Barents Euro-Arctic Council Working Group on Environment Subgroup on Nature and Water Minutes of the virtual meeting 23.9.2020 1. Opening of the meeting Chair of the Subgroup Anna Kuhmonen opened the meeting and introduced the agenda. The meeting started with a round of introductions. The list of participants can be found at the end of this document. Ilona Grekelä acts as secretary and writes the minutes. 2. Adoption of the minutes from the previous meeting The Minutes from the previous meeting were adopted. The annex 1 to the SNW work programme 2020-2022 Project list has been updated. This document was delivered to the subgroup ahead of the meeting. New updates are welcome in the future as well to the email addresses:
[email protected] and
[email protected]. Always before the meeting SNW’s members will get the updated project list. 3. Suggestion on Biodiversity commitment from the Barents Region Ms. Henna Haapala, Ministry of the Environment of Finland (presentation) WGE chair Ms. Henna Haapala presented a suggestion for a joint voluntary commitment to protect biodiversity, that could be given under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Haapala noted that the Barents region has unique and special ecosystems and already long experience of cross-border initiatives to protect it. The CBD has invited stakeholders ranging from public and private organizations to individuals to give voluntary commitments. Link to CBD is especially topical now, as the Aichi targets are expiring in 2020 and a new global biodiversity framework is being negotiated. The voluntary commitment from the Barents region is suggested to focus on freshwater ecosystems primarily in the river catchment areas that cross either international borders or borders between regions/counties/oblasts.