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Resource Use Activities

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• Resource Use Activities

There is a pressing need to improve our understanding of cumulative effects as many areas of the Canadian North are experiencing increasing pressure from resource use activities such as mining, energy development, forestry, transportation, and ecotourism. The development of new tools and approaches that can integrate local, traditional and scientific knowledge and methodologies can improve our understanding and our ability to manage the effects of resource development while ensuring healthy northern ecosystems.

The Northern Ecosystem Initiative's (NEI) Resource Use and Ecosystem Impact Partner-Issue Table will advance knowledge and develop tools that improve the understanding of, and ability to, manage environmental impacts of renewable and non-renewable resource use activities on northern communities and ecosystems.

Development pressures are facing many northern areas and a key initiative supported by the Resource Use Table is the Integrated Ecosystem Thresholds Project. This project is initially being launched in the Kaska region of the south east Yukon and is an innovative approach to integrated strategic land use planning.

This four-year project consists of nine independent, but coordinated studies undertaken by academic, government and private consulting representatives with recognized expertise in cumulative effects models, thresholds, assessment, and decision-making processes. As well as meeting with stakeholders in the defined area, tools such as computer modelling will be used to explore alternative land use scenarios and evaluate the risks and benefits associated with each of them.