Features

The first international agreement made exclusively for the Arctic region was signed at the ministerial meeting in Nuuk, May 12 2011. The agreement, which deals with search and rescue of aeronautical and maritime vessels and passengers, is also the first international agreement made under the auspices of the Arctic Council. The Arctic Council is now planning another international agreement for adoption which will deal with oil pollution in the Arctic.

The main emphasis of the Agreement is to develop swift and efficient measures when accidents occur in the harsh Arctic region and to ensure, as much as possible, proper search and rescue operations. This is done by the clauses where the member states commit themselves to nominate certain national institutions in each state that will have full discretion in the field of search and rescue in the area. These national institutions are not only bound to take efficient measures, but also to notify other relevant national institutions when appropriate.

Unique Arctic habitats for flora and fauna, including sea ice, tundra, lakes, and peatlands have been disappearing over recent decades, and some characteristic Arctic species have shown a decline. The changes in Arctic Biodiversity have global repercussions and are further creating challenges for people living in the Arctic.

The above statements are examples on the key findings describing changes in Arctic biodiversity that is presented in 'The Arctic Biodiversity Trends – 2010: Selected Indicators of Change', a new report synthesizing scientific findings on the status and trends for selected biodiversity in the Arctic issued by the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) Working Group under the Arctic Council.

A constant issue noted as critical is the need for Arctic wide monitoring programmes. CAFFs Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Programme (CBMP – www.cbmp.is) has developed the first arctic wide marine ecosystem monitoring programme which has been endorsed by the Arctic Council. This plan is now starting to be implemented will help short the gap between the collection and analysis of data to its availability to decision makers.

Arctic Biodiversity – affected by multiple stressors

The Arctic Biodiversity Trends 2010 Report, produced by some of the world's leading experts of Arctic ecosystems and biodiversity, was the Arctic Council's contribution to the United Nations International Year of Biodiversity in 2010.

In 2008, the United Nations Environment Program passed a resolution expressing 'extreme concern' over the impacts of climate change on Arctic indigenous peoples, other communities, and biodiversity. It highlighted the potentially significant consequences of changes in the Arctic.

The Arctic Biodiversity Trends – 2010: Selected Indicators of Change report indicates that some of those anticipated impacts on Arctic biodiversity are already occurring.

The report is based on twenty-two indicators and provides a snapshot of the trends being observed in Arctic biodiversity today. The polar bear is one of the most well-known species impacted by changes in the Arctic, but it is not the only one. The indicators show that the Arctic has changed dramatically during recent decades and that unique Arctic habitats for flora and fauna are disappearing. Furthermore, some species of importance to Arctic people or species of global attention are declining.

The report presents a broad spectrum of changes in the Arctic ecosystems and biodiversity.

Polar bears are highly specialized for and dependent on sea ice for their habitat. Therefore they are particularly sensitive and vulnerable to the documented significant reductions in sea ice cover in parts of the Arctic and to the thinning of multi-year ice in the polar basin. 

Status and trends for many populations are not available, but research on some populations demonstrates that they have decreased over the past several decades, and population and habitat modelling have projected substantial future declines in the distribution and abundance of polar bears.

The vegetation comprising tundra ecosystems – various species of grasses, sedges, mosses, and lichens – are, in some places, being replaced by species typical of more southern locations, such as evergreen shrubs.

Trees are beginning to encroach on the tundra at its southern margin and some models project that by 2100 the tree line will have advanced north by as much as 500 km, resulting in a loss of 51% of tundra habitat.

 In recent years, on average, the southern limit of permafrost in northern peatlands has retreated by 39 km and by as much as 200 km in some parts of Arctic. Peatlands are significant for the floristic diversity of the Arctic because their species comprise 20–30% of the Arctic and sub-Arctic flora. Moreover, many bird species with conservation priority are strongly associated with tundra and mire habitats.

Cold water coral reefs, coral gardens, and sponge aggregations provide a habitat for a variety of fish and invertebrates and thus represent biodiversity hotspots in the Arctic seas. These habitats are vulnerable to fisheries and other human activities such as oil and gas exploration.

