| Project |
Type |
# |
Outcome |
Report |
Year |
FEC |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Key finding | 3 | Anthropogenic climate change is a serious threat
to Arctic wetland ecosystems and exacerbates many other threats. Widespread climate change
impacts in Arctic wetlands are ongoing and
projected to increase in this century and reducing
greenhouse gas emissions is necessary to limit
these impacts. Climate-driven permafrost thaw
and increased drought conditions impacting
wetland ecosystems will cause greater fire
occurrences and shifts in hydrological flows,
affecting wetland ecosystem services and
biodiversity. Sea level change and declines in
sea ice are driving increases in coastal erosion
that threatens many coastal wetlands. Thawing
permafrost is projected to transform peatlands
from a net sink of greenhouse gases to a net
source lasting for several centuries. | Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands: Key Findings and Recommendations | 2021 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Recommendation | 6 | Develop a uniform inventory of degraded Arctic
wetlands with potential for restoration. Many
candidate sites for restoration are known, but
the exact extent and location of other damaged
or degraded wetland systems remains poorly
known. Encourage Arctic states to identify data
gaps where wetland extent and condition are
unknown and can be prioritized for inventory. | Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands: Key Findings and Recommendations | 2021 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Key finding | 1.2.2 | Arctic Indigenous Wetlands Use: Indigenous Peoples have significant ties to wetland protected areas in the Arctic and acknowledging and fostering these relationships in partnership with management authorities can strengthen outcomes. | Arctic Wetlands and Indigenous Peoples Study: An assessment of Indigenous engagement in wetland protected areas | 2021 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Key finding | | The key obstacles to scaling up and expanding wetlands restoration and management efforts in the Arctic are not due to a lack of knowledge about wetlands ecosystems processes and functions, or steps that can be taken to improve their status. Policy design and difficulties with implementation appear often to be obstacles, however, and accurate, up-to-date mapping is needed to target policy initiatives. | Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands Phase 2 Report | 2021 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Key finding | 12 | There is a need for new pan-Arctic wetland maps
based on a uniform approach, thus ensuring
comparable accuracy and data quality across the
full Arctic domain. Such mapping efforts should
ideally train and validate algorithms using
existing national wetland inventories, relevant
institutional data, inclusive of Indigenous
Knowledge and/or input from Arctic communities.
Maps are needed that show the spatial extent of
discrete wetland complexes at high resolution and
should separate mineral wetlands from organic
wetlands (peatlands). On the shorter term, new
maps of wetland extent will be bound to one
specific classification system; it is not possible to
address the diversity of existing systems. Over
the longer term, boundaries between maps and
monitoring dissolve. Spatial wetland data can
be stored in spatial databases that allow flexible
adaptation to different classification systems. | Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands: Key Findings and Recommendations | 2021 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Recommendation | 15 | Support the ongoing work with the Arctic SDI to
develop a pan-Arctic wetland map making use
of modern remote sensing and data processing
methods but supported by existing national and
local data and inventories. Work with individual
nations on a plan for incorporating this product
into their national systems. | Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands: Key Findings and Recommendations | 2021 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Advice | 6 | Approaching Engagement: Much can be learned from each Arctic State, their protected areas, their management authorities, and their Indigenous communities. a) Approach Indigenous participation as an opportunity, b) Seek to build partnerships with Indigenous governments, organizations, and communities, c) Engage Indigenous leadership and communities at the beginning of the process, d) Welcome elders, recruit youth | Arctic Wetlands and Indigenous Peoples Study: An assessment of Indigenous engagement in wetland protected areas | 2021 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Key finding | 5 | In some regions, Arctic wetlands are already
degraded by human land use and an ever growing
human footprint poses threats to
wetland functioning. This damage occurs in
both Arctic and Boreal zones and arises from a
number of threats such as expansion of forestry,
agriculture, hydropower, extraction of peat, fossil
fuels or minerals, threats to coastal wetlands from
increased Arctic shipping and construction of
new infrastructure. Wetlands are also vulnerable
to human disturbances to permafrost or adjacent
upland habitats and changes to the water
balance or hydrological connectivity that can
