MAGAZINE Protection in a time of change 7 Economic values 16 No. 3 2012 ThE CirclE lessons from elsewhere 27 PROTECTED AREAS AND BEYOND PUBLISHED BY THE WWF GLoBaL aRCTIC PRoGRaMME ThE CiRClE 3.2012 Contents EDITORIAL What is beyond protected areas? 3 In BRIEf 4 TOM BARRY, COURTnEY PRICE Arctic protected areas: conservation in a time of change 6 LISA SPEER, TOM LAUGHLIn EBSAs in the arctic marine environment 12 n IK LOPOUKHInE Protected areas and management of the Arctic 14 n IGEL DUDLEY Economic values of protected areas and other natural landscapes in the Arctic 16 BE nTE CHRISTIAnSEn, TIIA KALSKE Environmental protection in the Pasvik-Inari area 18 An n A KUHMOnEn, OLEG SUTKAITIS Representative network of protected areas to conserve northern nature 20 KARE n MURPHY, LISA MATLOCK Improving Alaska’s wildlife conservation through applied science 22 ZOLTA n KUn Supporting local development beyond commodities 24 ALBERTO ARROYO SCHnELL The natura 2000 network: where ecology and economy meet 27 CRISTIA n MOnTALVO MAnCHEnO Development of an ecological network approach in the Caucasus 28 ALEXA nDER SHESTAKOV A Pan-Arctic Ecological network: the concept and reality 30 TE H PICTURE 32 PROTECTED AREAS AND BEYOND Photo: Kitty Terwolbeck, Flickr/Creative commons Terwolbeck, Photo: Kitty The Circle is published quar- Publisher: Editor in Chief: Clive Tesar, COVER: Cotton grass in Sarek terly by the WWF Global Arctic WWF Global Arctic Programme [email protected] National Park in Sweden, one of Programme. Reproduction and 30 Metcalfe Street Editor: Lena Eskeland, [email protected] Europe's oldest parks. quotation with appropriate credit Suite 400 Photo: Kitty Terwolbeck, Flickr/Creative commons are encouraged. Articles by non- Ottawa ON K1P 5L4 Design and production: affiliated sources do not neces- Canada Film & Form/Ketill Berger, ABOVE: Nordvestfjord, near the sarily reflect the views or policies Tel: +1 613-232-8706 [email protected] of WWF. Send change of address Fax: +1 613-232-4181 Daugaard-Jensen glacier, Green- and subscription queries to the Printed by St. Joseph Communications land National Park. address on the right. We reserve Internet: www.panda.org/arctic . the right to edit letters for publica- Date of publication: September, 2012. tion, and assume no responsibil- ISSN 2074-076X = The Circle ity for unsolicited material. 2 The Circle 3.2012 EDiTORiAl What is beyond protected areas? THE OLDEST nationAL park in the world is considered tured by local enmities for centuries. Within the Arctic, to be Bogdkhan Uul in Mongolia, established officially Anna Kuhmonen and Oleg Sutkaitis outline plans for a in 1778. Even before that there were “protected areas” network of protected areas within the Barents Region in of a sort – forests where the nobility liked to hunt, their northern Europe, and Bente Christiansen and Tiia Kalske resources off-limits to commoners. As Tom Barry and bring us the story of the success of the Pasvik-Inari Tri- Courtney Price point out in this edition, the history of lateral Park that crosses the borders of Norway, Finland protected areas in the Arctic goes back more than a cen- and Russia. tury, to the establishment of Afognak Island State Park A particular challenge to building up protected area in Alaska. Historically, such parks were considered to be networks, or other conservation approaches that stress places that would protect natural values, from species the need for connectivity, representa- to landscapes. However, as several of the contributors tion, and resilience to change, is the need note, there are pressures in the for research to help Arctic that mean future conserva- FuTure conservation inform management tion models must expand from choices. The dis- the existing, relatively static park modelS must Expand tance of much of the system towards more dynamic and from ThE ExistiNg, Arctic from research comprehensive concepts. relativElY statiC infrastructure, and CLIVE TESAR, Head There are models for a new, the costs of research of Communications & External Relations, expanded conservation approach park system towards in the Arctic, mean WWF Global arctic elsewhere in the world. As Alberto that it is among the more dynamiC and Programme Aroyo Schnell writes, there is an least-studied regions effort taking place across the Eu- comprehensivE of the world. Karen ropean Union to identify and pro- concepts. Murphy and Lisa Matlock present tect areas of particular ecological one model which seeks to ensure that significance that does not rely on conservation science needs in Alaska excluding human activities, but that focuses on manage- are addressed and shared so the appropriate conservation ment that is economically and ecologically sustainable. measures can be developed. Another model, the PAN Parks idea is outlined by Zoltan Collectively, these articles point toward potential con- Kun, who writes about an approach that stresses