Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting 2011

Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting 2011Nuuk, Greenland

Spring/Summer 2011

www.arcticathabaskancouncil.com

Chief Michael StickmanInternational Chair

Nulato, Alaska

Chief Bill ErasmusInternational Vice-Chair

Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

Cindy DicksonExecutive Director - Canada

Whitehorse, Yukon

Arctic Council Ministerial .................... 2 - 3Arctic Peoples, Culture, Resilience and Peoples (ACRC) Wrap Up ................... 4 - 5A Climate Change Update ......................... 5Photos from Nuuk, Greenland .............. 6 - 7Yukon IPY Northern Update ................ 8 - 9

Canada/Norway Community Twinning Workshop - Inuvik, NWT ........................ 10Community Interviews on Climate Change Impacts .............................................. 11 - 12Welcome Back Sharon Keaton ................. 12

In this Issue:

2166 - 2nd Avenue ~Whitehorse, Yukon ~ Y1A 4P1~ (867) 393-9214

Ministers from the eight Arctic Nations met together with Indigenous Peoples of the circumpolar north to discuss Arctic issues.

On May 12, ministers of foreign affairs of the eight circumpolar countries met in Nuuk, Green-land as the Arctic Council. As a Permanent Participant to the council AAC was there as well. Our four-person delegation included International Chair, Michael Stickman; Alaska Chair, Gary Harrison; Executive Direc-tor Cindy Dickson; and youth delegate Wilfred Johnston from Teslin, Yukon. This was an im-portant meeting--Arctic Coun-cil ministers only meet every two years. The United States was represented by Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and

Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, and Canada was rep-resented by Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq. A circumpolar Search and Rescue agreement between the Arctic states was announced, and ministers com-mitted to negotiate a new, legally-binding “international instrument” to prepare for and to respond to marine oil pollu-tion. While supportive of this initiative to clean-up after an oil spill has happened, AAC argued for a broader agree-ment to include provisions to prevent marine oil pollution in the first place. AAC’s presenta-

tion to the ministers (page 3) was warmly received and is to be posted shortly on the Arctic Council’s web site.

Please contact:

Cindy Dickson (867) 393-9214 [email protected]

Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting 2011

May 2011 - Nuuk Ministerial Meeting: Left to Right - Front row - Chief Gary Harrison, Chief Michael Stickman, Bridget Larocque (GCI), Joe Linklater (GCI) Back Row - Cindy Dickson, Alona Yefimenko (IPS), Amy Thomson (GCI)

Find more information at:http://www.arcticpeoples.org

http://www.arctic-council.org

May 2011 - Nuuk, Greenland Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers a statement at the Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting

2 www.ArcticAthabaskanCouncil.com

Good morning. My name is Michael Stickman. I come from Nulato, a village of 250 people on the Yukon River in western Alaska. I’m the Interna-tional Chair of the Arctic Athabaskan Council which represents Athabaskan peoples of Alaska and northern Canada in the Arctic Council. Our delegation includes Gary Harrison, AAC’s Alas-ka Chair, from Chickaloon; Cindy Dickson, our Executive Director; and Wilfred Johnston, our youth delegate from Canada

Let me start by thanking the Inuit of Greenland, the governments of Greenland and Denmark, and particularly the Inuit Circumpolar Council for their wonderful hospitality. We always feel very welcome here.

I only have a few minutes so I’ll get straight to business. I want to raise three issues: the fu-ture of the Arctic Council; climate change; and marine pollution. All three are addressed in the Nuuk Declaration.

The Arctic Council is doing really good work but not many people know about it. We believe the chair of the Senior Arctic Officials and, when needed, the Chair of the Council, should be man-dated to speak to international bodies about Arctic perspectives on global issues. The 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants is the only global agreement that singles out the Arctic, and that’s because of the scientific work of the council, and the advocacy of the Permanent Participants. This is what we can achieve when we work together. In 2003 and again in 2008 the Governing Council of UNEP adopted Arctic resolutions. Let’s mandate our Chair to respond through a full report and presentation at the next meeting of UNEP’s Gov-erning Council. AAC will help, if you want us to. Why?

Last year, the American academic Lawrence C. Smith wrote that the world is “moving to the Arctic” as a result of climate change, population growth, and globalization. He thinks it is too late to prevent “dangerous” climate change. Well, ministers, you have an opportunity to prove him wrong.

