CAFF Board online meeting
Reported by: Masaki UCHIDA (NIPR)
Related research program: Land
The Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) board online meeting was held from 16-17 September 2020. This meeting was the third time under Swedish chairmanship. One of the meeting’s crucial issues was to prepare the Senior Arctic Officials (SAO) report to the Arctic Council Ministerial.
In recent years, cooperation among the working groups has become more and more active. Strategy and future action plan were discussed on the Arctic Invasive Alien Species (ARIAS) project. CAFF and PAME (Protection of Arctic Marine Environment) discussed a possible collaborative project concerning ships’ transfer of marine invasive species. As for CAFF and AMAP (Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme) scoping process, an overview of progress to date and next steps was explained. There was discussion about traditional knowledge and local knowledge and a necessity for a consensus between AMAP and CAFF on the tasks.
Arctic Migratory Birds Initiative (AMBI) project created a template for Records of Observer Contribution (ROC). SAO approved it, and CAFF could move ahead on developments of ROCs with partners in Spain, the Republic of Korea and China. As for the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, the project is working to strengthen India’s relationship and might consider changing the flyway name. Action Plan for Arctic Biodiversity was in developing the new action plan for 2021-2030. However, the completion of the new action plan delayed until 2023 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, COVID-19 pandemic affects severe impacts on CAFF activities. SAO chairmanship had asked CAFF to respond on the effects of COVID-19 on its work and potential new projects. Especially, preventing in-person meetings has resulted in a proliferation of online meetings, increasing challenges.