Arctic Council Arctic Marine Strategic Plan 2014-2024. Protecting Marine and Coastal Ecosystems in a Changing Arctic.

Abstract

"Arctic marine and coastal ecosystems are places of abundant natural resources and are widely intact. They provide diverse services that people from within and outside the Arctic benefit from. Unprecedented and transformative changes are occurring within the Arctic climate, ecosystems and to its social and economic framework. Some of the changes now occurring may already be crossing natural thresholds from which there will be no returning, while others can be shaped by the decisions and actions taken now by the region’s residents, decision and policy makers as well as within the global community. The Arctic Council’s Arctic Marine Strategic Plan (AMSP) over the next ten years aims to provide a strategic framework for advancing actions to protect the Arctic marine and coastal ecosystems and to advance sustainable development in the region. The AMSP focuses on the importance of the sustainable use of resources, economic development and environmental protection. It articulates the Arctic Council’s desire to act on climate change, to improve cooperative capacity addressing adaptation, resilience, and combined effects of Arctic change on ecosystems and people, and to strengthen the Arctic Council to meet new challenges and opportunities." /.../