The Arctic Council Task Force on Short-Lived Climate Forcers concludes that sustained re-duction of black carbon emissions would slow climate change in the Arctic. The task force is to report to you again in two years. Let’s amend the Nuuk Declaration and direct the task force to develop a regional instrument to reduce emis-sions of black carbon. This would strengthen the political ability of all Arctic states to promote a black carbon protocol to the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution.

Finally, I want to address potential oil pollution in the Arctic marine environment. The Senior Arctic Officials and Permanent Participants have discussed this at length. We are aware of the prospect of a blow out or major tanker accident. It is hugely important that the Arctic Council do everything in its power, and be seen to do every-thing in its power, to prevent such a thing hap-pening.

The Nuuk Declaration establishes a task force to develop, and I’m quoting:”an international instrument on Arctic marine oil pollution pre-paredness and response…” This commitment is important, but the declaration is missing a cru-cial word: “prevention”. I appeal to you to add this one word, and send a political message to the world, including observers here today, that Arctic states are absolutely committed to prevent oil pollution in the Arctic marine environment. Committing to clean up oil spills after they hap-pen is insufficient.

Developing this international instrument may take some years. Many of us may not be in office when it is completed. But don’t let that stop us. We can set in motion now a process that will result in an environmental protection legacy of which we can all be proud.

Thank you so much for your attention. I look for-ward to your response to AAC’s suggestions.

Remarks by Michael Stickman at the Arctic Council Ministerial MeetingSpring/Summer 2011

3Arctic Athabaskan Council

From February 2009 – March 2011, the AAC managed a northern Canadian aboriginal-led IPY project, Arctic Peoples, Culture, Resilience and Cari-bou. The project consisted of 18 sub-projects, each geared towards understanding how communities “bounce back” or respond to economic or ecolog-ical consequences. The project partners included the Arctic Athabaskan Council, Gwich’in Council International, Dene Nation, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, and Inuit Circumpolar Council. Brenda Parlee and Chris Furgal from the University of Alberta and Trent University were the academic leads. The intent of the project was to learn more

about community resilience to caribou population change. Declines in barren ground caribou – between 5% and 95% across the NWT - has been a cross-cutting theme of concern in Nunavut, NWT and Yukon raising questions about many aspects of community includ-ing - culture, food security and governance. Major thematic questions arose including:

• What are the experiences of caribou population variabil-ity and change across these regions?

• What are the socio-econom-ic and cultural impacts of variability and change?

• With respect to food securi-ty and health, what are the alternatives when caribou is not available for the table?

• How are individuals, house-holds, communities dealing with these impacts?

Understanding the full extent of these questions and the complete analysis of the proj-ect results will help fortify communities for challenging times.

This project was developed in response to northern leaders who identified the concept of “community resilience” as a priority research focus to build capacity for Arctic community

ACRC Workshop Participants - Left to RightBack row - Paul Modeste (Deline), Robert Alexie Sr. (Fort McPherson), Bill Erasmus (Yellowknife), Johan Turi (Norway), Olav Mattis Eira (Norway), Joe Tetlichi (Fort McPherson), Roger McMillan (UofAlberta), Martin Tremblay (GoCanada) Middle row - Erin Myers (GoCanada), Colleen Henry (AAC), Bridget Larocque (GCI), Helena Omma (Sweden), Maude Beaumier (McGill), Kristine Wray (UofAlberta), Tanuja Kulkarni (GoCanada) Front row - Dan Slavik (UofAlberta), Cindy Dickson (AAC), Angie Chiu (UofAlberta), Ann Kristin Teig (Norway), Margaret Nazon (Inuvik), Mikhail Pogodaev (Russia), Hilda Panagoniak (Arviat)

Arctic Peoples, Culture, Resilience and Caribou (ACRC) Wrap Up


health and sustainability. The hypothesis which guided the ACRC project is that resilience and adaptive capacity of Arctic communities can be understood by investigating a series of re-ciprocal community-land (natu-ral resource) relationships that exist across the North. Specifi-cally we wanted to know how Arctic Aboriginal communities will continue to be resilient and healthy in relation to the social and ecological changes which threaten important human-environment relation-ships now and in the future?

The theoretical thread or theme linking all the projects and case studies is that of resilience and adaptive capac-ity. Although resilience has multiple meanings in different disciplines we are interested in individual, household and

community resilience to envi-ronment change – specifically barren ground caribou popula-tion variability and change. Theoretically, we know that resilience is informed by many socio-economic, cultural and ecological factors. Among the most well understood are: human social networks, tra-ditional knowledge and skills, and governance and institu-tional arrangements. By ex-ploring these variables, as well as other emergent elements of resilience we hoped to gain a better understanding of social-ecological health in Arctic communities now and into the future.