Depending on the magnitude of these and other changes, certain ecosystems may no longer be considered 'Arctic'. The result may be that many of the species thriving in the Arctic today are not able to survive there in the future.

A key finding in the Report is that climate change is emerging as the most far-reaching and significant stressor on Arctic biodiversity, though contaminants, habitat change, industrial development, and unsustainable harvest levels continue to have impacts.

The importance of Arctic ecosystems for biodiversity is immense and therefore a more thorough examination of the state of affairs is needed. Thus, leading Arctic scientists are currently engaged in making a full and comprehensive Arctic Biodiversity Assessment, which is will be completed in 2013.

A primary challenge is to shorten the gap between when data is collected to when it has been processed and presented to decision makers to allow for a quicker response time. CAFF has recognised this challenge and in recent years worked towards developing a solution.

This approach has focused on not just developing traditional assessments but also addressing the creation of a framework to allow for the collection, processing and analysis of data on a continuous basis – the CBMP. The aim being through the ABA not to produce a traditional one off static assessment but rather to create a baseline of current knowledge and at the same time developing the engine which will feed data into this baseline allowing it to become a dynamic living tool. One which is sustainable and can produce regular and more flexible assessments and analyses.

Practical information

Further information and a press kit can be found at www.caff.is.
Further information can be found by email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or contacting Tom Barry at +354 861 9824.

Iceland has decided to support Canada and Norway in the case against the EU trade ban on seal products. This was decided on a meeting on dispute settlement on the 25th of March. It was also decided on the meeting that Iceland will join the case as a third party member agains the EU trade ban.
Iceland is one of six countries where seal hunting is still practiced. The others are Canada, Norway and Russia, which are not EU members states; Greenland, which is a Danish region but has autonomy in its domestic affairs; and Namibia in southern Africa.

This decision of Iceland is in harmony with previous statements of the country. The ban, which was adopted by the EU Council on 27th of July 2009 and came into effect on the 20th August 2010 was also opposed by the Icelandic goverment in april 2009, where the minister of Fisheries- and agriculture sent a letter to the EU Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. Worries about impending legislation where mentioned along with other reasons opposing the trade ban. The Icelandic minister for fisheries had also declered his support about the case at the 15th North Atlantic Fisheries Ministers Conference, which was held in Canada in july 2010.

Photo by: Bergvin Snær Nesmann AndréssonIceland´s opposition is also shown in the NAMMCO statement on EU import ban on seal products. There, the bans is seen as contrary to international principles for conservation and sustainable management. Along with Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Norway, as well as observer nations to NAMMCO, Canada, the Russian Federation and Japan, reiterated their serious concerns about the EU ban on the import of seal products into the European Union.

In the NAMMCO statement it is mentioned that the trade ban ignores and undermines the internationally recognized principles on which conservation and management of marine resources in the North Atlantic are firmly based. It has serious and detrimental consequences for the economies of the many communities dependent on abundant seal stocks across the North Atlantic. Therefore the incorporation of the ban into European Union legislation is said to be a huge step backwards for sustainable development and international trade.

It is further statet that the nations cooperating through NAMMCO are committed to promoting the principle of sustainable development in all areas of cooperation in the region, including the sustainable use of seals. Such cooperation is based on mutual respect and recognition of the rights of all peoples to use their resources responsibly and sustainably for their economic development, including the right to benefit from international trade.

It is finalized in the NAMMCO statemant that conservation and management of all living marine resources should be science-based and should take account of the marine ecosystems and the interrelation between species, stocks and habitats in which fishing and hunting activities occur.
Canada appealed to the European Union the trade ban on seal products to the World Trade Organization. Canadian Fisheries Minister, Gail Shea, has stated that she does not believe the government's fight for seal hunters will damage other industries that employ more people. Fisheries minister has mentioned that other Canadian industries might be damaged if the country does not take a stand on what she insists is a matter of principle and needs to be ruled on facts, not emotions. A decision from the WTO could take a year or more.
The EU trade ban on seal productus has affected Canada's Inuit community. Despite the fact that the Inuit are exempt from the ban, they no longer have a market for sealskins; a by-product of their subsistence hunt.

