Canada's National Implementation Plan under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants

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PART - I
CANADA'S NATIONAL IMPLEMENTATION PLAN ON PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS (NIP)

APPENDIX A Northern Aboriginal perspectives: Case studies of the experiences of Canada's northern Aboriginals with POPs and their contributions to the Stockholm Convention and control of international POPs

Inuit ice fishing for smelt in winter

© Eric Loring

• Case study: Protecting the health and cultures of Arctic Indigenous Peoples by translating POPs science into international policy: The perspective of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference
• Case study: Athabaskan contributions to the elimination/reduction of persistent organic pollutants

Case study: Protecting the health and cultures of Arctic Indigenous Peoples by translating POPs science into international policy: The perspective of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference

by Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Terry Fenge and Stephanie Meakin, Inuit Circumpolar Conference⁸⁷

Introduction

In recent years, two important international agreements have been concluded to reduce and eventually eliminate emissions to the environment of key persistent organic pollutants (POPs): the POPs Protocol to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP Convention) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Stockholm Convention on POPs.

While important to protect the health and well-being of citizens in all portions of the globe, these agreements are particularly important to Indigenous Peoples in the circumpolar Arctic. Because of the importance of the issue, Inuit and other Arctic Indigenous Peoples participated actively in the global POPs negotiations.

Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of UNEP, acknowledged the productive role of Arctic Indigenous Peoples at the signing of the Stockholm Convention, and the Convention itself points to this in preambular language similar to that in the LRTAP POPs Protocol:

Acknowledging that the Arctic ecosystems and indigenous communities are particularly at risk because of the biomagnification of persistent organic pollutants and that contamination of their traditional foods is a public health issue.

The preambular provisions of both agreements acknowledge the singular importance of POPs to the Arctic environment and Arctic Indigenous Peoples — an unusual circumstance in international law.

Why and how did this recognition come about? Are there lessons here that may assist states, citizens and non-governmental organizations to implement these agreements? Might some of the principles that guided and promoted the inclusion of Arctic Indigenous Peoples in the negotiations be referenced and/or included in formal implementation plans? Might monitoring of POPs levels in the Arctic environment and biota, including humans, illustrate the impact globally of the international agreements designed to rid the world of POPs? This short case study seeks to flesh out and at least to partially answer these questions with a view to encouraging full and comprehensive implementation of the two POPs agreements.

Recognizing an Arctic dimension to the POPs problem

That certain POPs were injurious to public and environmental health has been known for decades. Rachel Carson brought particular attention to this fact through her widely read book Silent Spring, published in the early 1960s. It was not until the mid-1980s, however, that an Arctic dimension to this issue emerged publicly.

In 1987, a midwife from Puvignirtuk in Nunavik (northern Quebec) collected breast milk samples from Inuit women in this Hudson Bay community as a "blank" control component of a provincial survey carried out by the Public Health Research Unit of the Laval University Medical Research Centre to monitor breast milk contamination by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other chlorinated organic contaminants. The gas chromatograph profiles surprised scientists. A very wide range of chemicals was found at levels of concentration between 5 and 10 times higher than in breast milk samples taken from women in southern Canada and the northern United States. Simultaneously, scientists from McGill University reported a high intake of PCBs and high PCB blood concentration in Inuit resident on Broughton Island and on southern Baffin Island, as a result of exposure through the consumption of marine mammals.

Figure A-1: Map of Inuit regions and communities

Click to enlarge (PDF Version)

Source: Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK)

Inuit hunters butchering a walrus

© Eric Loring

In northern Canada, Inuit were surprised to learn that POPs, mostly emitted to the environment far to the south, had invaded the seemingly pristine Arctic. Having ingested these chemicals by eating traditional country food, Inuit women were passing them to the fetus through the placenta and to infants through breast milk. That living one's life according to ancient tradition and culture might actually harm babies was a deeply shocking prospect. As more research data became available, Arctic Indigenous Peoples throughout the circumpolar world came to share contaminants-related public health concerns.