AAC, with help from Inuit Cir-cumpolar Council and Gwich’in Council International, coordi-nated a final roundtable meet-ing with researchers, commu-

nity members and leaders. The workshop was held in conjunc-tion with the Canada/Norway Community Twinning Workshop in Inuvik (see page 10).

Student researchers presented methods and findings for their subprojects.

Community members discussed their impressions of participat-ing in projects and helped to identify research methods that are meaningful to them.

A workshop report is available upon request. The full techni-cal report will be available once the data analysis is com-plete.

For more information, please contact:

Cindy Dickson at (867) 393-9214 [email protected]

ACRC Wrap Up............................................................................................Continued from pg 4

In September of 2010, the Arc-tic Athabaskan Council (AAC) successfully received funding to conduct a Yukon-wide Yukon Climate Change Needs Assess-ment project in partnership with Yukon College’s Northern Climate ExChange and Yukon Government’s Climate Change Secretariat. The purpose of this project is to identify priority areas of concern to Yukon resi-dents with respect to climate change over the short, medium and long term. Additionally, the results from this project will influence future programming and funding opportunities for

climate change work in Yukon First Nation communities.

Currently, the Climate Adapta-tion Policy Analyst is entering and analyzing data from 339 surveys that were distributed in 13 Yukon communities. Local contractors were hired in each of these communities to con-duct approximately 25 surveys in each Yukon First Nation com-munity. The focus of the survey was on four key areas: 1) Un-derstanding Climate Change; 2) Traditional / Local Knowledge and Climate Change; 3) Com-munity Needs and Climate

Change; and 4) Planning and Implementation.

Through analysis of this survey data, recommendations will be made to identify shared priori-ties and to determine commu-nity-based adaptation needs. A final report for the Yukon Climate Change Needs Assess-ment project will be released in August 2011.

For more information, please contact:

Darcie Matthiessen (867) 393-9215 [email protected].

A Climate Change Update

Spring/Summer 2011


Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting Nuuk, Greenland - May 2011 1 - Gunn-Brit Retter - Saami Council 2 - Chief Michael Stickman, AAC 3 - Left - Mikhail Pogodaev, Association of World Reindeer Herders Right - Wilfred Johnston, AAC Youth Delegate 4 - Permanent Participants 5 - Cindy Dickson - Incognito


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Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting Nuuk, Greenland - May 2011

1 - Map pinpointing Nuuk, Greenland 2 - Community fisher along the shoreline of Nuuk 3 - Community photo 4 - Fish sold at the local street market

Spring/Summer 2011


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Yukon IPY Northern Coordination Office UpdateThe Yukon International Po-lar Year Coordination Office is in a transition phase after a busy year. Most of the IPY sci-ence projects have wrapped up, although some projects have managed to secure fund-ing to continue research and monitoring. After the large international wrap up results conference in Oslo, Norway last June the focus has shifted to Montreal, where Canada will be hosting the From Knowl-edge to Action IPY conference April 22nd to 27th, 2012. This conference will look at taking the findings from IPY research and using them to help craft and guide the development of policy and governance. Plan-ning is still taking place for the conference but the plan is that

“Financial assistance will be provided to ensure the par-ticipation of Arctic Indigenous Peoples in the conference.” Further information on the criteria and application process for travel support will be avail-able soon on the conference website www.ipy2012montreal.ca.

The four northern coordina-tion offices had the opportunity to work together to prepare a presentation and two posters for the 2010 IPY results confer-ence in Oslo. We were able to attend the conference and I had the honour of making the presentation during the confer-ence. The event was a terrific opportunity to network with re-searchers and community mem-

bers from around the world and learn about innovative projects happening in both the Arctic and the Antarctic. It offered a unique opportunity to learn about different ways in which aboriginal peoples and northern communities were involved in IPY research and explore ideas on how the partnerships devel-oped through IPY can be con-tinued and strengthened.

At the end of September, the Northern Contaminants Pro-gram hosted its annual results workshop in Whitehorse. The Yukon IPY office developed a poster for the conference and the IPY photo exhibit was on display.

In early November, a number of the terrestrial IPY projects

Bob VanDijken: Northern Coordinators presentation at Oslo conference, June 2010


hosted a workshop in Edmonton. The “Un-derstanding Circum-polar Ecosystems in a Changing World: Out-comes of the Inter-national Polar Year” workshop brought together researchers from across Canada and the circumpolar north to discuss re-sults. A number of researchers who were active in the Yukon presented the results of their work and the north-ern coordination offices devel-oped a poster to present at the workshop.

