CAFF's work
- Category: Environment & climate
- Published on 22 September 2011
The Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) is the biodiversity working group of the Arctic Council, and conducts monitoring, assessments and additional projects to identify how climate change affects Arctic wildlife, and the implications on the peoples of the Arctic.
Climate change is at the forefront of the challenges and stressors facing Arctic wildlife and peoples.
The magnitude of these changes will exert major influences on biological dynamics in the Arctic. Some of the most rapid ecological changes associated with warming have occurred in marine and freshwater environments. Species most affected are those with limited distributions or specialized feeding habits that depend on ice foraging.
Other predicted effects of climate change, and other stressors, such as industrial development and resource exploitation, on Arctic biodiversity include:
- changes in the distribution, geographical ranges, and abundances of species (including invasive alien species) and habitats of endemic Arctic species;
- changes in genetic diversity; and
- changes in the behavior of migratory species.
Arctic warming, with its many and increasing impacts on flora, fauna, and habitats, has heightened the need to identify and fill the knowledge gaps on various aspects of Arctic biodiversity and monitoring. This need was clearly identified in the 2005 Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) which recommended that long-term Arctic biodiversity monitoring be expanded and enhanced.
The CAFF Working Group responded to this recommendation with the implementation of Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP).
Following the establishment of the CBMP, CAFF agreed that it was necessary to provide policy makers and conservation managers with a synthesis of the best available scientific and traditional ecological knowledge on Arctic biodiversity. This initiative, the Arctic Biodiversity Assessment, was endorsed by the Arctic Council in 2006.
The first deliverable of the ABA is the overview report, the Arctic Biodiversity Trends 2010: Selected Indicators of Change, presents a preliminary assessment of status and trends in Arctic biodiversity and is based on the suite of indicators developed by the CBMP.
For more information on how climate change is affecting the wildlife and ecosystems of the Arctic, please visit the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna.