transform wetland function. Drained wetlands
release carbon to the atmosphere instead of
storing it, and the negative effect lasts for decades
to centuries. Other losses of function include loss
of biodiversity, changes to habitats and reduced
capacity to buffer floods or droughts. | Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands: Key Findings and Recommendations | 2021 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Recommendation | 8 | Ensure that national conservation or development
plans that impact wetlands meaningfully engage
Arctic communities, Indigenous Peoples, and
stakeholders to consider the broader landscape
impacts of changes to wetlands, including
developments that may affect wetlands within
river basins. | Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands: Key Findings and Recommendations | 2021 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Key finding | 1.2.4 | Arctic Indigenous Participation in Wetlands Conservation: Engaging Indigenous leadership and communities in participatory processes can strengthen conservation strategies and contribute to forwarding conservation objectives and goals. | Arctic Wetlands and Indigenous Peoples Study: An assessment of Indigenous engagement in wetland protected areas | 2021 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Key finding | | There is relatively little comparative analysis of national-level policies that impact Arctic wetlands. | Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands Phase 2 Report | 2021 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Recommendation | 1 | Encourage Arctic cooperation to amplify efforts
to reduce fossil fuel emissions both inside and
outside the Arctic. | Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands: Key Findings and Recommendations | 2021 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Recommendation | 17 | Encourage collaboration among Arctic States and
with organizations representing Arctic Indigenous
Peoples, to develop and refine approaches for
reporting on the benefits of wetlands restoration
to improvements in ecosystem services, in
particular: livelihoods, food security, biodiversity,
and climate change mitigation. | Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands: Key Findings and Recommendations | 2021 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Key finding | 7 | The extensive scientific, Indigenous, institutional,
and local knowledge on Arctic wetlands could
inform broad and rapid actions to protect,
conserve and restore wetlands if supported by
policy. Noting the stewardship and wealth of
knowledge of Arctic communities, and existing
science, the key obstacles to scaling-up research
or case studies are not due to lack of knowledge.
Multiple case studies and research projects have
demonstrated that protection, conservation, or
restoration of degraded Arctic wetlands offers
substantial benefits for water-centric ecosystem
services, biodiversity, and climate change
mitigation. In addition to Indigenous, institutional,
and local knowledge of wetlands, there is a
considerable and broad scientific knowledge
base on wetlands protection, conservation,
restoration, and management which dates back
many decades. All of this knowledge is crucial for
adaptive and holistic management of wetlands. | Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands: Key Findings and Recommendations | 2021 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Recommendation | 10 | Develop and share between Arctic states outreach
and communication strategies and tools to explain
the values of wetlands, the threats to wetlands
and provide examples of wetland restoration
success stories. Material for the full Arctic region
could be complemented with materials specific
to knowledge from different geographic regions,
communities, and Indigenous Peoples. | Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands: Key Findings and Recommendations | 2021 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Advice | 1 | Documenting Indigenous Resource Use:
Improving documentation of Indigenous resource use
may allow management authorities to make decisions
that respect and accommodate Indigenous resource
use by ensuring that subsistence activities are not
unnecessarily impeded by management actions | Arctic Wetlands and Indigenous Peoples Study: An assessment of Indigenous engagement in wetland protected areas | 2021 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Key finding | | Participation by indigenous and local communities in decision making, restoration and stewardship of Arctic wetlands is widely considered to be a crucial ingredient for success. | Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands Phase 2 Report | 2021 | |
| 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 | |
| Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands (RAW) | Key finding | | Research findings make it clear that restoration of damaged or compromised Arctic wetlands ecosystems offers substantial benefits across multiple areas of interest – water-centric ecosystem services, biodiversity, and increasingly over the past decade, climate mitigation. | Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands Phase 2 Report | 2021 | |
Arctic Council Working Group