Experiences from the Canadian Arctic have much to contribute to international processes. Global and regional cooperation are key features in developing global and circumpolar strategies for protecting or promoting sustainable development in the Canadian Arctic.

Like other regions of the world, the North is affected by the activities of its many neighbours. Transboundary pollutants accumulate in northern waters, flora, and fauna, becoming more concentrated higher in the food chain. Some Inuit in the Canadian Arctic, for example, have elevated and worrying levels of certain persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and heavy metals that have accumulated in their bodies due to their dependence on marine mammals as a dietary staple. Many of these pollutants originate from sources outside of the Arctic region, therefore, cooperation between countries globally is required to develop long-term solutions. The Government of Canada and Indigenous peoples have been actively promoting international action to address these global issues, highlighting the human dimension.

The Arctic accounts for almost two thirds of Canada's coastline - a coastline that is one of the longest in the world. Fisheries and Oceans (F&O;) is committed to implementing its sustainable development strategy through shared stewardship and finding innovative ways to develop this approach. F&O; enters into arrangements with Indigenous communities in the North to manage resources consistent with their treaty rights. The 1992 launch of the Aboriginal Fisheries Strategy is an important example. Under the Oceans Act (1997), F&O; has undertaken to develop a coordinated framework to protect the integrity of ocean ecosystems and engage the public, particularly Indigenous peoples, in the development of policies relating to the sustainable development of coastal resources. This is the first federal legislation to explicitly mandate a federal department or agency to consider and use the traditional ecological knowledge held by Indigenous peoples.

International Issues

Long-Range Transboundary Pollutants

The Government of Canada and northern Indigenous communities share a deep concern for the effects of pollution on northern ecosystems and human health and have worked together with the international community in pursuit of legally binding treaties, both regionally and globally, to reduce long-range transboundary air pollution such as persistent organic pollutants. This also included federal funding of the Canadian Arctic Indigenous Peoples Against POPs (CAIPAP) to enable Indigenous peoples to play an active role in international activities to reduce such contaminants. A recent success has been the completion of a regional protocol on POPs to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution. The vulnerability of the Arctic and its Indigenous peoples to POPs has been noted in this protocol. Global negotiations sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme are under way toward an agreement on POPs. Indigenous peoples in northern Canada are working with the Saami Council, the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, and the Aleut International Association to promote a comprehensive and verifiable global POPs convention.

At home, the federal government has developed a unique partnership with northern Indigenous organizations to implement the Northern Contaminants Program. The program brings together federal departments, territorial governments, and Indigenous organizations working to reduce and, where possible, to eliminate contaminants in traditionally harvested foods and to provide information on their use.

The Sustainable Communities Initiative is assisting Canadian communities to increase their capacity to plan and make decisions by providing access to information about natural resources and socioeconomic issues via the Internet. The program was initiated by the Government of Canada in partnership with communities across the country and all levels of government.

The information gathered by the communities is map-based and can be shared at the discretion of the community. Information generated by a community can be accessed in several ways: digitally on CD, electronically though the Internet, or on paper.

Climate Change

The Inuit Circumpolar Conference began discussing climate change in its general assemblies in the 1980s. In 1992, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was negotiated for the purpose of curbing greenhouse gas emissions and limiting their concentrations in the atmosphere. The UNFCCC provided a framework for international cooperation on climate change, but without binding commitments on greenhouse gas emissions. Recognizing the need for stronger action to reduce these emissions, nations negotiated the Kyoto Protocol (1997), which sets emission limitations or reduction commitments for industrialized nations relative to their 1990 levels.

Implementation of these commitments is of great concern for the Indigenous communities of the Canadian North. There is mounting evidence that climate change, ozone depletion, and ultraviolet radiation have significant cumulative negative implications not only for the circumpolar region, its wildlife, and its peoples, but for the planet as a whole.

Biological Diversity

The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity reinforces a growing commitment to sustainable development. The objectives of the convention are the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from use of genetic resources. It is a legally binding global environmental instrument that notes the importance of traditional knowledge, innovations, and practices of Indigenous and local communities with regard to the in situ conservation of biological diversity.

Indigenous communities are represented on a working group created by the Government of Canada to provide input with respect to the domestic implementation of article 8(j) of the convention and the development of Canadian positions at international fora.

"The Arctic region, seemingly so pure, but already laced with deadly and invisible pollutants, has in my opinion become the canary in the mine shaft. If the canary survives, so can we all. If we can help people to see that a poisoned Inuk child, a poisoned Arctic and a poisoned planet are one and the same, then we will have effected a shift in people's awareness that will result without doubt in positive change."
-Sheila Watt Cloutier, President of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, June 1998

Canada and the European Union: The Issue of Trapping Standards

In 1983, international animal rights activists succeeded in having a European ban imposed on the importation of products from two nonendangered seal species. This was followed by a ban in the mid-1990s on the importation of products from the major wild fur species. Such trade bans have had dramatic and disruptive effects on many northerners, particularly in Indigenous communities where their livelihoods have traditionally depended heavily on sealing and fur trapping.

