Deliverable 6.10 Report on ecosystem management for managers

This report summarizes the discussions during two virtual meetings with different stakeholders with interest in the Barents Sea and off-Greenland ecosystems, respectively. The meetings were based on the work from Task 6.8 “Demonstrations for fisheries and environmental management agencies” and Task 6.2. “Improved ecosystem understanding and management”. Stakeholders represented a broad specter of marine- and maritime-related authorities in Norway, Greenland and Denmark, the fishing industry, the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) working group of the Arctic Council, Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, INTAROS partners and participants from other EU projects. The presentations of the monitoring and model results were refined and angled to be of relevance and use for the participating stakeholders. The stakeholders were in general interested in the approach, results, and conclusions. The discussion made it clear that as users in charge of sectorial human activity management, they valued scientific testing and suggestions for improving ecosystem understanding. They recommended that the next step could be to look at not only national data set indicators, but also relate those to an Arctic international setting. The Norwegian Environmental Agency suggested that a climate approach would be useful also for the Barents Sea. Likewise, the more complex food web indicators presented for the Barents Sea could be useful to apply to the Greenland coastal system. Stakeholders from both geographic areas emphasized that data from long-term monitoring of key variables is important for their work and that models can be useful as supporting information on indicators and future scenarios if the model uncertainty is assessed and explained.

These seminars highlight the importance of inviting stakeholders responsible for all sectors of marine-related human activities to dialogues on research and monitoring of the climate, natural resources and ecosystems. In a fast-changing scientific world, with an increasing amount of knowledge, it is important to make available, timely and in the right format, the best possible information.