21
Thu, Sep
Notice. Good environmental cooperation between Russia and Norway is important for taking care of the environment and managing the resources in the north. Due to Russia's war of attacks on Ukraine, government cooperation between the Norway and Russia has been reduced to a minimum and bilateral environmental cooperation has been put on hold until further notice. Hence, update of the Barentsportal concerning the environmental status for the Barents Sea has been put on hold.

About barentsportal and Barents Sea Environmental Status Reports

Bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus). Photo: Norwegian Polar Institute

About Barentsportal
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Barentsportal is a project implemented under the Joint Norwegian-Russian Commission on Environmental Protection. The portal is a Norwegian-Russian website designed for the mutual exchange and presentation of environmental information relevant to the integrated environmental management of the Barents Sea. Barentsportal serves as a platform for publishing environmental status information and details about ecosystem-based management.

Barentsportal is a combined website. Firstly, it consists of elements reflecting the ongoing project work within the frame of the Norwegian-Russian commission. One of the main tasks is presentation of the joint Norwegian-Russian environmental status report for the Barents Sea, with yearly updates and a comprehensive update every third year – including ecosystem components and anthropogenic impacts (Figure 1). Secondly, Barentsportal offers thematic maps that present environmental topics in a simplified form.

Figure 1 Reports published on Barentsportal. The first joint environmental status report was published in 2009, followed by an update in 2016. From 2017 limited yearly updates have focused on: temporal development (integrated trend analyses); current state of Barents Sea ecosystem components; interactions, drivers and pressures; expected changes in the coming years.

 

The Environmental Status Reports are on the Barentsportal website presented as Status 2016 – 2019. The reports are organized on the internet portal in four sections: Abiotic Components, Biotic Components, Human Activities and Affiliated Topics. These represent key components in the Barents Sea ecosystem, and some are updated on a yearly basis. Human activities denote information on the level of activity and potential effect on the ecosystem from main commercial sectors, such as fisheries, shipping and tourism. The Affiliated Topics include: the ecosystem approach to management of the Barents Sea and/or expected changes in the ecosystem in the years to come.

The technical part of the Barentsportal website is developed and managed by the Norwegian Polar Institute.

Since 2017 the update of selected topics has been handled by the The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea's (ICES) Working Group on the Integrated Assessments of the Barents Sea (WGIBAR). WGIBAR conducts and develops integrated ecosystem assessments for the Barents Sea as part of the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management. WGIBAR’s aim is to summarize and analyse up-to-date knowledge on the state of the Barents Sea. Furthermore, the group will assist adaptive management of the commercial fish stocks by promoting input to monitoring strategies and advice as part of holistic Barents Sea management. WGIBAR consists of researchers from IMR and PINRO, the institutions that do most of the monitoring of the Barents Sea ecosystem, and from UiT The Arctic University of Norway and Norwegian Institute for Nature Research.

The WGIBAR reports published on Barentsportal represent the yearly update of the key themes: temporal development (integrated trend analyses); current state of the Barents Sea ecosystem components; interactions, drivers and pressures; expected changes in the coming years.

The yearly update is followed up by an extended triennial Barents Sea environmental status report with more attention given on human activities, joint monitoring, specific topics and thematic GIS visualization of selected topics. The next triennial report is scheduled for 2020.

The main highlights are presented separately on the website.

How to cite the WGIBAR reports:

ICES. 2019. The Working Group on the Integrated Assessments of the Barents Sea (WGIBAR). ICES Scientific Reports. 1:42. 157 pp. http://doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.5536

ICES. 2018. Interim Report of the Working Group on the Integrated Assessments of the Barents Sea (WGIBAR). WGIBAR 2018 REPORT 9-12 March 2018. Tromsø, Norway. ICES CM 2018/IEASG:04. 210 pp.

ICES. 2017. Report of the Working Group on the Integrated Assessments of the Barents Sea. WGIBAR 2017 Report 16-18 March 2017. Murmansk, Russia. ICES CM 2017/SSGIEA: 04. 186 pp.

How to cite the Barents Sea Environmental Status Reports:

Stiansen, J.E., Korneev, O., Titov, O., Arneberg, P. (Eds.), Filin, A., Hansen, J.R., Høines, Å., Marasaev, S. (Co-eds.)2009. Joint Norwegian-Russian environmental status 2008. Report on the Barents Sea Ecosystem. Part II –Complete report.IMR/PINRO Joint Report Series, 2009(3), 375pp.ISSN 1502-8828.

McBride, M.M., Hansen, J.R., Korneev, O., Titov, O. (Eds.) Stiansen, J.E., Tchernova, J., Filin, A., Ovsyannikov A. (Co-eds.)  2016. Joint Norwegian - Russian environmental status 2013. Report on the Barents Sea Ecosystem. Part II - Complete report. IMR/PINRO Joint Report Series, 2016 (2), 359pp. ISSN 1502-8828