Arctic Biodiversity Congress 2014

On Wednesday morning, the Arctic Biodiversity Congress resumed with a plenary talk by Janos Pasztor, WWF International, on the theme “Arctic biodiversity begins at home."

The day included two roundtable brainstorming sessions, one in the morning on immediate and long-term action for implementing the ABA recommendations, and the other in the afternoon on the extent to which biodiversity underpins participants’ work and barriers to mainstreaming biodiversity. In the morning discussion, many participants remarked on the urgency of all 17 ABA recommendations, noting that action will only be effective if they are addressed in conjunction. Several also stressed that all recommendations require long-term actions. In the afternoon, among the barriers identified in mainstreaming biodiversity, participants noted: a lack of long-term political will and commitment; a gap between science and practice; and tension between use value and intrinsic value.

Participants also convened in multiple parallel sessions throughout the day, with themes including: ecosystem services; public education and outreach for Arctic conservation; the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Programme; ecological characterization and monitoring related to energy exploration and development; a pan-Arctic perspective on measuring the current and future impacts of a changing Arctic on biodiversity; and identifying and safeguarding protected and sensitive areas.