To Arctic Indigenous Peoples, POPs and heavy metals in country food are not just an environmental or even a public health issue. Contamination of country food raises fundamental questions of cultural survival, for it threatens to psychologically divorce people from their land. Speaking in 1998 on behalf of all Arctic Indigenous Peoples, Sheila Watt-Cloutier, then President of Inuit Circumpolar Conference Canada (ICC), noted:

To sustain ourselves during the last century of rapid change, we have treasured more than ever our land and the food which comes from the land. The process of hunting and fishing, followed by the sharing of food, communal partaking of one animal, is the time-honoured ritual which links us to our ancestors and each other.

The power of this connection holds us together as a people, gives us the spiritual strength and physical energy to survive the challenges we face....So imagine for a moment if you will the emotions we now feel: shock, panic, rage, grief, despair, as we discover that the food which for generations has nourished us and keeps us whole physically and spiritually is now poisoning us.

It was well known that several organic contaminants identified in reconnaissance research in northern Quebec and southern Baffin Island displayed immunotoxic properties in both laboratory animals and humans. Contaminant levels in Arctic birds and mammals were reported in several federal government research papers as "exceed[ing] some thresholds associated with reproductive, immunosuppressive and neurobehavioural effects in laboratory animals and some studied wildlife species." A key question was how governments in Canada would respond.

The Northern Contaminants Program (NCP)

Federal and territorial researchers formed an ad hoc committee in 1985 to look into the Arctic POPs issue. The committee concluded that the small amount of PCBs in old military sites in the territorial North could not account for the levels of PCBs reported in Inuit women and children. By the late 1980s, it was assumed that long-range transport of POPs to the Arctic by winds, followed by bioaccumulation and biomagnification in each trophic level of the food web and ingestion by humans eating traditional country food such as seals, whales and walrus, accounted for the high levels of POPs in blood and breast milk. While the outline of the issue was broadly understood at least in theory, the mechanics and long-term effects of chronically high levels of POPs and potential policy responses domestically and internationally were very unclear.

In 1989, the ad hoc committee convened a workshop to develop a long-term interagency research and monitoring strategy to address the issue. The committee prepared a report summarizing the current knowledge on the subject, subsequently published as a special issue of Science of the Total Environment. The alarmist press coverage of the committee's work persuaded many Inuit women to stop breastfeeding their infants and to stop eating country food.

From: Northern Lights Against POPs; Combatting Toxic Threats in the Arctic, 2003, p. 26.

From: Northern Lights Against POPs; Combatting Toxic Threats in the Arctic, 2003, p. 38

To deal with the POPs issue, four northern Aboriginal Peoples' organizations, two territorial governments and four federal agencies joined together to develop a response strategy. Included in this strategy was advice to northerners concerning the health aspects of their traditional country food diets (see Tables A-1 and A-2) and research and action to identify contaminant sources and to promote emission controls internationally.

The federal government established a Northern Contaminants Program (NCP) through the 1990 national Green Plan. This program formalized and extended the partnership between federal and territorial agencies and Aboriginal Peoples initiated as a result of the work of the ad hoc committee. With an annual budget of $5-6 million and the ability to lever the use of additional dollars in other programs, the NCP brought together federal and territorial agencies and Aboriginal Peoples' organizations to determine research priorities, to solicit and evaluate research proposals, to discuss and use research results to inform northerners about risks and benefits of dietary choices and to promote international action by the Government of Canada.

The NCP was and remains unusual and innovative. Embedded within it are representatives of Indigenous Peoples — the population in Canada most obviously at risk. Certainly the program was crucial to all that followed, including efforts by the eight-nation Arctic Council to promote international controls to reduce POPs emissions.

NCP Phase One

The key findings of the first phase of the NCP from 1992 to 1997 may be summarized as follows:

• Contaminants have been detected in all components of the northern food chain.
  
