INTERSESSIONAL REPORT: KNOWLEDGE AND PROCESS NEEDS FOR ARCTIC EBM.

• Main Author: Arctic Council Ecosystem Based Management Experts Group
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Arctic Council Secretariat 2012
• Subjects: Arctic; Arctic Council; CAFF; Iceland; PAME
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11374/1159

The first meeting of the Arctic Council Ecosystem-based Management (EBM) Experts Group was hosted by the United States at the U.S. Department of the Interior headquarters in Washington, D.C on October 18-19, 2011. Evan Bloom, Director of the Office of Ocean and Polar Affairs, U.S. Department of State, Magnus Johannesson, Secretary General, Iceland Ministry for the Environment, and Dr. Mia Dahlstrom of the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management co-chaired the meeting, which included nearly two dozen participants from seven of the eight Arctic countries, three permanent participant groups, and representatives from the CAFF and PAME working groups. At the conclusion of the two-day meeting, the participating delegations agreed that this effort represents a timely and much-needed convergence of EBM expertise to review the state of the art and best practices in Arctic EBM, and to recommend further Arctic EBM activities to the Arctic Council. In addition to an intersessional effort to adapt existing EBM definitions and principles to pan- Arctic needs, the delegations agreed to support an intersessional effort to compile an analysis of high-level science and capacity needs for marine, coastal, and terrestrial EBM implementation across the Arctic. This paper represents the culmination of this latter intersessional effort, and will inform the Expert Group’s articulation of guidelines and recommendations to the Senior Arctic Officials and Ministers prior to the 2013 Arctic Council Ministerial.