Reports
Rapid Assessment of circum-Arctic Ecosystem Resilience (RACER): Marine areas off the coast of northern Norway, and the northern Norwegian Sea
- Norway
The majority of Norway’s Arctic comprises marine areas, managed with plans which on paper state that Norway has an integrated ecosystem based approach. However, Norway’s implementation of ecosystem based management lacks specific targets and environmental goals, including implementation of ecologically significant marine protected areas. The lack of satisfactory protection for ecologically important marine areas from destructive cumulative effects of human activities and climate change is outstanding, and currently Norway is not doing enough to address this management gap in its jurisdiction. Holistic and adaptive arctic environmental management must ensure successful navigation of the rapid changes under way, also in the planning and establishment of Marine Protected Areas (MPA).
A crucial management component must involve Norway collaborating with its arctic neighbours in securing protection for a representative selection of arctic environments based on the criteria of heightened ecological resilience, including strict restrictions on specific activities. With the effects of climate change rapidly deteriorating the Arctic, management needs a way to quickly define what areas are most important to conserve. Norway’s Marine Protected Area plan process remains based on conservation objectives that do not reflect contemporary marine conservation needs, and a reopening of discourse among managers and decision makers that re-evaluates the intent of establishing MPAs is needed. The role of MPAs in climate change mitigation, expressly with regard to the Arctic marine environment, deserves explicit focus that up to this point has not been present.
This report presents results from work conducted within the RACER (Rapid Assessment of circum- Arctic Ecosystem Resilience) project framework in Norway, and is intended to help inform stakeholders, managers and decision makers in Norway about the necessity and convenience of RACER as a management tool. It is also meant to help build awareness about areas and features in Norwegian marine jurisdiction which could be significant components for building ecological resilience across the circum-Arctic under future climate change scenarios.
The RACER project is intended to help direct focus towards areas and features considered to be significant for building social-ecological resilience across the circum-Arctic and that are likely to persist in future arctic climate change conditions under different warming scenarios. The focus of the RACER analysis is to identify the underlying drivers of key ecosystem processes, as these variables will be what is modelled into the future to determine how a system will respond to climate change. This focus is also seen as a catalyst for discussion on how to best manage these areas in the future.
By WWF Global Arctic Programme