  
• Animals high in the food chain and high in fat, such as marine mammals, have the highest levels of POPs.
  
  
• Sources of POPs and some metals are distant, and the contaminants are transported from the industrial and agricultural areas of the world to Canada's North by air and water currents.
  
  
• Inuit women have levels of PCBs and other POPs in their milk and blood that are five times higher than those of women in southern Canada and among the highest levels in the world.
  
  
• In parts of the North, levels of PCBs in mothers' blood are at or exceed levels that have been associated, in studies in the Great Lakes region, with neurobehavioural effects on children.

In 1997, the Government of Canada released the Canadian Arctic Contaminants Assessment Report (CACAR), a compendium of NCP research to date. This report concluded:

Contaminants in the food chain are not thought to pose a direct threat to the health of adult humans. Contaminant levels in traditional/country food are low enough that a single serving, or even many servings, will not make someone sick. However, lifetime stores of contaminants in people may be at a level where the unborn child may be at risk of subtle effects related to learning ability, memory and resistance to infection.

NCP Phase Two

In 1998, the NCP began a second five-year phase to address immediate health and safety needs of northerners consuming traditional/country foods. The objective of the program was "to reduce and wherever possible eliminate contaminants in traditional harvested foods, while providing information that assists informed decision-making by individuals and communities in their food use." Key objectives of Phase Two included:

• human health research with emphasis on the developing fetus exposed to contaminants through the mother's diet;
  
  
• monitoring the health of Arctic peoples and ecosystems and collection of data to support international controls;
  
  
• education and communication;
  
  
• international policy to promote international control agreements; and
  
  
• Aboriginal partnerships.

The geographical ambit of the NCP was extended in its second phase to include northern Quebec and northern Labrador. The Government of Canada published the results of the second phase in 2003 at an international contaminants conference held in Ottawa that brought together more than 300 researchers, government personnel and northerners. The research confirmed that Inuit were at particular threat from POPs because of their dependence on marine mammals and that health effects on Inuit from the exposure needed to be further studied. The research also showed that the northern terrestrial and freshwater food sources such as caribou and fish were among the healthiest in the world.

Inuit women smoking whitefish for preservation

© Corel Corporation, 1994

Grise Fjords elders prepare caribou and char for community feast 2003

© Eric Loring, 2003

A circumpolar perspective and AMAP's reports

Following the introduction in the mid-1980s of glasnost and perestroika in the Soviet Union, the eight nations of the circumpolar Arctic initiated discussions that resulted, in 1991, in the adoption of an Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS). A key component of this strategy was assessment and monitoring of contaminants to be addressed by the newly established, Oslo-based, Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP).

Having learned of the transboundary contamination problem in the Arctic through what were essentially reconnaissance studies, the ICC, Sami Council and the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON) — the original Indigenous Peoples organizations to participate in the AEPS — became staunch supporters of and participants in AMAP. They appreciated the need for a detailed and comprehensive examination of the issue as a prelude to doing something about this global contaminant phenomenon of long-range transport.

Sami Council, RAIPON and ICC assisted AMAP to build upon and add value to national response strategies and drew heavily upon the results of national research programs. Reports to Senior Arctic Affairs Officials of the Arctic governments were provided every six months and to ministers of the environment of the eight Arctic states every two years. As early as 1993, AMAP recommended to ministers:

Given the increasing substantiation of reasons for concern related to persistent organic pollutants in the Arctic, the eight Arctic countries agree to support activities that will lead to the development of a protocol to control the emissions of these substances under the UNECE LRTAP Convention.

