In the frame of the World Biodiversity Forum 2024 in Davos, Switzerland, the FACE-IT managing team Kai Bischof and Simon Jungblut (University of Bremen) as well as Julia Olsen (Nord University) engaged in a workshop in the desirable futures for Arctic biodiversity on 16 June 2024. Colleagues from the University of Zurich, who are part of our partner project CHARTER, brought together Arctic right- and stakeholders for intense discussions. The intention of the workshop, entitled “Building pathways towards desirable futures for Arctic biodiversity– a design thinking workshop” was to place the Arctic into the “IPBES Nature Futures Framework for developing desirable futures” (see also the workshop description below).

The workshop was led by Anja Helena Liski (Oliver Wyman) and included indigenous representatives from Greenland and Sápmi, representatives of the Arctic Economic Council and from the Arctic Council working group “Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna CAFF”, as well as scientists engaged in Arctic research. The intended outcomes are a white paper and a research paper.

Workshop description

Building pathways towards desirable futures for Arctic biodiversity– a design thinking workshop

The Arctic is one of the most rapidly changing environments on the planet. Amplified warming and increasing accessibility change ecosystem processes and accelerate industrial activity in the cold-adapted systems. These changes are projected to have profound impacts on biodiversity in the Arctic oceans, along coastlines and on northern lands. Motivated by the IPBES Nature Futures Framework for developing desirable futures (https://www.ipbes.net/scenarios-models) and ongoing research in the EU CHARTER (terrestrial), FACE-IT (coastal) and ECOTIP (marine) projects, this workshop invites participants to consider the following questions: How can we develop desirable futures for the Arctic? What has been done? What has been missed? Where do we need to go next? We invite scientists, practitioners, Indigenous right- and stakeholders, policy makers and people from all backgrounds with an interest in the topic to share their knowledge and think about biodiversity in the Arctic of the future. We also encourage early career participation. We will start the workshop by introducing the Nature Futures Framework and presentation of case studies from the EU projects, covering the terrestrial, coastal and marine realms. We will then be joined by an industry-expert on Design Thinking who will facilitate the generation of pathways towards desirable futures for the Arctic. We intend to synthesize the outcomes of the workshop in a short opinion piece. Interested? Please send a brief message expressing your motivation to workshop coordinator Jakob Assmann. We are looking forward to hearing from you! Participant numbers are limited.

Organizers: Jakob J. Assmann and Gabriela Schaepman-Strub (University of Zurich)

Photos: Simon Jungblut (University of Bremen)