State of the Environment Report - Highlight Report

NWT State of the Environment Report - Highlight 2009 can be downloaded here.

Key insights for 2009

Driving Forces

Climate change is occurring and natural climate and weather cycles will enhance the effects of climate change, causing changes in the environment that may be rapid and unpredictable.
The NWT population is not increasing at a rapid rate, but use of petroleum-based energy is. The proportion of NWT people living in large-medium communities is increasing.
The NWT economy is less diverse than 10 years ago.
Use of Aboriginal languages is declining throughout the NWT. These languages are important for the preservation and transfer of Aboriginal traditional knowledge to future generations and to pass on traditional knowledge about the land.

Pressures

During the past decade, human activities have increased everywhere in the NWT, including along the Northwest Passage, because of wold demand for diamonds, minerals, oil and gas. The type and level of these activities change with the world economy.
Forest fires are the main sources of landscape change in the NWT. Winter roads for exploration and development activities, and seismic lines have increased. Human access has increased in the Mackenzie Valley and north of Great Slave Lake.

State

Only 1% of all tracked species in the NWT are at risk of becoming extirpated or extinct in the next 100 years. This risk has increased in the past decade but remains very low. For example, some migratory bird species that were once common, such as the redknot, common nighthawk, rusty blackbird, and olive-sided flycatcher, are now in sharp decline and at risk. The endangered Peary caribou are particularly susceptible to climate change due to their low numbers and the effects of warm rainy winters on food availability in the normally dry high Arctic.
The effects of climate change, especially those due to warmer and snowier winters, are being observed on many aspects of the NWT’s environment: melting sea ice and permafrost, changing thermokarst, and changing distribution of some species, including alien species of vascular plants. We do not have enough monitoring information to know whether other effects of climate change observed elsewhere in northern North America, such as changes in the timing of insect emergence or increases in shrubs at the treeline, are occurring in the NWT. Increasing forest fires are predicted with climate change, but this has not yet been observed in the NWT.
Most barren-ground caribou herds in the NWT are declining. This is also occurring elsewhere in North America and the caribou cycle may be linked to long-term natural environmental fluctuations related to climate.

Stewardship

Use of environmental resources in the NWT is changing. Hunting and fishing remain important, but are declining slowly. Trapping has declined but recent participation has been stable. The use of country food by NWT residents living in large-medium communities is slowly declining.
More northern programs on environmental stewardship and more protected areas are being developed.

The NWT is home to some of the largest remaining portions of two important biomes on the planet: the boreal-taiga forest and the Arctic tundra. NWT residents are responsible to the world for the conservation of these biomes, and for their development in an ecologically sustainable manner. To succeed, all NWT residents, as well as their responsible governments, boards, and organizations, must share knowledge and insights on their environment from all available sources, including traditional knowledge and scientific information. Future reports will improve and add to this knowledge and these insights - with your help. More information on each of these findings can be found under highlight indicators in the web-based NWT State of the Environment Report in this site.

Provide your input – contact NWTSOER@gov.nt.ca

For additional information on the state of the NWT’s environment go to:

Mackenzie River Basin Board - www.mrbb.ca
NWT Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program (Indian and Northern Affairs) – www.nwtcimp.ca