Arctic Council

The Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA) was endorsed by the Arctic Council in 2006. The aims of the ABA are to provide a much needed description of the current state of the Arctic’s ecosystems and biodiversity, create a baseline for use in global and regional assessments of biodiversity, and provide a basis to inform and guide future Arctic Council work.

Learn more about The Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna's Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP), an international network of scientists, government agencies, Indigenous organizations and conservation groups working together to harmonize and integrate monitoring efforts and data collection.

In a guest article for the Biodiversity Policy and Practice website, Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) working group Executive Secretary Tom Barry outlines the work that CAFF is doing to support Arctic biodiversity. As Barry states in his article, some of this work is being done in conjunction with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

The Arctic contains many species not found elsewhere, and many habitats and ecological processes and adaptations that are unique. These include the seasonal bursts of life on land and in the ocean, the ability of some plants to survive extreme cold and dryness, the physiological features that allow mammals to maintain body heat through an Arctic winter, and the presence of life within sea ice.