Canada, in particular, was well placed as a result of the NCP to provide data and insights to the evolving circumpolar assessment. AMAP published a lengthy and user-friendly summary of its work in 1997, followed by a comprehensive compendium of the science in 1998. Canada's CACAR and AMAP's 1997 and 1998 reports were highly complementary. AMAP concluded:

The AMAP countries, all being parties to the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) should work vigorously for the expeditious completion of negotiations for the three protocols [including POPs] being prepared....These protocols should apply throughout the full extent of the geographic areas covered by the Convention...the AMAP countries should strongly support the international negotiating committee, to be established early in 1998 following a decision of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), to prepare an international, legally-binding global agreement on controls for twelve specified POPs.

Representatives of ICC attended meetings of AMAP and assisted in crafting the following policy recommendations, which drew heavily upon NCP experience:

• improve use of Aboriginal knowledge in environmental research, including local participation and policy;
  
  
• establish a long-term communication program to provide public information about environmental contaminants, linked to AMAP, which gives access to sound and regularly updated information in understandable language; and
  
  
  
• integrate contaminant issues for different educational levels in order to raise general environmental and scientific literacy among Arctic residents, including Aboriginal Peoples.

In Alta, Norway, in 1997, ministers took to heart these recommendations and promised:

...to increase our efforts to promote international co- operation in order to address serious pollution risks reported by AMAP. We will draw the attention of the global community to the content of the AMAP reports in all relevant international fora, particularly at the forthcoming Special Session of the General Assembly, and we will make a determined effort to secure support for international action, which will reduce Arctic contamination.

The scene was set for Arctic information and concerns to play a significant role in international POPs negotiations.

While recognizing the need for global action on transboundary contaminants, the AMAP assessment pointed out the need for action by Arctic states within the Arctic:

The Arctic countries should take all necessary steps to ensure that their domestic responsibilities and arrangements to reduce contaminant inputs to the Arctic region are fully implemented. If these responsibilities and arrangements are not addressed in an appropriate manner, the justification for recommending actions aimed at reducing transboundary contaminants with sources outside of the Arctic will be accordingly diminished.

In September 1998, Arctic Council ministers responded to this recommendation by instructing Senior Arctic Affairs Officials to develop a plan to address pollution sources within the Arctic. The resulting Arctic Council Action Plan on Pollution (ACAP), approved by ministers at their meeting in Barrow, Alaska, in 2000 and currently being implemented, consists of an overall strategy to promote cooperation and an accompanying list of agreed-upon projects. In no small measure, the AMAP assessment gave birth to ACAP, although the gestation period was over two years.

In gauging the influence of the assessment, it seems appropriate to leave the final word to AMAP's chair between 1991 and 1997, who, when speaking on the international ramifications of the assessment, said:

1. The AEPS and Arctic Council provided a clear policy objective — the protection of the Arctic environment and the well-being of its Indigenous people in relation to POPs.
   
   
2. It provided a forum for cooperatively gathering a sound and compelling scientific case on the need for action.
   
   
3. It equipped our political leaders to make national policy decisions on the need for international action and then to seek such action, initially through their joint Ministerial Declarations and then through instructions to their negotiating delegations.
   
   
4. It enabled our delegations to operate upon a common foundation of the best science available.

The POPs Protocol to LRTAP

The LRTAP Convention, signed in 1979 and ratified in 1983, was designed to address sulphur emissions in western Europe and resulting acidification of Scandinavian lakes. The reconnaissance POPs research in northern Quebec and southern Baffin Island mentioned above was referred to the Convention's Working Group on Effects. The Convention's Executive Body subsequently included this issue on the working group's work plan. Sweden and Canada persuaded the Executive Body in 1990 to set up an Intergovernmental Task Force on POPs to meet under the Convention's Working Group on Technology.

In April 1994, the task force concluded that the weight of evidence "clearly indicates that action to address POPs is warranted now." The working groups prepared a draft POPs Protocol in late 1996. Five negotiating sessions involving the UNECE countries were held in Geneva in 1997 and 1998 to address heavy metals and POPs. A POPs protocol to LRTAP was signed in Aarhus, Denmark, in 1998 and came into effect in October 2003.

