Canada’s North and a Changing Climate: What Does the Future Hold?
• Aboriginal traditional knowledge – James Eetoolook, Vice‐President, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., and Chair, Inuit Wildlife and Environment Advisory Council;
• Protected areas – Rob Prosper, Executive Director, Northern Canada, Parks Canada;
• Marine transportation – Ross MacDonald, Manager, Special Projects and Arctic Shipping, Marine Safety, Transport Canada.
The event will be chaired by Tom Laughlin, Deputy Head of the IUCN’s Global Marine and Polar Program. Following the presentations, the speakers and the audience will have an open discussion about how sustainable developments in the North can provide maximum benefits for indigenous communities, and for Canada as a whole, while ensuring development in the North occurs in a sustainable manner.
The IUCN (the International Union for the Conservation of Nature) is one of the world’s largest global environmental networks. The Canadian Committee is a unique group on the national conservation scene – it brings representatives from government, non-profit organizations, academia and Aboriginal groups around one table to talk about conservation issues of global and national concern, such as climate change, biodiversity, and indigenous peoples’ rights and interests.
I was excited to join the Canadian Committee this year, and to engage Nature Canada with fellow Committee members, including Parks Canada, Environment Canada, Nature Conservancy, and Aboriginal groups, to promote conservation awareness and action on biodiversity in Canada.
I encourage you to join me tomorrow. If you can’t make it, post a comment here with any message you’d like me to take to those in attendance – what should the future hold for Canada’s Arctic?
Event details:
A Panel Discussion Hosted by the Canadian Committee for IUCN
Canadian Museum of Nature, 240 McLeod Street, Ottawa
May 26, 2011, 1:30 ‐ 5 p.m.