pdf Barents Protected Area Network (BPAN) and Arctic Popular

Tapio Lindholm
Leading expert
Lindholm, Tapio & Kuhmonen, Anna Finnish environment institute, Helsinki. Finland

The BPAN aim is to promote and support a representative protected area network for conservation of biodiversity and boreal-arctic nature - especially forests and wetlands.
The second phase of the BPAN quantified and described protected areas and high conservation value forests in the Barents Region. The project was an initiative of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council’s Working Group on Environment, Subgroup on Nature Protection. It covered the Barents regions in these countries, with the exception of North Karelia in Finland and the Russian archipelagos of Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land.
Between 2015 and 2017 the project produced updated information on progress towards the Aichi Biodiversity Targets 5 and 11 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The main focus was on forests, which cover about 60% of the study area. The results can be used in nature protection planning and sustainable management of forest resources in the Barents Region.
The concept of high conservation value forests (HCVFs) was used to identify forests that are particularly valuable for biodiversity.
The project formulated expert conclusions regarding the future development of the protected area network as well as preservation of HCVFs, based on statistical information and analyses carried out between 2015 and 2017