A documentary has been made that brings together commentary from Inuit hunters, community leaders and an emotional testimonial from local people.

Seal Ban: The Inuit Impact - Documentary

Sources:

The Icelandic Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture

NAMMCO

Eye on the Arctic

Construction workers at an Alaskan oil construction project had just finished building the ice road connecting their land-based operations to a nearby island when a worker made a discovery that would bring them to a halt for days. There, on the edge of the manmade island not too far from where the road entered, was a polar bear. This wasn't just any polar bear. There, in the Beaufort Sea close to an oil industry drilling project, appeared a mother bear and her cub.

The Alaska´s newest oil producer, ENI, just brought online earlier this year its shore-based Oliktok Point drilling operation, which sits east of Barrow along Alaska's north slope close to Prudhoe Bay. Work at the nearby island, known as the Spy Island Development site, was under way to prepare the manmade island for drilling that's expected to begin this fall. But the discovery of the polar bear den triggered an immediate pause that only the bear's departure could lift.

Activities at the island could resume as early as Wednesday evening provided the bears, which haven't been seen for at least two days, do not resurface.
Bruce Woods at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service says It's rare for a bear sighting and den to force a shut-down of work altogether.

It's not uncommon for industry to run across polar bears, and avoidance rules are in place to help minimize the impacts to the animals and the danger they may pose to humans. Roads may have to be rerouted and people may have to change the routes they take. When an inhabited den is discovered, a one mile quiet zone must be established around the site, states Tom Evans, a polar bear biologist with the USFWS Anchorage office. Due to this, alll operations are ceased until the bears are gone from the den site.

In the two decades that Evans has worked for the service, he has heard of a bear den forcing work to stop only a handful of times.
After ENI's employees immediately stopped what they were doing and made the call about the Spy Island bears, biologists from Evans' office traveled to the site to monitor the situation. They set up cameras and used an infrared scope to measure whether any heat was present.

This particular mother bear apparently made her winter home by burrowing into a snowdrift that had formed along a series of large gravel sacks on the perimeter of the island that are used to help protect it from ice and erosion. It's thought that by Monday, three days after the bears were first seen, that the duo had moved on. Biologists followed tracks leading away from the site for several miles and never found evidence that the bear had circled or turned back. It's likely, Evans said, that she headed off in search of seals to eat. With a young cub, though, she's not likely to try to do much deepwater swimming and will probably stay on the ice pack that's still connected to the shore rather than venture out to the southward-floating pack ice, Evans said.

The biologists monitoring the bears didn't personally witness their departure, but workers apparently saw the bears leaving the area on Sunday, according to Evans. And, he said, the scientists haven't had time to review their surveillance footage to find out if they captured any images of the bears.
Biologists are aware of two other dens in the same region -- one on Howe Island, and another on a section of gravel along the coastline known as the "staging pad" -- but neither have impacted industry operations.

Bears typically make their dens in November. Cubs are born in January, and mid-March to mid-April is generally when they start to emerge, and a mother bear's hunger level will determine how much time she spends with her cub hanging around the den. Sometimes, bears will wait up to two weeks before moving on, he said.

ENI Petroleum, headquartered in Italy, was unable to immediately respond to questions about the bear sighting or the shutdown of its construction operations, according to Hans Niedig, the company's Anchorage-based government and external affairs manager, citing the company's formal protocol for receiving and responding to questions from the press.

Provided the bears don't show up again, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had planned to let ENI resume operations at Spy Island.
Everybody did the right thing, Woods said, which resulted in a good outcome. "There was no harm to anybody, and no harm to the bears," he said.

Sources:

Reported by Alaska Dispatch

Pictures:

Google Maps

Polar Bear International