The Government of Canada, working with Indigenous peoples, took the trapping issue to Europe, lobbying for and achieving a Canada-European Union Agreement on International Humane Trapping Standards in 1998. This is the first international agreement to establish scientific measurements for humane wildlife harvesting. It sets in place a process for introducing more humane trapping equipment in both Canada and all 15 member states of the European Union. The Government of Canada continues to seek the removal of trade restrictions that discourage the sustainable use of wildlife products from nonendangered species.

"Effects of global warming are already evident in the Canadian North. The average air temperature in the Mackenzie Basin is warmer (a 1.55°C rise since 1860) and the ice canopy covering the Arctic Ocean is thinner than in previous years."
-Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, 1999 Report, para. 6.9


"Each Contracting Party shall, as far as possible and appropriate:.Subject to its national legislation, respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of Indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and promote their wider application..."
-Convention on Biological Diversity, Article 8(j)

Circumpolar Relations

Indigenous Organizations

Indigenous communities have long recognized the benefits of circumpolar cooperation. In 1977, the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC) was formed uniting some 125 000 Inuit from Greenland, Canada, Alaska, and, more recently, Chukota, Russia. The ICC has promoted sustainable development since 1986 with its adoption of a framework document, Towards an Inuit Regional Conservation Strategy. In 1992, the ICC published Principles and Elements for a Comprehensive Arctic Policy, a document to guide its policy making in the Arctic. It is a critical document for ensuring that ICC decisions affecting the Arctic lead to sustainable development.

Other examples of Indigenous peoples' cooperation include the Polar Bear Management in the Southern Beaufort Sea Agreement (1988) between the Inuvialuit and the Inuit of Alaska, and the participation of Indigenous communities in the management of the Porcupine caribou herd and its range in Alaska, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories.

Ambassador for Circumpolar Affairs

In 1994, the Government of Canada demonstrated its continuing commitment to circumpolar affairs by creating the position of the Ambassador for Circumpolar Affairs. The Ambassador's initial assignment involved the conclusion of negotiations with the seven other Arctic states (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Russian Federation, and the United States) to establish the Arctic Council, which was inaugurated in September 1996.

The Ambassador for Circumpolar Affairs acts as Canada's senior Arctic official participating in the ongoing work of the Arctic Council. The Ambassador consults with northern communities to understand their needs and how they can be translated into a Canadian circumpolar agenda.

Mary May Simon, an Inuk from Nunavik (northern Quebec), was appointed on October 31, 1994, as Canada's first Ambassador for Circumpolar Affairs. In October 1999, she took up the position as Canada's Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark while retaining her responsibilities as Ambassador for Circumpolar Affairs.

The Arctic Council

The Arctic Council is a key element of Canada's sustainable development efforts in the circumpolar North. It is a high-level forum to advance circumpolar cooperation to address the issues of common concern to Arctic states and northern residents relating to sustainable development. The declaration establishing the Arctic Council provides Permanent Participant status for up to seven international Indigenous organizations from the Arctic states. Currently, the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, the Saami Council, the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, and the Aleut International Association are actively engaged as Permanent Participants. The Indigenous Peoples' Secretariat in Denmark is to provide support to them in their work at the Arctic Council.

A particularly innovative initiative endorsed by the Arctic Council is the establishment of the University of the Arctic based on distance learning technology and stressing the need for Indigenous peoples to learn with and from each other. The Arctic Council has a mandate to improve the environmental, economic, social, and cultural well-being of northern peoples. There are five Arctic Council working groups.

The Sustainable Development Working Group addresses a range of projects, such as telemedicine, ecotourism, fisheries management, and Arctic children and youth.

The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme monitors and assesses the effects of pollutants on the Arctic environment and residents, especially Indigenous communities, reports on the state of the Arctic environment, and gives scientific advice to ministers. This research provides most of the scientific justification of the need for international controls on sources of Arctic pollution. It has also provided the basis for regional protocols on heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants under the auspices of the UNECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution.

The Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna working group's objectives are to enhance the conservation of Arctic species, habitat, and ecosystems; to integrate sustainable use into conservation work; and to integrate input from Indigenous communities and their traditional knowledge into that work.

The Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response working group provides a framework for the Arctic countries to cooperate in responding to environmental emergencies and to review existing arrangements and recommend improved systems.

The Protection of Arctic Marine Environment program includes marine pollution prevention and control measures to protect the marine environment from land- and sea-based activities, complementing existing international agreements. The working group has prepared an evaluation of existing international arrangements and agreements as well as Arctic Offshore Oil and Gas Guidelines.

The Barents Euro-Arctic Council (Barents Council), formed in 1993, is composed of governmental representatives from the member countries involved, including Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Russian Federation, and Sweden, as well as the European Commission. There are a number of observer countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The foreign ministers in the Barents Council meet once a year.

A unique feature in Barents cooperation is the two-tier approach of the national level and the regional level. Effective cooperation is dependent on strong and active regional involvement. The Regional Council and its bodies have a vital role to play in reflecting the needs and concerns of people living in the Barents region, in fostering ties across borders, and in developing projects that have direct advantage to the region. The Regional Council serves as a forum for discussion of matters of particular interest to Indigenous peoples. There is a similarity between the sectoral focus of Canadian circumpolar interests and those of the Barents Council.