The International Dimension:
Canada and the United States
Since the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge straddles the border between Alaska and Canada, the question of its possible development as a source of oil is an international as well as national inplications. The Canadian government in Ottawa established an a national park on the Yukon side in 1984, specifically to prohibit drilling in the region. In mid-summer of 1995, Canada's ambassador to the U.S., Raymond Chretien, led a lobbying campaign with U.S. Senators arguing that the region should be left pristine to "ensure the future of the shared wildlife populations of the Arctic coastal plain." Other contacts between Canada and the U.S. right up the the presidency have stressed the former's desire to see the Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain at least retain its present status, or more preferably, be designated as part of the larger wilderness area.
Canada has also become a world leader in promoting what has come to be called "sustainable development" and sees this approach as being central to resolving questions associated with the Refuge's future. In assuming this stance, government officals along with northern indigenous residents stress that a new global strategy is needed for sustaining life on the planet - a strategy that includes recognition of the conservation values of aboriginal cultures.
The World Conservation Strategy, endorsed by 46 countries since its formulation by the Internation Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resouces in 1980, put forward three major objectives: sustainable use and development; protection of ecosystems; and the maintenance of genetic diversity. Together, these goals are seen as providing a long term plan for ensuring survival on this earth.
Furthermore, drawing on the hallmark report of the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future, the Canadians have emphasized the report's affirmation that aboriginal lifestyles, such as those of the Gwich'in First Nation and the Western Invialuit, must be protected. In the case of the Gwich'in and to a lesser extent, the Inuit, such protection requires careful management of a major source of food, the caribou. This commitment was an essential element in the establishment of the 3 million acre Northern Yukon National Park, located in the northwest corner of the Yukon, bordering Alaska in which no development is permitted.
"The world is linked together," suggests an indigenous Yukon government leader. "We need to be responsible for one another's well-being and get away from this myth that we are only having little local effects with projects like those on the Alaskan coastal plain...In today's world, if we harm the land and resources on which we depend, with which we live, then we are harming outselves."