Formation of unified approaches towards legal protection of biological diversity and its components in the Arctic: to articulation of the problem

Abstract

This article examines the questions associated with protection of Arctic biodiversity, framework international legal documents, and documents of strategic planning of the Arctic countries. It is underlined that despite the unique ability to adapt to the severe climatic conditions, the ability of Arctic ecosystems and their components to self-restoration is significantly lower, which indicates the need to minimize the negative impact of various factors, as well as ensure the maximum level of ecosystem protection, including legal remedies. At the same time, considering the uniformity of natural environment of the Arctic region and ongoing processes, the peak efficiency in environmental protection of the Arctic can be achieved only by pooling and coordinating the efforts of all Arctic countries. The data on the state of Arctic environment allows determining major threats to the state of biological diversity of the region. In this regard, special role is played by climatic changes, which create a number of global challenges. Climate warming inevitably initiates ice melting in the Arctic, shrinkage or total deglaciation of certain areas, which leads to such consequences as decrease in abundance of species, namely aquatic mammals, the life cycle of which directly depends on the existence of ice. Global warming is inextricably linked with the process of displacement of latitudinal boundaries of the Arctic ecosystems towards north, which poses a risk for penetration of biological species that traditionally dwell to the south. This can lead dysfunction of ecosystems due to the dominance of alien species over the indigenous species.