International bioresource agreements : the case of the Porcupine Caribou
Creators: name: Russell, Nancy Juna
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2010

description: This study analyses thirteen selected international wildlife conventions as the basis for the recommended elements for an international convention on the conservation and management of the Porcupine Caribou herd and its ecosystem. The nature of the study stems from the confusing array of overlapping proposals for northern Yukon Resources. The oil, gas and mining industries continue to exert pressure on the political decision-makers to provide incentives and release the area for future exploitation. The Committee for Original Peoples Entitlement and the Council for Yukon Indians have traditional land claim settlements to the area, including provisions for involvement in wildlife and habitat management. The Yukon Territorial Government continues to advocate and strive for provincial status. The federal government has displayed continuing inter-departmental and inter-agency rivalry evidenced by competing proposals for the area. Parks Canada wishes to establish a national wilderness park, and the Department of the Environment's Canadian Wildlife Service, a Canada wildlife area. Across the international boundary, decisions pending on the wilderness status, and possible oil and gas exploration in northeastern Alaska also bear directly on the northern Yukon's future. The focus of attention has been on the Porcupine Caribou, one of the world's largest herds, migrating over a vast, unique and fragile ecosystem with no regard for physical or jurisdictional boundaries. Conservation of this population depends to a large degree on the success of planning and management of the ecosystem of which it is a part. This struggle for authority and control of the area is a major stumbling block to comprehensive planning. Caribou can only be adversely affected by the potential results — over-harvesting, reduction of winter ranges, disruption of calving grounds and barriers to migration. The northern Yukon is an important challenge to those who would adopt an ecosystem approach to planning the environment. One proposed solution is the draft convention between Canada and the United States on the Conversation of Migratory Caribou and Their Environment as an element of a comprehensive planning and management framework. Having studied the social, economic, ecological and political issues in the northern Yukon, a set of principles and criteria for future resource management are proposed. These provide the evaluative framework for analysing the thirteen international conventions. The principles embody the concepts of conservation and enhancement of the Porcupine Caribou herd and its ecosystem, aboriginal priority use of the resources and native long-term involvement in wildlife management and planning, and the development of a flexible management framework. Based on this analysis, elements for an international convention on the conservation and management of the Porcupine caribou herd and its ecosystem are recommended. This is followed by a critique of the May 1979 draft Convention for the Conservation of Migratory Caribou and Their Environment. The method of investigation has been a literature review, extensive interviewing of personnel involved in all aspects of the problem, and a comparative analysis of international wildlife agreements. Major conclusions include: - the proposed caribou convention should provide for legally-entrenched reservation of lands for the protection of the herd and its habitat; - these lands must include critical or sensitive habitat areas, i.e. calving grounds, to remain inviolate to all forms of development; - native peoples must have priority use of resources and be involved in long-term management and planning of the wildlife and habitat, specifically the migratory caribou; - an independent commission on the conservation and management of the caribou and their ecosystem should be provided for in the convention; and - this commission must also have an active role in future land use planning and management committees and agencies.