Side Event

Nature has no borders – transboundary cooperation to safeguard arctic and boreal biodiversity

Organizer
Arctic Council’s Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (AC, CAFF) Barents Euro-Arctic Council’s Working Group on Environment (BEAC, WGE) Contact Persons: Anna Kuhmonen, BPAN, SYKE, Tom Barry, CAFF

Date and Time
16 October 2014 18:15 - 19:45

Meeting
Twelfth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity

A key theme #5 in the recently released Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) concerns identifying and safeguarding important areas for biodiversity. This concerns the need to advance the protection of large areas of ecologically important marine, terrestrial and freshwater habitats, taking into account ecological resilience in a changing climate. Barents Protected Area Network (BPAN) promotes establishing a representative transboundary protected area network in the Barents Euro-Arctic Region, with a special focus on intact and old-growth forests and wetlands. BPAN has recently released recommendations for strengthening the transboundary protected area network in the Barents Euro-Arctic Region, including the northernmost parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Northwest Russia. This network works towards achieving the UN CBD Aichi Biodiversity Target on protected areas, but also takes practical steps to undertake transboundary cooperation with regards to protected areas. Both, the ABA and the BPAN are regional initiatives to implement CBD Program of Work on Protected Areas and they demonstrate needed actions for achieving the UN CBD Aichi Biodiversity Targets on protected areas in the north. An increasing focus on identifying and safeguarding sensitive areas in the Arctic can also be seen in recent initiatives to identify Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas in the Arctic. The program for the side event will include high-level opening statement, statements from the CAFF Chair and the Barents Euro-Arctic Council Chair, ABA and BPAN presentations, perspectives of WWF. The side event will also screen a short film on the natural heritage of boreal and Arctic nature in the Republic of Komi - On the Trail of Northern Winds.