Take ourWin reader a WWF survey: Arctic panda.org/thecircle gift pack! MAGAZINE Working together 9 No. 1 A wave of investment 16 2018 THE CIRCLE Energy in a changing north 20 WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE ARCTIC? PUBLISHED BY THE WWF ARCTIC PROGRAMME THE CIRCLE 1.2018 WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE ARCTIC? Contents EDITORIAL Change: the big picture 3 IN BRIEF 4 JANET PAWLAK Snow, water, ice and permafrost 6 CINDY DICKSON Working together 9 EMILY MCKENZIE and KATHERINE WYATT Connections with nature 10 JAMES E. PASS Development in the Arctic 12 KATHARINA SCHNEIDER-ROOS and LORENA ZEMP Sustain- able and resilient infrastructure 14 ALAN ATKISSON A wave of investment 16 OKALIK EEGEESIAK Inuit and the Ice Blue Economy 18 NILS ANDREASSEN Energy in a changing North 20 SVEIN VIGELAND ROTTEM The Arctic Council – a need for reform 21 TOM BARRY and COURTNEY PRICE Arctic biodiversity: challenges 22 The contest 24 The Circle is published quarterly Publisher: Editor in Chief: Leanne Clare, COVER: Snow mobile travel over by the WWF Arctic Programme. WWF Arctic Programme [email protected] sea ice in Uummannaq, Green- Reproduction and quotation with 8th floor, 275 Slater St., Ottawa, land appropriate credit are encour- ON, Canada K1P 5H9. Managing Editor: Becky Rynor, Photo: Lawrence Hislop, www.grida.no/resources/1151 aged. Articles by non-affiliated Tel: +1 613-232-8706 [email protected] sources do not necessarily reflect Fax: +1 613-232-4181 ABOVE: Boy on bicycle, Nuuk, the views or policies of WWF. Design and production: Send change of address and sub- Internet: www.panda.org/arctic Film & Form/Ketill Berger, Greenland. scription queries to the address [email protected] Photo: Thomas Leth-Olsen, CC, Flickr.com on the right. We reserve the right ISSN 2073-980X = The Circle to edit letters for publication, Printed by Lowe-Martin and assume no responsibility for Date of publication: unsolicited material. March 2018. Thank you for your interest in The Circle. Many of our subscribers have moved to an e-version. To receive an electronic copy in your email instead of a paper 2 The Circle 1.2018 copy, please write to us at [email protected] and help us reduce our costs and footprint. EDITORIAL Change: the big picture IN THE PAST 25 YEARS WWF has witnessed a lot of change our perspective to include the value nature provides into in the Arctic, but the change now taking place in this future development. unique ecosystem is unprecedented in modern history. Svein Vigeland Rottem, a senior research fellow at the In this edition of The Circle, our contributing writers take Fridtjof Nansen Institute has suggestions on how the Arc- a big picture look at what’s next for the Arctic and suggest tic Council can better provide the leadership needed in what needs to be done to best prepare for the environ- the face of coming change. mental and social transformations already underway. While the Arctic is transforming, so is The Circle. We Janet Pawlak from the Arctic Monitoring and Assess- plan to expand our storytelling to go beyond the printed ment Programme Secretariat explains how much irre- word to include online content that will help bring the versible environmental change scientists expect in the sights and sounds of the Arctic to you in ways we hope Arctic in coming years due to climate will inform and inspire. Part of change. There are accompanying this transfor- changes expected in the Arctic’s bio- WHAT NEEDS TO BE mation will be diversity outlined by Tom Barry and driven by you. Courtney Price from the Arctic Coun- DONE TO BEST PREPARE Please take cil’s Working Group on the Conserva- FOR THE ENVIRON- five minutes tion of Arctic Flora and Fauna. MENTAL AND SOCIAL to fill out our Human beings are part of the Arc- online survey tic ecosystem and are also responding TRANSFORMATIONS to tell us what LEANNE CLARE is sen- to the changes taking place. Cindy ALREADY UNDERWAY you love about ior manager, commu- Dickson, Executive Director of the The Circle, and nications, for the WWF Arctic Programme Arctic Athabaskan Council in Canada gives a first-person ideas you have for how it can be account of how her life, and the lives of her children, have improved. changed. She believes greater collaboration is needed For the past seven years our managing editor, Becky between industry, environmentalists and governments Rynor spent countless hours helping contributors refine with First Nations to prevent and mitigate for the inevi- their articles to share the importance of the Arctic to the table changes brought about by development. wider world. This is Becky’s last edition of The Circle and Several authors give their perspectives on development we wish her all the best in her future endeavors. in the Arctic, from the importance of the Blue Economy Finally, the director of WWF’s Arctic Programme, Alex- from