Dept. of Environment and Wildlife

The Department of Environment and Wildlife was re-established following a temporary amalgamation with ITK’s Department of Health during 2007 – 2010. Previous to this three year period, ITK did have an environment department that was created out of previous research work that focused on Arctic environmental and wildlife concerns. Today, the newly re-established Department of Environment and Wildlife is a smaller but more streamlined version of its former department with focus on the work that continues to be important to Inuit in the Arctic and the Circumpolar World.

Vision Statement: The Department of Environment and Wildlife will provide enhanced leadership and advocacy on a national level in regard to environment and wildlife policy and research issues affecting Inuit Nunangat.

Mandate

Ensure that Inuit are equal, meaningful, and effective partners in decision-making on environmental and wildlife policy and research within Inuit Nunangat.
Protect and promote the inclusion of and respect for Inuit knowledge, perspectives, and interests in the development of environmental and wildlife related research, policy, legislation, and programs.
Actively communicate on environmental and wildlife issue affecting Inuit.
Support the enhancement of Inuit capacity to better address environment and wildlife priorities of Inuit in Canada.

Inuit and the EU Seal Ban Regulation: ITK is the lead Inuit Plaintiff organization, among other Inuit and non-Inuit plaintiffs, undertaking a legal challenge before the EU General Court to annul the EU Seal Ban Regulation that came into effect in 2010. The litigation challenges the legal grounds and justifications used by the EU Parliament, Council, and Commission to pass and implement the Regulation. Despite the inclusion of an “Inuit Exemption” in the EU Regulation, ITK and Inuit in Canada categorically disagree that such an exemption is meaningful and therefore does not protect Inuit rights and interests in trading and selling seal products within the EU. The Regulation itself has the effect of destroying the market for seal products within the Union. The case is currently in progress and will continue through 2011-2012.

ArcticNet – A Network of Centres of Excellence: ITK has been involved with ArcticNet since the network began in 2003-2004. As of 2011, the Network is in its 7th year of operation and entering its 2nd Cycle that will expire in 2018. The main objective of ArcticNet is to study the impacts of climate change in the Arctic and to disseminate this information and knowledge where it will increase awareness and understanding of the phenomenon of climate change, and where it will assist with the development of adaptation strategies and national policies for all Canadians. ITK’s role, and the role of the Inuit Regions and Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada, is to collectively ensure that Inuit are engaged in ArcticNet at all possible levels and to provide Inuit needs, priorities, knowledge, and perspectives to inform the research work and outcomes of the Network.

ITK’s Department of Environment and Wildlife is tasked with the central role of coordinating activities (1 coordinator position) specifically in respect to Inuit participation on the ArcticNet Board of Directors, the Research Management Committee, the Inuit Advisory Committee, as well as other ArcticNet committees that may be established. Additionally, this function includes coordinating with and assisting the Inuit Research Advisors/Research Coordinators in each of the 4 Inuit regions – a portion of the funding of which is sourced from ArcticNet and combined with funding from Nasivvik and the Northern Contaminants Program.

The key opportunities and benefits of the Network for Inuit are: educational development; research training and capacity; the gathering and use of relevant information and data that is specific to the Arctic; inclusion, incorporation, and promotion of Inuit Traditional Knowledge; the creation of an unparalleled knowledge base about the Arctic; providing support for the development of knowledge-based and relevant policies affecting the Arctic and Inuit communities; and to assist Inuit in developing informed adaptation approaches and strategies in the face of a changing climate.

Northern Contaminants Program: The Northern Contaminants Program (NCP) was established in 1991 in response to studies which showed the presence of contaminants in the Arctic ecosystem. Many of these contaminants have no Arctic sources and yet some are found at high levels in animals at the top of the Arctic food chain and in humans. The two main contaminants groups of concern are persistent organic pollutants (POPs), heavy metals (mainly Mercury). The NCP is managed by the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development in partnership with other federal departments (Health, Environment, Fisheries and Oceans), the three territorial government departments, Aboriginal organizations (Council of Yukon First Nations, Dene Nation, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Inuit Circumpolar Council-Canada) and university researchers. The aim of the NCP is to work towards reducing and, where possible, eliminating contaminants in traditionally-harvested foods, while providing information that assists informed decision-making by individuals and communities in their food use.