The Protocol addresses 11 pesticides, 2 industrial chemicals and 3 by-products/contaminants. It bans the production and use of aldrin, chlordane, chlordecone, dieldrin, endrin, hexabromobiphenyl, mirex and toxaphene. Others, including dichlorodiphenyltrichloroe thane (DDT), heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and PCBs, are scheduled for elimination at a later date. Severe use restrictions are placed on DDT, hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH, including lindane) and PCBs. Parties are required to reduce emissions of dioxins, furans, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and HCB below 1990 levels, and specific limit values are defined for incineration of municipal, hazardous and medical waste. The importance of Arctic concerns, as a driver of the Protocol, is plain, for it is referenced in the preamble:

Acknowledging that Arctic ecosystems and especially its Indigenous people, who subsist on Arctic fish and mammals, are particularly at risk because of the biomagnification of persistent organic pollutants,...

States are required to develop strategies and programs to implement obligations within six months of the Protocol entering into force. States are also required to exchange information on the production, use and release of POPs; to promote public information on POPs and alternatives; to encourage research on all aspects of POPs; and to report to the Executive Body on measures taken to implement the Protocol.

In relation to stockpiles and wastes, the Protocol requires sound destruction or disposal in conformity with regional or global regimes, such as the Basel Convention. While not specifying means to add new substances, the Protocol refers to Executive Body decision 1998/2, which outlines information requirements should a state wish to do so.

Meetings of the Executive Body continue as the implementation of the obligations of the LRTAP POPs Protocol advances. Of particular note, in 2003, the Executive Body supported the establishment of a POPs Task Force under the Convention, and in December 2004, the Executive Body supported the importance of high-quality observational data to determine the effectiveness of the protocols.

Clyde River community feast, Arctic Char and Caribou

© Eric Loring, 2003

The United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) Stockholm Convention on POPs

In 1995, UNEP's Governing Council invited the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS) and other international bodies to assess 12 POPs — the "dirty dozen," as they were colloquially named — with the aim of making a case for global action.

Drawing upon LRTAP and AMAP sources, Iceland delivered a synthesis of POPs concerns and data at the Reykjavik preparatory meeting for the 1995 Washington conference to establish the Global Plan of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities. This report stimulated the UNEP Governing Council to invite the Inter-Organization Programme on the Sound Management of Chemicals (IOMC) and the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS) to assess the need for global action on the 12 named POPs. Arctic data featured prominently in this assessment, for the AMAP reports were now in the printing process, and earlier drafts had been broadly circulated. Immediate action was recommended. In 1997, the Governing Council requested its Executive Director to convene an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) with a mandate to prepare an international legally binding instrument to address the identified POPs and to identify additional candidate substances for future action. A favourable response led to the negotiations towards a global POPs Convention beginning in 1998. Following negotiations in Montreal, Nairobi, Geneva, Bonn and Johannesburg, the Convention was signed in Stockholm in May 2001 by 114 countries. It entered into force on May 17, 2004.

The Convention's first Article draws attention to the precautionary approach and states an objective: "to protect human health and the environment from POPs." In language similar to the LRTAP POPs Protocol, the Stockholm preamble acknowledges:

...Arctic ecosystems and Aboriginal communities are particularly at risk because of the biomagnification of persistent organic pollutants and that contamination of their traditional foods is a public health issue.

Acknowledging that many countries have limited technical as well as financial capacity, the Convention establishes a Capacity Assistance Network (a suggestion submitted to the Canadian government in advance of INC 2 by the Canadian Arctic Indigenous Peoples Against POPs, or CAIPAP) to help countries implement the Convention by strengthening their regulatory, monitoring and enforcement procedures. The idea evolved into the $20 million Canada POPs Fund announced at INC 4 to support capacity building to reduce or eliminate releases of POPs from developing countries and countries with economies in transition. The World Bank administers the Canada POPs Fund, which also provides support for capacity-building initiatives undertaken by UNEP and other multilateral organizations (www.chem.unep.ch/CanadaPOPsFund/Default.htm).

