The Kohala (Humpback Whale) and Kōlea (Pacific Golden Plover) are two migratory species that travel between the tropics and arctic in their search for food and breeding areas. They’re also keen subjects of interest for conservationists, who must rely on a worldwide network of like-minded scientists, governments, and organizations to track their numbers and behavior.
But with the ongoing war in Ukraine, and ensuing isolation of Russia from the international community, biodiversity conservation is being impacted far beyond Eastern Europe, according to a new international publication in Frontiers in Conservation Science.
“In today’s globally connected world, disruptions to conservation efforts aren’t just regional; the global effects are far-reaching and cascading,” says Melissa Price of the Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Management.
“The exchange of knowledge is impacted,” she continues, “since international scientific partnerships no longer have the input of Russian funding or Russian expertise – and vice versa. Collaborative projects are on hold, such as in the Artic as well as a number of studies on migratory birds, whales, and other species that spend part of their time in waters off the coast of Siberia, other times moving across the Pacific Ocean to the tropics or North American continent. It’s also impacting the lives of exchange students, post-doctoral fellows, and visiting researchers.”
Melissa participated in the study as then-chair of the Global Policy Committee of the Society for Conservation Biology, an international organization dedicated to advancing science and practice of conserving earth’s biological diversity. She is especially concerned about the far-reaching consequences for nature conservation, such as loss of habitats and species extinctions.
“We think of war as a political action, but it has huge biodiversity implications,” she says. “When species move between arctic and tropical waters, we require large international alliances to track, study, and conserve them.”
Russia is a breeding stronghold for over 550 migratory bird species, of which 52 are threatened, that spend the boreal winter across Europe, Africa, south and southeast Asia, Australasia, northwest North America, South America, and the Pacific. Russia holds more of Earth’s remaining wilderness than any other country, with half of the top 25 Arctic wilderness areas and more forest area than any other country, including more of the most intact forest. It supports hundreds of migratory species such as fish, birds, and mammals that journey into and out of the country with the changing seasons.
Satellite tracking of animals, such as sea turtles and migratory birds, has been disrupted as a large research platform, ICARUS, relies on the Russian space agency, which ended data sharing on March 3, 2022.
Russia’s isolation has also disrupted ongoing environmental negotiations, delayed international cooperation on environmental matters, and abruptly changed international and domestic policy priorities, according to the study.
For example, the Russian suspension from the SWIFT interbank system has limited international assistance for migratory species conservation projects in Russia, along with travel restrictions, which have halted ongoing on-the-ground conservation efforts for many threatened species that breed in Russia’s Far East and migrate to Southeast and South Asia.
Moreover, with food security for humans taking precedence, the European Union has had to relax biodiversity conservation policies in order to intensify agricultural efforts and address food shortages.
Read the full article, Implications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for the governance of biodiversity conservation, which appears in the Feb. 15 issue of the journal Frontiers in Conservation Science.