The Ecosystem Approach to Management: Status of Implementation in the Arctic
Summary:
The Ecosystem Approach to Management (EA) is a widely adopted management principle requiring management of human activities to be integrated across sectors of enterprise. The ultimate purpose of EA is to achieve sustainable use of natural resources, while maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem. The EA approach has been acknowledged, defined and adopted by the Arctic states working under the Arctic Council. Working groups of the Arctic Council have been engaged for more than a decade in developing aspects of the scientific, policy and indigenous foundations of the knowledge that enable the implementation of the ecosystem approach.
The conference will bring together experts and practitioners to examine the scientific, policy and indigenous understandings and experience of the ecosystem approach to management in the eighteen Large Marine Ecosystems of the Arctic and corresponding terrestrial areas. Topics to be addressed include scientific elements such as Integrated Ecosystem Assessment, as well as national policies such as Integrated Arctic Management and the Inuvialuit Settlement Agreement that are designed to carry out integrated management in an adaptive fashion. Proceedings from the conference will be presented to the ministerial meeting of the Arctic Council in spring 2017.
Objectives:
- Benchmark the status of implementation of EA in the Arctic
- Present innovative examples of best practices in EA implementation
- Identify priorities for future collaboration on EA implementation in the Arctic Themes
Themes:
- Knowledge base – integration of knowledge (including traditional) and Integrated Ecosystem Assessment
- Governance – integration across sectors, institutional arrangements
- Scale integration – integration across small to large scale in ecosystems, and integration across management levels.
Outcomes and Products:
The conference will review progress in implementing the ecosystem approach to management in the various LMEs in the circumpolar Arctic. Presentations and papers will identify best practices for implementation and methods for dealing with impediments to implementation, such as limited information. Approaches to dealing with changes caused by changes in demand across development sectors, and by climate change will be identified. The conference will also examine arrangements for international cooperation in the management of shared LMEs that include waters under national jurisdiction of two or more countries.
Call for abstracts:
We invite contributions for oral or poster presentations. Please send abstracts of presentations (up to 500 words) to eaconference [at] pame.is by April 5.
For registration and other information, please visit the link above.