Towards Comprehensive Conservation of Environmentally Significant Areas in the Northwest Territories of Canada

Abstract

A wide legislative base is available to conserve Environmentally Significant Areas in the vast Northwest Territories of Canada. However, existing conservation reserves have been designated in an ‘incremental’ fashion, without reference to a guiding plan. Intensive industrialization through hydrocarbon development and increased harvesting of renewable resources are threats to the integrity of many ESAs.An anticipatory and comprehensive policy to conserve Environmentally Significant Areas (ESAs) in advance of industrialization is required, but developing such a policy will be difficult, owing to the complex political and jurisdictional ‘environments’ in northern Canada. Despite these problems, the recently announced Northern Landuse Planning Policy could be a vehicle for the implementation of a comprehensive conservation policy for ESAs, if only the institutional structures and processes that will accompany this policy are adequately designed.