Why was the Northern Contaminants Program (NCP) created?

In the 1970s and 1980s, scientists wanted to compare contaminant levels in animals and humans from polluted southern areas to levels in animals and humans from areas where there should have been no pollution, such as the Canadian Arctic. To their surprise, scientists found contaminants in the air, water, animals, plants, and people in the north. As a result, in the late 1980s scientists began to work together to address the issue of Arctic contamination. When funding became available in 1991, the Arctic Environmental Strategy Northern Contaminants Program (AES NCP) was created. It was planned to help us find: where the contaminants are coming from, what kinds of contaminants there are, what is contaminated and where, how much contamination there is, if there are effects, and what we can do about it.

The NCP allocates 4.8 million dollars to four funding envelops;

Community Based Monitoring And Research
Environmental Monitoring and Research
Communications, Capacity and Outreach
Human Health

More information on NCP can be obtained by visiting the NCP homepage.

Climate Change: ITK has worked on climate change issues for a number of years, with efforts that include the publication of Unikkaaqatigiit: Putting the Human Face on Climate Change Perspectives from Inuit in Canada launched at the 2005 Arctic Day event at the United Nations Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties in Montreal in 2005. In 2008, ITK's Board of Directors mandated the creation of an Inuit specific working group to address climate change issues. The National Inuit Climate Change Committee (NICCC) first met in 2009 and is currently supported by a coordinator staffed from within the Department of Environment and Wildlife and made up of five voting members (one from each of the four Inuit land claim organizations and ITK) and several permanent participants including representatives from ICC-Canada, Nasivvik, the Inuit Tuttarvingat (National Aboriginal Health Organization) as well as the National Inuit Youth Council and Pauktuutit Inuit Women's Association of Canada.

In recognition of the over-arching and increasing influence of climate change on almost every aspect of life in Inuit communities, the department is also leading the development of an internal team approach to draw on the expertise of staff addressing not only the environmental aspects of climate change issues, but the interconnected health, socio-economic, research and communications aspects of climate change impacts and adaptations. ITK recognizes that the most important areas that connect climate change and the variability of impacts to adaptation for Inuit are:

Wildlife and harvesting
Traditional knowledge
Human health
Food security
Nutrition and contaminants
Socio-economic implications
Infrastructure
Sovereignty, and
Environmental security

The NICCC is pursuing a number of specific priorities including the development of a national Inuit strategy on climate change, determining ways to improve and influence federal climate change programming, finding the means to increase community awareness and capacity to take advantage of existing programs, providing input to ICC-Canada on how to bring Canadian Inuit perspectives on climate change to international fora and linking Inuit priorities on climate change to influence research at various levels including the ArcticNet program.

Resource Development: The vastness of Inuit territories and the existence of immense natural resources within these lands make the issue of resource development, and associated environmental impacts and benefits very relevant to Canadian Inuit. Climate change effects such as a decrease in year-round ice cover in the Arctic are gradually opening up vast areas rich in resources that were previously unreachable. Mining projects as a major element of resource development in the Inuit land claims regions are increasing in number and intensity and are reshaping the northern landscape.

This increased interest in resource development in the Arctic has brought with it a need to be informed and prepared to address the benefits and possible costs for Inuit across the Canadian Arctic. Mining issues have been at the forefront at the individual Inuit land claims organizations. Inuit in the four land claims regions have identified the desire to be informed of national, regional, as well as international mining trends. National activities conducted by ITK’s Department of Environment and Wildlife included work on the Communities of Interest (COI) Panel of the Mining Association of Canada (MAC), as well as on the Northern Orphaned and Abandoned Mines Initiative (NOAMI). All activities on these panels/roundtables, as well as any other national work conducted with regards to the subject of mining in the North have been conducted in constant consultation with and under the direction of the representatives of the four Inuit land claims regions.

Due to the ever increasing importance of the resource development industry (both in regard to mining and oil and gas) in the context of northern development, ITK’s Department of Environment and Wildlife has ensured that relevant information available on mining issues that impacts or may impact Inuit within the four Inuit land claims regions is distributed to the technical staff members at Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI), the Makivik Corporation/the Kativik Regional Government, the Nunatsiavut Government and the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation (IRC).

