Envisioning desirable futures for Arctic biodiversity to overcome "doom and gloom"

“Doom and gloom” has become a dominant narrative about the impacts of climate change on the Arctic and its unique cold-adapted biodiversity. However, recent work highlights that such narratives can prevent us from being proactive and taking the steps needed to create the best possible future. Visioning of “desirable” futures can help overcome negative mindsets and inspire transformative action. We co-created visions of desirable futures for Arctic biodiversity during a workshop including representatives from academia, Indigenous Peoples, business and policymaking. Appreciating our diverse perspectives, we identified common themes in our visions: governance, biodiversity-climate interactions, co-management of ecosystems, economy and infrastructure, and food security. Using backcasting, we determined high-level actions that would enable the positive outcomes shared by our visions: boosting education, rethinking Arctic biodiversity governance, elevating voices of Indigenous Peoples and voices of local communities, developing scalable monitoring systems, and evaluating impacts of policies and economic activities. Many of us reported a positive shift in attitude and feeling empowered after the workshop. Co-creating visions with a diverse group was perceived as particularly valuable. We report the workshop method and, building on our experience, encourage people from all backgrounds to envision and co-create the best possible future for Arctic biodiversity.