Alan AtKisson and Okalik Eegeesiak to the emer- andre Shestakov, leaves this month for new challenges at gence of clean energy from Nils Andreassen. How to the United Nation’s Convention on Biological Diversity. finance and ensure sustainable infrastructure in the Arc- His many years of experience in the Arctic and wealth of tic is explored by James E. Press from Guggenheim Part- insight and experience will be missed. We wish him all ners; while Emily McKenzie, Katherine Wyatt and Katha- the best and look forward to hearing from him as a future rina Schneider-Roos discuss the importance of shifting contributor to this magazine. l The Circle 1.2018 3 IN BRIEF grams, pursue environmen- Plastic waste found in tal protection and develop stomachs of Arctic seabirds resources across the Arctic. In addition, China promises to create a “Polar Silk Road” on Canada’s northernmost fringes. “It is interesting they put out something official,” said Heather Exner-Pirot, the managing editor of the Arctic Yearbook. “China’s strategy since 2008 was to remain low-key and avoid triggering Photo: Avenue, CC, Wikimedia Commons Avenue, Photo: the inevitable alarmism.” The document lays out the coun- Plastic waste ‘building up’ in Arctic try’s ambitions to become a major shipping power SCIENTISTS SAY plastic to overcome a few reck- 1970s they found very lit- through an ice-free Arctic, waste is a growing con- less decades of using the tle plastic in the stomachs stating, “China attaches cern in the supposedly sea as a dump. Research of the Arctic seabird, the great importance to naviga- pristine wilderness of the shows up to 234 particles fulmar. “In 2013 when we tion security in the Arctic Norwegian Arctic. They concentrated into just one last investigated, some had shipping routes.” Notable are particularly worried litre of melted Arctic sea ice more than 200 pieces of for its apparent overtures about huge concentrations – much higher than in the plastic in their stomachs.” to woo liberal Arctic powers of microplastic fragments open ocean. Researchers He says other species such such as Norway, Canada and in sea ice and report find- say that’s because sea ice as reindeer become entan- the United States, there are ing plastic litter almost forms from the top. Plastic gled in nets washed up on repeated references to sus- everywhere in the Arctic particles float at the surface beaches. “Some die because tainability, Indigenous rights, they looked. Most of the and become bonded into they can’t release their ant- wildlife protections and the large plastic waste comes the ice as it freezes. Geir lers.” He says in southern respect of international law. from discarded fishing Wing Gabrielsen, one of the Norway 80% of plastic pol- A spokesman for the Cana- gear. Boat owners admit it paper’s authors, told BBC lution comes from fishing dian Global Affairs Institute, will take hundreds of years News that at the end of the activities. Joël Plouffe, says the docu- ment is “heavy on politeness because it is attempting to frame China as a responsible China’s new player in a region where it has no actual sovereignty.” However, he adds, with the Arctic policy paper short on specifics, “it THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT is more intentions and hopes unveiled its intentions in than an actual strategy.” the Arctic in a rare, publicly- released paper in January. Canada’s National Post newspaper reported that the policy outlines plans to develop shipping routes, expand its research pro- Photo: Buzz, CC, Flickr.com 4 The Circle 1.2018 IN BRIEF Arctic states urged to improve polar bear conservation A NEW REPORT by WWF’s Arctic Programme shows the five countries responsi- ble for the conservation of polar bears have completed 5 per cent of their 10-year plan. WWF’s firstScorecard on the Circumpolar Action Plan for the Conservation of Polar Bears (CAP) shows CC, Flickr.com LaBar, T. Arthur Photo: that Canada, the Kingdom of Mama polar bear takes one on the nose. Barter Island, Beaufort Sea, Alaska. Denmark, Norway, the Rus- sian Federation and the Unit- by 2025,” says Melanie Lan- to address the threat of cli- emissions, scientists predict ed States are lagging in polar caster, WWF senior special- mate change to polar bears’ a third of the world’s polar bear conservation and won’t ist, Arctic species and lead primary habitat – sea ice. bears will be gone by 2050 or meet their 10-year target author of the report. “Indus- It is the only international within three polar bear gen- without more cooperation. trial development, habitat mechanism that brings all erations. “It is imperative that loss and conflicts with people five Range States together to Download the WWF Polar Range States show true lead- are all serious and increas- work on the survival of polar Bear CAP Scorecard: ership, unite and push them- ing threats to polar bear bears.