The workshop is a part of the Barents Sea Leadership on Marine Litter project, led by GRID-Arendal in collaboration with Northern (Arctic) Federal University (NarFU), the Kola Science Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, UN Environment Programme and UArctic. Previous results of the project will be shared as a part of the workshop. These include stakeholder perceptions of marine litter problems in the Barents Sea, key messages about the latest knowledge of the problem, on-going monitoring and recommendations of best practices and potential solutions, as well as a quick glimpse to the next UNEP Massive Open Online Course on Marine Litter in Russian that will be available for all interested actors early 2022.
Introduction and objectives
The multi-stakeholder workshop will bring together various actors from the Barents Sea region, who are relevant for developing and implementing solutions to mitigate leakages of plastic pollution to the marine environment. The workshop aims to foster multidisciplinary approach and cross-border collaboration for effective monitoring as well as prioritizing and coordinating actions to combat the pollutions problem.
More specifically, the objectives of the workshop are to:
- Exchange the latest updates about the marine litter problem, monitoring activities as well as potential solutions with the focus on the Barents Sea
- Strengthen dialogue and collaboration between different actors in the region to implement solutions that benefit from multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral approach;
- Co-develop regional level action plans with regional actors;
- Foster on-going collaboration between the UArctic and Arctic Council Working groups on plastic pollution;
- Strengthen and expand the UArctic Thematic Network on Arctic Plastic Pollution in the Barents region and share information about educational opportunities and platforms related to plastic pollution.
UArctic Thematic Network on Arctic Plastic Solutions is a circumpolar network consisting of 14 member organizations across the Arctic. The objective of the TN is to foster networking and exchange of knowledge and coordination amongst the experts of the many different disciplines that have a bearing on plastic pollution. UArctic Research Office hosted by the Northern (Arctic) Federal University (NArFU) is supporting and developing international cooperation within the UArctic Thematic Networks and other UArctic activities.