelopment, whether regional, national, orcircumpolar.

The CBMP will produce policy recommendationsfor biodiversity conservation based upon theresults produced through its circumpolarmonitoring.

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The CBMP represents a multiple partner(governments, NGO’s, indigenous people’s,northern communities, industry, etc.), holisticapproach to the monitoring and conservation ofArctic biodiversity. It strives to bring togetherdiverse partners towards the common goal ofconserving Arctic biodiversity in order to ensurehuman well-being both inside and outside theArctic.

Chapter 13

ACIA Recommendation: Present monitoringof the physical and biological marine environmentmust be continued and in many cases increased.Basic research is a prerequisite for understandingbiological processes. Modern technology enablesthe automation of many of the time-consumingtasks previously conducted from expensiveresearch vessels, e.g., buoys can now be deployedin strategic locations on land and at sea forcontinuous measurement of many variablesrequired in marine biological studies. Themonitoring of commercial stocks must alsocontinue, applying new technologies as thesebecome available. There is a general shortage ofship time for sea-based work. Administrators orgovernments are often unaware of this, also thatdespite computers enabling more extensive anddeeper analyses of existing datasets, people arestill required to operate and program thecomputers.

The CBMP will be working with its marinebiodiversity monitoring partners towards the goalof continuing and increasing the effectivenessof current Arctic marine biodiversity monitoringefforts.

Chapter 14

ACIA Recommendation: Forest advance intotundra has the potential to generate a largepositive temperature feedback. Unfortunately,the understanding of change at this crucialecological boundary comes from a small numberof widely separated studies undertaken to achieve

many different objectives. A coordinated,circumpolar treeline study and monitoringinitiative will be necessary to address definitivelythe question of how and why this boundary ischanging at the scale required to address itspotential global importance.

The CBMP, while not planning on directlymonitoring treeline position, will be monitoringthe distribution and extent of various terrestrialArctic biomes. This information may be able tocontribute, over time, to a greater understandingof the impacts of an advancing treeline onclimate, but it may not be at an appropriatetemporal scale for climate modelling. The CAFFFlora Group is currently mapping Arcticvegetation and is now working toward mappingthe boreal forests and analyzing the boundarychanges.

Chapter 15

ACIA Recommendation: There is a need for acarefully planned strategy, at the communityand regional level, to monitor and documentenvironmental change. Arctic Council membersand program workgroups should providetechnical assistance regarding monitoringstrategies, climate impact mitigation and pilotstudies, data analysis, and evaluation.

The CBMP is developing a biodiversity monitoringstrategy based on a set of indicators andincluding community-based and regionalapproaches.

ACIA Recommendation: There are few dataon climate change impact on regional biota. Acritical need exists for the monitoring of wildlifediseases, and human–wildlife disease interaction.There are few data on climate-induced changesin the diet of subsistence species, which affectstheir nutritional value in traditional diets. ArcticCouncil programs have the expertise to designeffective regional and international monitoringprograms in cooperation with communities. Thiscritical activity should be given a high priority.

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The CBMP, in some cases, may be able to shedlight on the impacts of climate change onbiodiversity at the regional level, where regionallyspecific programs are implemented and datarigour allows for such an analysis. Seabird ExpertGroup projects on murres and kittiwakesspecifically relate to climate change and are thefirst of their kind to be circumpolar.

ACIA Recommendation: Observations andprocess studies: To improve future climate impactassessments, many Arctic processes requirefurther study, both through scientificinvestigations and more detailed systematicdocumentation of indigenous knowledge.Priorities include collection of data ranging fromsatellite, surface, and paleo data on the climateand physical environment, to rates and rangesof change in arctic biota, and to the healthstatus of arctic people.

The CBMP’s biodiversity indicators include thedistribution and extent of arctic biota.

The CBMP, in collaboration with partner speciesmonitoring networks, and in cooperation withAMAP on developing joint pilot project, willeffectively address this recommendation. CBMPis developing a set of biodiversity indicators forlong-term monitoring, that includes monitoringthe presence and distribution of such impactson wildlife as disease.

Chapter 18

ACIA Recommendation: Regional impacts: TheACIA mostly addressed impacts at the large-scalecircumpolar level. The attempt to differentiatebetween impacts within the four ACIA regionswas exploratory and did not cover these regionsin depth. There is a need to focus futureassessments on smaller regions (perhaps at thelandscape level) where an assessment of impactsof climate change has the greatest relevance anduse for residents in the region and their activities.


circumpolar biodiversity monitoring programlibrary.arcticportal.org/270/1/annual-report.pdf ·...

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