Arctic Peoples

by Clive Tesar

The Arctic Council has released a version of its Arctic Oil and Gas Assessment, prompting new discussion about the effects of oil and gas development in the Arctic.

Patricia Cochran, Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council , spoke at an event held when the Assessment was released. She recalled the words of another Inuit Leader, Eben Hopson, founder of the ICC, who more than thirty years ago told a major pipeline inquiry

“The politics of the Arctic are no longer the politics of the people, but they are the politics of oil.”

Cochran also pointed to a conclusion reached by Michael Baffrey, one the authors of the Assessment, that

“When local organizations and institutions lack power, local interests are likely to be neglected, so that costs are borne disproportionately by local residents while benefits accrue primarily at the regional and national levels.”

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At the Arctic Council Ministerial meeting in [GP:Salekhard], Russia, Indigenous Leaders from the circumpolar Arctic region delivered strong messages to the Arctic Council .

Watch the statements here in their original languages. Russian/English transcripts will be added later.

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NEWS RELEASE 26/10/2006

Leaders of Indigenous Peoples from around the Arctic wrapped up their meeting with the Arctic Council in [GP:Salekhard] today. The end of the meeting marks the end of Russia’s two-year chairing of the eight-nation Council. It was attended by Foreign Ministers from several countries, as well as the Indigenous Leaders. While the Indigenous Leaders praised the achievements of the Council over the past two years, they also took the opportunity to point out to the Ministers that many pressing issues in the Arctic remain. The Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North ( RAIPON ) told Ministers that development pressures, particularly in areas such as the Amur River watershed are facing development pressures and pollution that are threatening reindeer pastures, hunting and fishing activities, and sacred sites.

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Arctic Indigenous Leaders will be in [GP:Salekhard], Russia near the end of October for meetings of the Arctic Council . This is the highest level meeting of the council, held once every two years, in which many of the Arctic states are represented by their Foreign Ministers. These “Ministerial” meetings give direction for the work of the Council for the next two years.

The Indigenous Leaders are hopeful that this meeting will produce a plan that results in real action on climate change by the Council. Following the release of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment during the last Ministerial meeting, Indigenous Peoples expected that the Council would follow up on the obvious needs for both mitigation and adaptation as responses to the present and coming levels of climate change. In a statement delivered during the last Arctic Council meeting in Syktyvkar, the Indigenous Leaders made a statement on the Council’s climate change action to date, calling it “deeply disappointing”.

The Leaders made some suggestions on how to improve the Council’s climate change response, including the involvement of more experts and the development of “an impacts and adaptation program that includes community-based pilot projects on adaptation, and stresses comparative work on education, outreach and communications, and capacity building.”

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Nations around the Arctic are increasingly looking north for new sources of oil and gas. Some Indigenous Peoples are treating this interest as an opportunity. Others are not so sure.

“Oil and gas can promote the worst case scenario in dealing with government. The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act is a case in point. My community is 20 miles (32 kilometres) from a pipeline, but the (United States) federal legislation left native communities at a great disadvantage. We live 20 miles from a pipeline, but our community is impoverished. There is no direct benefit to our community while other governments are made rich. We have no running water in one of the richest nations on earth.”

Randy Mayo, Arctic Athabaskan Council , Alaska

by Clive Tesar

Some early findings are beginning to flow from the oil and gas assessment being conducted by the Arctic Council under the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program. Michael Baffrey, from the United States Department of the Interior is working on one of the chapters in the Assessment, dealing with social and economic effects of oil and gas development.

Speaking to the K’atlodeeche Summit of Arctic leaders, Baffrey gave a summary of the chapter, including some draft findings:

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by Clive Tesar

In early December, Indigenous Leaders from all across the Arctic came together to talk about issues affecting them all. This was the Arctic Leaders’ Summit, a special meeting that only happens every four years. The Leaders meet at other times, usually at the Arctic Council , but those meetings centre on the Arctic Council ’s agenda. At the Leaders’ Summit, the Indigenous Peoples are free to set their own agenda, to discuss the concerns that they have, and work out how to tackle those concerns.This year’s Summit took place at two different places and times. This was because a big gathering of people was taking place in Montreal, Canada, to talk about climate change. The Arctic Leaders were keen to make sure that the thousands of Delegates to this meeting understood the impacts of climate change in the Arctic. To help this happen, they wrote an Arctic Leaders Declaration on climate change.

At the end of the Montreal meeting, the Leaders Summit began again, thousands of kilometres to the north, in the Dene community of [GP:Katlodeeche] (near to the town of Hay River) in the Northwest Territories of Canada. This was hosted by the Arctic Athabaskan Council .

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