In December, ArcticNet held its annual conference in Ottawa. Canadian IPY researchers gath-ered the day before the confer-ence to discuss results dissemi-nation and wrap up activities for IPY. Again, the northern coordination offices had a poster on their work on display during the conference and used the time to catch up with re-searchers and learn their plans for communicating results back to communities and continue relationships built during IPY.

The highlight of the year for the office was the Yukon IPY results workshop, held in Whitehorse January 18th and 19th. More than 130 people at-tended the two days of activi-ties, including representatives from four first nations and six renewable resource councils. Unfortunately, cold weather in the central Yukon prevented

some people from travelling to attend the workshop. We had representatives from fourteen different IPY projects active in the Yukon attend, with 17 pre-sentations from 19 researchers informing the audience about the results of their work.

Finally, during the first full week of June the office par-ticipated in Environment Week activities. Films from the IPY film festival were shown in the Elijah Smith building and the IPY photo exhibit was displayed in the atrium.

We still have a couple of things to come on the IPY front. This fall, an IPY newsletter will be distributed. This newsletter will highlight IPY activity in the Yukon and showcase a number of IPY projects and research-

ers. Also this fall appreciation certificates will be distributed to more than 270 Yukoners who participated in some way to IPY.

As IPY ends, there is talk of continuing the IPY northern offices as research coordina-tion offices working under the umbrella of the Canadian Polar Commission. Details haven’t been fully worked out but it seems that the coordination offices in the three territories may continue to exist beyond March 31st next year.

For more information about IPY in Yukon, contact:

Bob VanDijken (867) 393-9237 [email protected]

Yukon IPY Northern Coordination Office Update..........................Continued from pg 8

Bob VanDijken: Presenting at the Yukon IPY results workshop January 2011 Whitehorse, Yukon

Spring/Summer 2011


In November 2010, AAC identi-fied an excellent opportunity to host a Canada/Norway com-munity twinning workshop in Inuvik. The workshop was held in conjunction with the Arctic Peoples, Culture, Resilience and Peoples IPY project Wrap-Up (see pgs 3 & 4). Participants came from Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Europe and the Government of Canada to discuss issues of concern to Circumpolar Indigenous Peoples, including: hunting; reindeer husbandry; co-man-agement structures and processes; cultural uses and practices; health and food security.

Northern Indigenous Peoples of Canada and Norway face similar issues concerning climate change and subsistence. Cana-dian aboriginal peoples maintain strong links with their environment through hunting caribou for subsis-tence. Several Canadian caribou herds have de-clined in recent decades at least partly due to changes in climate. The Canadian

Arctic is also charac-terized by industrial industries (oil and min-ing). Saami Indigenous peoples in Norway and Russia are confronting similar changes and they too have a strong link with their environ-ment through reindeer herding for subsistence. This twinning work-shop was developed to

exchange knowledge to help support adaptation to climate change, including caribou/rein-deer management, sustainable development and land manage-ment policy issues.

Best practices and impact as-sessment frameworks for indig-enous lands have been identi-fied as priority issues that both Canada and Norway could mu-tually learn from. This twinning workshop provided a venue for experts of traditional knowl-edge, science and government

to compare activities, impacts and management techniques in their respective areas. As well, the workshop provided an opportunity to discuss how we should continue develop-ing other aspects of community twinning.

The workshop was an excel-lent opportunity for people to meet, exchange ideas and combine knowledge as a good first step towards a collec-tive circumpolar approach to building community resilience. Understanding challenges and sharing solutions around the circumpolar Arctic helps to build unique partnerships to address concerns of community resilience and increases over-all community health. The full report is available on request. Please contact Colleen Henry at (867) 393-9241 or [email protected] for a copy of the report.

Canada/Norway Community Twinning Workshop - Inuvik, NWT

Participants in the Community Twinning Project

On day 2 of the workshop, participants divided into two groups, one group traveled along the ice road to Aklavik, the other traveled by snow mobile to Lloyd Binder’s reindeer herd north of Inuvik. At -43 degrees Celsius, it was a cold ride!


The projections of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment suggest that climate change threatens the welfare and way of life of Athabaskan peoples, guaranteed under human rights regimes.

We believe that national and/or provincial/state govern-ments have a duty to put in place effective mitigation and adaptation policies and pro-grammes that reflect our col-lective human rights.

