Working together to protect migration routes, breeding sites and overwintering areas

Every year, millions of migratory birds visit the Arctic. Sadly, many of the wader species, such as the bar-tailed godwit or red-necked phalarope, are declining due to threats they encounter along their migration routes and overwintering areas. In the long term, the effects of climate change will destroy some important breeding sites in the Arctic.

A multi-dimensional Tavvavuoma project in northern Arctic Sweden aims to safeguard the birds and palsa mires in the Arctic and to strengthen, protect and restore the birds’ resting and overwintering areas further south. The project—a collaboration between WWF, Birdlife Sweden, scientific researchers, Saami reindeer herders, local entrepreneurs and Swedish authorities—is part of the Arctic Migratory Birds Initiative, which is run by Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, the biodiversity working group of the Arctic Council. (A related project is studying how climate change will affect birds and reindeer herding in Tavvavuoma.)

Tavvavuoma is a breath-taking landscape with mires that stretch all the way to the horizon. The number of bird species and individuals in some of the area’s palsa mires is astonishingly high.

Tom Arnbom, a project leader with WWF–Sweden, is convinced that it’s impossible to visit the area without wanting to return. “There is always something new to experience,” he says.

One of the project’s long-term goals is to create a new national park in Sweden to protect this landscape. The aim is to introduce a new management scheme that will include traditional Saami knowledge and permit regulated recreational fishing and hunting to create local jobs.