Land management in Northern Canada and Fennoscandia

Abstract

The ‘Tundra Conference’, held in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1969 focussed public attention on the need for strong conservation measures in northern regions at a time when the extent and potential impact of non-renewable resource exploration was becoming readily apparent. A number of contributions were concerned with ‘what has happened and what is happening to specific tundra areas and what should be done and what is being done to prevent further degradation of the land’ (Fuller and Kevan, 1970). The Canadian government responded by making what amounted to a major shift in its northern lands policy. To a system of land management concerned principally with the administration of surface and sub-surface rights, concomitant with vigorous economic development, the government added a managed use component—the protection of the land surface through the regulation of resource exploration activity (Naysmith, 1970). The ‘Tundra Conference’ marked the beginning of a decade of public debate on land management and the development of a strong, regulatory regime.