The Arctic Coastal Biodiversity Monitoring Plan: A platform for co-producing knowledge of the changes in arctic coastal biodiversity

Authors

1. T. Jones, US National Park Service, Alaska, United States
2. D. McLennan, Polar Knowledge Canada, Canadian High Arctic Research Station, Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada, donald.mclennan@polar.gc.ca
3. C. Behe, Indigenous Knowledge Science Advisor, Inuit Circumpolar Council, Anchorage, Alaska, United States
4. M. Arvnes, Norwegian Environment Agency, Trondheim, Norway
5. S. Weggeberg, Aarhus University, Copenhagen, Denmark
6. L. Sergienko, Petrozavodsk State University, Petrozavodsk, Russia
7. C. Harris, Indigenous Knowledge Holder, Maniilaq Association, Kotzebue, Alaska, United States
8. Q. Harcharek, Indigenous Knowledge Holder, Maniilaq Association, Kotzebue, Alaska, United States

Citation information

Jones, T., McLennan, D., Behe, C., Arvnes, M., Weggeberg, S., Sergienko, L., Harris, C. and Harcharek, Q. 2020. The Arctic Coastal Biodiversity Monitoring Plan: A platform for co-producing knowledge of the changes in arctic coastal biodiversity. Polar Knowledge: Aqhaliat Report, volume 3, Polar Knowledge Canada, p. 65–68. DOI: 10.35298/pkc.2020.16.eng

Article

The Arctic Coastal Biodiversity Monitoring Plan (known as the Coastal Plan) was approved by the Senior Arctic Officials of the Arctic Council in May, 2019. The Coastal Plan is an agreement across Arctic states to compile, harmonize, and assess results from existing coastal biodiversity and ecosystem monitoring efforts, to identify gaps, and to comprehensively monitor and report biodiversity change in Arctic coastal ecosystems in the long term. The Coastal Plan is the Arctic Council's first initiative to develop a platform that will support a co-production of knowledge approach, and is an important step towards bringing together Indigenous Knowledge (IK) and science into the assessment, planning, and management of Arctic biodiversity. The co-production of knowledge approach specifically includes the engagement of Arctic peoples, and the integration of their knowledge, in the monitoring and analysis of Arctic biodiversity.

Circumpolar Arctic human settlements are largely coastal and include the homelands of many Indigenous groups. Indigenous people hold a close relationship to their environment and rely on coastal species for food security, health and well-being, culture, economics, stability, and wildlife accessibility and availability. Recognizing humans as a part of the ecosystem, the Coastal Plan acknowledges the interdependence of human coastal communities and the coastal ecosystems they rely on.

Arctic coasts can be viewed as a series of social-ecological systems, or "Coastscapes" (Figure 1) – that include components of marine, freshwater, and terrestrial realms that interact with each other, and with the people that live there. Within this nexus, coastal social-ecological systems meet and interact in complex ways that significantly influence their composition, structure, function, and capacity to support a wide range of biodiversity. Arctic coastal biodiversity is threatened by multiple interacting environmental drivers and anthropogenic stressors. The difficulty in understanding these complex processes and interactions underscores the need for comprehensive and sustained monitoring of coastal ecosystems.

To begin addressing these issues, the Coastal Plan proposes to bring together an eco-systematic science approach and an IK holistic approach to co-produce knowledge of coastal ecosystems. This co-generated knowledge cooperatively produces evidence-based information that will inform proactive and adaptive decisions, including policies, needed to help maintain the biodiversity and sustainability of Arctic coastal social-ecological systems (Table 1).

The next, and most difficult stage in this process, is the coordinated implementation of the Coastal Plan across the Arctic nations that have contributed to its development. Implementation requires flexibility, as each nation will have its own unique set of social-ecological settings, issues, and approaches. Through a series of international workshops involving both science and IK experts, the Coastal Plan proposes a prioritized set of monitoring indicator species or Focal Ecosystem Components (FECs) that will allow an international synthesis of monitoring results across the circumpolar areas of the Arctic coastline.

Table 1 Example of the hierarchical structure used to assess and report changes in the Coastal Monitoring Plan.

This example is for a FEC group (Coastal Birds) which have been agglomerated into eight FECs. Attributes and parameters apply to all FECs listed but may not all be measured for all FECs.