Species at Risk Act: The Species at Risk Act (SARA) came into effect in 2003. Since 2005, ITK, along with other National Aboriginal Organizations (NAOs), have been involved in the implementation of the National Aboriginal Council for Species at Risk (NACOSAR) as provided for under Section 8.1 of SARA. The Council is currently comprised of Aboriginal members as appointed by the Minister of Environment, which are normally recommended from Aboriginal organizations such as ITK. The role of the Council is to advise the Minister of Environment on the administration of SARA, specifically in regard to issues and provisions that affect the Aboriginal peoples of Canada, as defined by the Constitution of Canada 1982, which are, First Nations, Inuit, and Métis.

ITK, along with other NAOs, were also involved in the development and establishment of the Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge Subcommittee (ATK SC) as provided for under Section 18 of SARA. The ATK SC falls under the responsibility of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). The Aboriginal members for the ATK SC are appointed by the Minister of Environment as recommended by organizations such as ITK. The role of the ATK SC is to bring ATK into the consideration of species assessments and status reporting for COSEWIC.

ITK participates on the NACOSAR policy and planning committee regularly with NAOs and Environment Canada to technically assist and coordinate activities and meetings for NACOSAR on an annual basis. The implementation of SARA continues to challenge the government of Canada given that there are more than 500 species of wildlife in Canada that have been given a designation by COSEWIC since 2003 under SARA, and the list is continuing to grow. ITK continues to monitor developments regarding SARA, especially in respect to wildlife species that may be listed that are important for Inuit harvesting and consumption.

International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN): ITK is a member of the IUCN and regularly attends World Congresses of the IUCN held every 3 or 4 years. ITK is also a member of the Board of the Canadian Committee of the IUCN (CC-IUCN). The IUCN is considered one of the largest environmental and conservation policy forums in the world. While the IUCN itself does not make binding decisions on participating members, it does play a role globally on promoting and advancing actions and policies that relate to environmental and wildlife conservation, as well as providing a forum through which multi-sector interests can exchange knowledge and information.

As sustainable use of wildlife is one of the pillars of the IUCN, ITK, along with ICC and other international network partners, engage within the IUCN to promote and advance the conservation and sustainable use priorities of Inuit within the Arctic context, as well as within a broader Indigenous context where cultural and social practices, traditional knowledge, food necessity, and livelihoods go hand-in-hand with principles of conservation and sustainable use, and hence, toward the greater good of environmental stewardship and sustainability.

Among the IUCN’s species specialist groups that are central to Inuit concerns is the Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG). The PBSG was created in large part to play a role in providing scientific/expert advice regarding Polar Bears for the range states that have Polar Bear as a species under their respective management authorities (i.e. Russia, Canada, U.S., Norway, and Greenland/Denmark) and who are signatories to the 1973 International Polar Bear Agreement. Because of its influential role of the PBSG with range states, Inuit do participate as observers at PBSG meetings and monitor the discussions and recommendations issued by the PBSG. ITK and the Inuit regions continue to push for Inuit voting membership on the PBSG and hopefully, this will become a reality in the near future.

Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES): CITES is an international agreement between governments that focuses on the regulation of international trade in animal and plant species. There are currently 170 countries that are “Parties” to the Convention, and as Parties to the Convention, they each have agreed to implement the decisions as voted upon by all the Parties during CITES Conferences of the Parties held every 3 or 4 years. The objective of CITES is to ensure that the international trade in animal and plant species does not threaten the survival of any species under trade. Unlike the IUCN, CITES, in a strong sense, is binding to the Parties and each must act to implement decisions that affect import and export activities, enforcement against poaching, wildlife management systems, sport hunting, subsistence activities, and at times the livelihoods of rural and Indigenous communities.

ITK and the Inuit regions have become more and more involved in the CITES process over the years and as Arctic species such as polar bear and marine mammals become targets for proposed listings within the Convention, Inuit have no choice but to increase planning and coordination with governments and other international partners to ensure that Inuit will be influential and will have a say in any Arctic species proposal that may affect Inuit rights, livelihood, and cultural needs and interests within the CITES process.