Arctic Wetlands Ecosystems – AWERRS

A crucial Arctic ecosystem, but its role is underappreciated

Arctic wetlands store an enormous amount of global carbon, offer crucial support for global biodiversity, and provide important ecosystem services for indigenous and other communities. They also constitute considerable parts of the Earth’s remaining wilderness areas. Yet, with rapidly warming temperatures and a dynamic human footprint, these ecosystems are changing fundamentally, bringing both Arctic peoples and ecosystems closer to potential tipping points.

Current knowledge of wetlands ecosystems is more than sufficient to support raising the priority level of Arctic wetlands restoration and stewardship. When we say stewardship, we mean to balancing conservation and use in order to ensure that the benefits we receive from wetlands are sustainable for the long haul at local, regional and global scales. Unfortunately, important gaps that impede stewardship remain.

Prioritizing for best results

Better knowledge is needed about which specific types and locations of wetlands should be prioritized for restoration and protection. This would help to prioritize areas where effort and financial investment could produce maximum benefit for climate, biodiversity and people.

Strengthened stewardship through engaging indigenous and local communities

A better understanding is also needed of how to guide the organization of conservation and restoration efforts in order to maximize the benefits from ecosystem services and strengthen wetlands ecosystem resilience. For example, participation by indigenous and local communities in decision making, restoration and stewardship of Arctic wetlands is widely considered to be a crucial ingredient for success. A growing number of wetlands experts are calling for indigenous and community participation in conservation and restoration efforts.

Strengthening and streamlining policy

Policy aimed at protecting Arctic wetlands is expansive, yet evidence suggests three key challenges to policy being as effective as it could be. These include:

• inconsistency and/or conflict between policies and goals addressed to different aspects of wetlands,
• the distribution of responsibility for policy implementation into agencies and departments with differing, sometimes contrasting missions,
• challenges in achieving effective communications between responsible agencies and departments.

Financial resources for restoration and stewardship

The greatest benefits of restoration and stewardship of Arctic wetlands often come in the form of broader public goods, in the form of less carbon emissions, habitat for key species and areas used intermittently for recreation and subsistence. As a result, wetland restoration and stewardship are often publicly financed or incentivized. All Arctic countries have financing mechanisms, yet much could be gained by mapping these, learning across borders, engaging the private sector engagement and ramping up efforts.

Funders, partners and collaborators

The project is funded through the Arctic II Initiative of the Belmont Forum: Resilience in Rapidly Changing Arctic Systems.

Partners, collaborators and funders are displayed in the drop-down menu on the left hand side of this page.