Canadian Aboriginal Peoples and the international POPs agreements

The NCP put northern Aboriginal Peoples' organizations on a steep learning curve about POPs science. It soon became clear to them that this was an issue of great long-term import, raising questions of health and culture as well as environmental protection. It was also clear quite early in the NCP process that the only long- term solution was to turn off the POPs taps at source — initially a daunting prospect. At no stage were the Aboriginal Peoples' organizations prepared to advise against eating highly nutritious traditional/country food obtained through hunting and fishing — age-old practices that lay at the heart of what it means to be Aboriginal.

Throughout the 1990s, Inuit were represented in the NCP by the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, now the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (www.itk.ca), and the ICC (www.inuitcircumpolar.com). The latter organization, with a mandate to represent Inuit internationally, was an official observer at meetings of the AEPS and a "permanent participant" in the eight-nation Arctic Council, which, in 1997, subsumed the AEPS. Inuit were well able to connect the domestic NCP with the evolving circumpolar work on the issue. In 2000, First Nations in the Northwest Territories and Yukon established the Arctic Athabascan Council (AAC) (www.arcticathabaskancouncil.com/) and the Gwich'in Council International (www.gwichin.org) to participate in the Arctic Council, enabling them also to connect the NCP with AMAP.

Having worked cooperatively in the NCP, northern Aboriginal Peoples organizations (Council for Yukon First Nations, Dene Nation, ICC and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami) established in 1997 the coalition CAIPAP. With a mandate to encourage and press the Government of Canada to take an assertive position in the LRTAP negotiations then under way and the global POPs negotiations soon to start, CAIPAP participated in two LRTAP negotiations and all of the global POPs sessions.

The coalition called upon the involvement and interventions of their Aboriginal politicians keen to protect the health of their constituents. At the beginning of the global POPs process, the coalition defined a position from which it never wavered, seeking a comprehensive, verifiable and rigorously implemented convention. These principles were supported by the coalition's technical analyses that the Convention commit to POPs elimination rather than perpetual management and that generous funding and technical assistance be provided to developing countries and those with economies in transition to enable them to live up to obligations and duties in the Convention. As well, the Convention developed positions on destruction of stockpiles, import and export controls, and detailed other features of a "model" convention.

Faculty and graduate students of the Faculty of Law at the University of Calgary advised the coalition that verification provisions of arms control treaties might be usefully included in the global POPs Convention as a means of ensuring Convention implementation. At the request of CAIPAP, an Aboriginal woman from the western Arctic was included on Canada's delegation.

The coalition intervened at all negotiating sessions with telling effect. The first intervention at the Montreal session generated a round of applause by the more than 800 delegates — the only occasion in the more than two years of negotiations that this happened. The fact that Arctic Indigenous Peoples were "exotic" to most of the participating states and were listened to with curiosity added to the coalition's influence. A Chukchi medical doctor from Chukotka in the Far East of the Russian Federation and Vice-President of RAIPON joined the coalition in Nairobi, Bonn and Johannesburg, widening the coalition's geographical base, legitimacy and influence. She spoke convincingly of the POPs- related health concerns of 200 000 Indigenous people in the Russian Arctic.

The coalition linked long-range transport of POPs to the Arctic, which resulted in chronic health concerns of Aboriginal Peoples who eat traditional/country food, with acute health concerns of women, children and workers in tropical and temperate countries from fields being sprayed with offending pesticides and insecticides. This outreach proved very useful. At one stage, developing countries balked at the prospect of including DDT in the Convention. While banned in Canada for many years, DDT is used in tropical and temperate countries as a vector control for malaria, saving thousands of lives in the process. Just as the issue threatened to destabilize and/or polarize negotiations along north- south lines, the President of ICC Canada, speaking for the coalition, informed negotiators that Arctic Indigenous Peoples would refuse to be party to a convention that threatened the health of others. Such remarks helped to bridge the north-south divide.

