The Northwest Territories (NWT) has long been viewed as one of the great reserves of wilderness for North America, and even the world. However, despite its remote geography, the NWT is becoming a major center for industrial development activity, and the increasing pace and scale of that development threatens to unravel the integrity of the Territory’s taiga, tundra, and boreal ecosystems. In particular, the proposed Mackenzie Valley Pipeline is moving closer to becoming a reality and, if approved, will be the largest energy development project in the Northwest Territories and one of the largest in Canadian history. The environmental and regulatory process has begun and a formal application to construct a pipeline is expected in 2004. Completion of this process and pipeline construction is anticipated to be finished within five years.

To achieve a long-term balance of ecological, cultural, and economic values in the Mackenzie Valley, a network of culturally significant and ecologically representative protected areas must be reserved prior to or concurrently with the development of the pipeline. Immediate planning and action is needed to meet this objective within a timeframe that is relevant to communities, governments, industry, and First Nations. There is a unique, although time-limited opportunity in the Mackenzie Valley to maintain the ecological integrity and the natural connections that still exist.

The Northwest Territories Protected Areas Strategy (NWT-PAS) provides an effective community-based tool for advancing culturally and ecologically significant areas to long-term protected status. The Five-Year NWT-PAS AP (Protected Areas Strategy Action Plan) describes the strategic enhancement needed over the next five years to identify, review, establish interim protection, and evaluate a network of protected areas in the Mackenzie Valley. The Action Plan focuses resources to meet the timeline of the proposed Mackenzie Valley Pipeline and provides increased capacity to the communities within the Mackenzie Valley to help meet their long-term conservation goals such as those identified in community conservation plans, land use plans, interim measures, and land claims.

Round River Canada has recently been invited to assist with the PAS to help lead a team of experts and stakeholders from government, industry, First Nations, and environmental NGO’s in identifying and mapping high priority conservation areas for the strategy. Starting in late 2004, RRC began to support analyses and team coordination to meet both near and far term PAS Action Plan goals. Specific objectives in the coming year include:

• Developing workplans, organizing technical sub-teams, and managing process and product development;
• Supporting ecosystem and wildlife habitat modeling efforts; and
• Reviewing, designing, and building effective tools for integrating ecological and human use information to inform scenario building and progress toward ecological goals for the PAS.
  

– Chuck Rumsey, Executive Director, Round River Canada