Protecting arctic biodiversity: limitations and strengths of environmental agreements

The Arctic region is characterized by some of the largest continuous intact ecosystems on the planet, but is facing increasingly larger threats. These threats include the full range of stressors known from other parts of the world, namely habitat loss and fragmentation from infrastructure and industrial development, chemical pollution, overharvesting, climate change and invasive species infestations. Many of these pressures are mainly globally driven, including climate change, long-range transported pollution and even invasive species infestations. Others, such as harvesting and fragmentation are directly under Arctic governance, though often driven from demands outside of the Arctic region.