The purpose of this Congress is to promote the conservation and sustainable use of Arctic biodiversity through dialogue among scientists, policy-makers, government officials, industry, civil society and indigenous peoples.
The goals are to:
- To present and discuss the main scientific findings in the Arctic Biodiversity Assessment (ABA);
- To facilitate inter-disciplinary discussion, action and status updates on the ABA recommendations among scientists, government officials, policy makers, traditional knowledge holders, indigenous peoples and industry representatives;
- To provide scientific, indigenous, policy, NGO, academia and industry audiences the opportunity to collaborate around the themes of the ABA;
- To advise the Arctic Council's Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) on national and international implementation of the ABA recommendations and on development of an ABA Implementation Plan for the Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting in 2015;
- To highlight the work of CAFF and the Arctic Council in circumpolar biodiversity conservation and sustainable development; and
- To mainstream biodiversity and ecosystem services ensuring that the recommendations of the ABA are implemented by not just government, but many organizations and people, and across sectors.
The Arctic Biodiversity Congress is being hosted and arranged by the the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) working group of the Arctic Council in close co-operation with Norway as the host country and its Norwegian Environment Agency (Miljødirektoratet). The Norwegian Environment Agency is the Norwegian focal point for CAFF (hosting the CAFF national representative) and will be the Norwegian contact point for the Congress.
There will be a congress fee which will be used to assist experts, indigenous peoples and young scientists to participate in the Congress. Speakers, students and media are exempt from registration fee.
Early-bird registration opens March 26, 2014 and closes July 14, 2014. An early bird registration fee of 100 USD is payable at the time of registration. Registration continues until September 15, 2014 at a higher fee of 150 USD.