Tracking multi-lateral Environmental Agreements

About the project

Multi-lateral Environmental Agreements (MEA) are commonly used by states to tackle environmental problems. However, determining the extent to which these agreements lead to tangible changes on the ground can be challenging. Evaluations of their effectiveness often encounter obstacles due to data gaps, conceptual complexities, and methodological issues. Attributing improvements to a specific agreement can be difficult since effectiveness may vary depending on a state's level of commitment and the complexity of the issues in question.

TEA is an initiative focused on the Arctic exploring the effectiveness of MEAs and other international fora, designed to tackle regional and global environmental issues. This entails developing an evaluation framework to evaluate Arctic states’ progress towards implementing MEAs nationally, and in their Arctic territories. Applying this framework establishes a baseline against which to track and compare advances toward MEA objectives in the Arctic and within the Arctic territories of Arctic states.

a) Changes in total area of Ramsar Sites 1974–2024
b) Extent of Marine or coastal wetlands versus Inland waters in Ramsar sites
c) Extent of Ramsar sites with and without Management plans

Publications

Barry, T. Conservation and Restoration of Icelandic Wetlands: An Evaluation of Progress Towards Implementation of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Wetlands 45, 34 (2025).

Barry, T. Arctic wetlands, an evaluation of progress towards implementation of the Ramsar convention on wetlands: 1978–2022. Int Environ Agreements 24, 423–448 (2024).

Barry, T … et al. Development of a multi-scale monitoring programme: approaches for the Arctic and lessons learned from the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Programme 2002-2022. Front. Conserv. Sci., Volume 4 (2023)

Barry. T. The Arctic Council: An Agent of Change?  PhD dissertation, University of Iceland, pp.75. (2021).

Barry, T., Daviðsdóttir, B., Einarsson, N., & Young, O. R. (2020). How Does the Arctic Council Support Conservation of Arctic Biodiversity? Sustainability, 12(12), 5042.

Barry T, Daviðsdóttir B, Einarsson N (2020) The Arctic Council: an agent of change? Glob. Environ Chang 63(36:102099).