We are exploring whether and how the 1948 American Decla-ration on the Rights and Duties of Man may be mobilized and used by AAC to persuade gov-ernments to adopt assertive and far-reaching mitigation and adaptation measures.

We need to draw upon and summarize the traditional knowledge, testimony and wisdom of Athabaskan peoples and to use this information to persuade decision-makers to abandon their essentially non-committal, wait and see, ap-

proach to this global scourge.

We are looking at whether and how human rights regimes may assist us to persude the gov-ernments of the United States and Canada to take the lead in pressing for reductions globally of emissions of black carbon--soot--that accounts for a sig-nificant percentage of climate change in the Arctic.

Sharon Keaton, our Climate Change Liaison Officer is gath-ering community members’ information on climate change impacts in Alaska, Yukon and Northwest Territories.

Sharon has traveled to commu-nities of: Dawson City, Mayo, Carmacks, Watson Lake, Teslin, Carcross, and Haines Juction to conduct interviews.

People have shared some very interesting observations regard-ing different changes in their regions. In the north people noticed:

• weather is unpredictable and there are shorter cold

snaps (less than two weeks long)

• new species - deer, moun-tain lions, cougars, magpies and coyotes, just to name a few, have been spotted

Community Interviews on Climate Change Impacts

Communities Interviewed so far:

Alaska RegionChickaloon - 1 Eagle - 2 Northway - 1 Copper Center - 1

Yukon RegionCarcross - 12 Carmacks - 1 Dawson - 4 Haines Junction - 2 Mayo - 1 Old Crow - 1 Pelly - 5 Tagish - 1 Teslin - 2 Whitehorse - 4

Northwest TerritoriesFort McPherson - 2 Inuvik - 1 Yellowknife - 1

Continued on back page

Spring/Summer 2011


Sharon Keaton is of Gwitchin ancestry and is from the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation. Born and raised in Old Crow and lived in Dawson City for the past 25 years. Sharon’s background includes 20 years as a Conser-vation Officer in the northern district of the Yukon Territory and Northwest Territories. Sha-ron’s interests include hunting,

fishing and trapping on her trap line on the Dempster Highway with her husband, Robert, and children, Bradley, Matthew and Lynsey Mae. Sharon came to CYFN on a secondment from YTG Parks, where she worked as a Park Planner for the past two years.

Sharon has a degree in Renew-able Resource Management and Technology and is also working towards a Degree in Teaching.

Sharon is the Climate Change Liaison Officer with the Cir-cumpolar Relations Office. She is seconded from YTG for a term assignment. Her role is to learn about climate change

initiatives, gather information and research.

Her most recent project is the Arctic Athabaskan Coun-cil’s petition on Arctic Climate change to be presented to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Sep-tember of 2011. She will be working along with Cindy Dick-son to co-ordinate and gather community interviews.

Sharon has returned to Circum-polar Relations after a lengthy medical leave.

Contact Sharon at: [email protected] or (867) 393-9244.

Welcome Back Sharon Keaton

further north than before

• higher water levels and more landslides in their tra-ditional territories. In some areas lakes are drying up.

In the south/central Yukon people are noticing:

• strong, constant winds for long periods of time, pre-venting them from travel-ling on the lakes

• increased glacier melting.

In the Alaska people notice:

• more floods and increasing

highway washouts

• areas where there is an abundance of greener grass-lands and pastures

• an increase in moose popu-lation, due to increasingly greener grasslands

Most everyone commented about not seeing colder tem-peratures anymore. Tempera-tures of forty below for extend-ed periods was veery common, whereas now we have milder winters.

In the McPherson areas of the

NWT people see changes in the caribou migration routes and they are unable to travel be-cause of high water levels.

We are continuing to gather interviews from communities until mid-July. Complete re-sults will be summarized and distributed to AAC members for review prior to submission.

Please contact Sharon Keaton if you are interested in giving an interview:

[email protected] or (867) 393-9244

Community Interviews on Climate Change Impacts...................Continued from pg 11

MAKE A DONATION TO THE AAC Educational FoundationThe mandate and purpose of the AAC is to defend the rights and fur-ther the interests of Athabaskan peoples internationally, but our work benefits all who want to protect the natural environment in the Arctic and around the globe. A substantial amount of our work is made possible through generous donations. If you would like to help our ongoing efforts, please contact Cindy Dickson, Director of the AAC Educational Foundation, at (867) 393-9214 or [email protected].

Thank you!


Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting 2011

Documents

Transcript of Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting 2011