Evaluation of the Protected Area Network in the Barents Region. Using the Programme of Work on Protected Areas of the Convention on Biological Diversity as a Tool

Abstract

In this report, results of a regional evaluation on protected areas in the Barents Region are presented. The evaluation was made using the Programme of Work on Protected Areas (PoWPA) of the Convention on Biological Diversity as a framework. The Convention on Biological Diversity aims to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2020. The work was done as a part of the Barents Protected Area Network (BPAN) project by national and regional authorities, scientific institutes and nature conservation nongovernmental organisations from Norway, Sweden, Finland and northwest Russia. The aim of the project is to promote the establishment of a representative protected area network in the Barents Euro-Arctic Region to conserve biodiversity of boreal and arctic nature, particularly forests and wetlands. The PoWPA national reporting framework was modified and simplified to make it more suitable to be used as a tool for analysis of the protected area network in the Barents Region. It was used especially to see in which PoWPA goals and targets the Barents Region as a whole had made progress, and in which there was need for further work, and thus make recommendations for future actions in the Region. This enabled also the individual regions to assess in which goals and targets their region had made progress and in which there was need for further development. The reporting framework also provided a common language for interregional discussions and comparisons. A network of existing and planned protected areas is under development in the Barents Region. New protected areas have been established in recent years. However, strong efforts are still needed for strengthening the network of protected areas in order to reach the internationally agreed Aichi Biodiversity Targets.