adding servation approaches, whether that is adapting a success- value to wilderness through non-extractive uses. ful model from somewhere else in the globe, or growing Might such approaches work in the Arctic? Cristian a local approach in the Arctic. Whatever the conservation Montalvo Mancheno works on an initiative to create an methods chosen, it is clear that the Arctic is changing fast, ecological network in the Caucasus – while this isn’t the and that policy makers and conservation managers must Arctic, it proves that such an approach can work across also move quickly in order to be effective at conserving historically difficult boundaries. The Caucasus initiative the locally and globally valued – not to mention valuable - covers six countries and 28 ethnic groups, in an area frac- species, landscapes, and ecosystems in the region. The Circle 3.2012 3 iN BRiEF summer sea ice that set us off on our A significant part of the Last Ice Area To the last ice Area journey”, said Clive Tesar, one of the project consists of consulting with the crew members and WWF Global Arctic people in local communities to fill in the and back Programme’s Head of Communications knowledge gaps about this remote area. and External Relations. “This trend This is their back yard, and what they AfTER SIX EXCITInG WEEKS on board the leads us to believe that where sum- have to say about it matters. The team Arctic Tern this summer, the crew from mer sea ice stays the longest is likely also managed to contribute in a small the Last Ice Area exploration arrived to become increasingly important to way to the research that needs to be back on land with sobering tales from the life, both human and animal, that done in the area. Sampling salt marshes the northwest coast of Greenland and has evolved over thousands of years, and seawater for evidence of what life Canada’s High Arctic Islands. A week physically and culturally, to live on and lives there now will help in assessing after their return, news emerged that around that ice.” how the area changes, and in helping the record for low sea ice extent in the This life is also important to the rest project how it is likely to change. Arctic had already been broken, despite of the world. Four of the ten largest the fact that it was not quite the end of world fisheries are in the Arctic, and August. many migratory species including “What this means is that the trend whales and seabirds rely on the summer WWF-uS Arctic continues – the trend of declining bloom of life at the ice edge. Program recognized for outstanding achievement THE ALASKA Conservation Foundation (ACF), a state-wide foundation sup- porting environmental work, capacity building and leadership development, has selected the WWF-US Arctic Field Program as the 2012 recipient of the Lowell Thomas, Jr. Award for Outstand- ing Achievements by a Conservation Organization. The selection was made by long-time Alaskans and the ACF’s © Petr Shpilenok national board of trustees, making this a Sockeye salmon particularly great honour. Russian salmon gets poaching protection Expedition prepares THAnKS to a WWF-supported anti-poaching patrol, salmon can easily navi- gate Kamchatka’s Bolshaya River. Created to stop illegal fishing in this poach- for tourism in ing hot spot, the group includes public inspectors from Kamchatka Public Salmon Council and governmental enforcement services. All summer, water area and river banks have been under control of inspectors 24 hours a day. Russia’s Arctic During the most recent raids inspectors deterred dozens of violations, con- AS RUSSIA’S ARCTIC opens up to tour- fiscated 200 meters of nets, and a few poachers’ boats. Scientific monitoring ism, employees of the national park proved that this summer the number of sockeye salmon passed to spawning “Russian Arctic” were joined by WWF ground significantly increased in comparison with many previous years. experts, supporters, and writer Yevgeny Grishkovets on a two-week expedition 4 The Circle 3.2012 iN BRiEF BP sees the real cost of offshore oil THE REAL PRICE of offshore oil development in the Arc- tic has scared off British-based oil company BP – now it should scare off many others, says a spokesperson for WWF. BP announced this summer that it is indefi- nitely shelving a plan to drill the ‘Liberty’ field, four miles from the Alaskan coast in the Beaufort Sea. “BP’s decision shows a rational business approach,” says WWF’s Mikhail Babenko. “If you add up the real costs, drilling for oil in the Arctic is too expensive and risky. Economic analysis demonstrates that oil and gas development in the arctic offshore is not economically viable if a company is to follow adequate prepared- ness, prevention and response standards.” © National Geographic Stock/ James P. Blair / WWF in August to research and plan for the sea, mapping and registering historical largest project ever proposed in the Ca- area’s future.