Signed in Stockholm in May 2001, the global POPs Convention is now in force, and the first Conference of the Parties to the Convention took place in Uruguay in May 2005. Canada's Environment Minister recognized the important contribution of Canada's Inuit and other CAIPAP leaders to the success of the Convention, in a tribute immediately before the signing ceremony:

As you are aware, Canada is the first country to announce that it will both sign and ratify the UN Global Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in Stockholm on May 23. Canada's leading role in concluding this treaty reflected the strong engagement of Northern Aboriginal leaders such as yourselves, early Arctic Council work and the importance of the Northern dimension of our foreign policy. We will promote the early entry into force of the Convention in the lead up to and at the Johannesburg summit.

Bibliography

Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, Arctic Pollution Issues: A State of the Arctic Environment Report, Oslo, Norway, 1997.

Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, AMAP Assessment Report: Arctic Pollution Issues, Oslo, Norway, 1998.

Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, AMAP Assessment 2002: Human Health in the Arctic, Oslo, Norway, 2003.

Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, Persistent Toxic Substances, Food Security and Indigenous Peoples of the Russian North, Oslo, Norway, 2004.

Bidelman, T.F., Macdonald, R.W. and Stow, J.P. (eds.), Sources, occurrence, trends and pathways of contaminants in the Arctic. Science of the Total Environment 2005; 342: 1-313.

Braune, B., Muir, D., DeMarch, B., Gamberg, M., Poole, K., Currie, R., Dodd, M., Dusckenko, W., Eamer, J., Elkin, B., Evans, M., Grundy, S., Hebert, C., Johnstone, R., Kidd, K., Koenig, B., Lockhart, L., Marshall, H., Reimer, K., Sanderson, J. and Shutt, L., Spatial and temporal trends of contaminants in Canadian Arctic freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems: a review. Science of the Total Environment 1999; 230: 145-207.

Downie, D.L. and Fenge, T. (eds.), Northern Lights Against POPs; Combatting Toxic Threats in the Arctic, McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal and Kingston, 2003.

Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Canadian Arctic Contaminants Assessment Report, Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, Ottawa, 1997.

Kuhnlein, H.V., Receveur, O., Muir, D.C.G., Chan, H.M. and Soueida, R., Arctic indigenous women consume greater than acceptable levels of organochlorines. Journal of Nutrition 1995; 125: 2501-2510.

Macdonald, R.W., Barrie, L.A., Bidleman, T.F., Diamond, M.L., Gregor, D.J., Semkin, R.G., Strachan, W.J., Li, Y.F., Wania, F., Alaee, M., Alexeeva, L.B., Backus, S.M., Bailey, R., Bewers, J.M., Gobeil, C., Halsall, C.J., Harner, T., Hoff, J.T., Jantunen, L.M.M., Lockhart, W.L., Mackay, D., Muir, D.C.G., Pudykiewicz, J., Reimer, K.J., Smith, J.N., Stern, G.A., Schroeder, W.H., Wagemann, R. and Yunker, M.B., Contaminants in the Canadian Arctic: 5 years of progress in understanding sources, occurrence and pathways. Science of the Total Environment 2000; 254: 93-234.

Muir, D.C.G., Born, E.W., Koczansky, K. and Stern, G.A., Temporal and spatial trends of persistent organochlorines in Greenland walrus (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus). Science of the Total Environment 2000; 245: 73-86.

Muir, D., Braune, B., DeMarch, B., Norstrom, R., Wageman, R., Lockhart, L., Hargrave, B., Bright, D., Addison, R., Payne, J. and Reimer, K., Spatial and temporal trends and effects of contaminants in the Canadian Arctic marine ecosystem: a review. Science of the Total Environment 1999; 230: 83-144.

Muir, D., Shearer, R., Van Oostdam, J., Donaldson, S. and Furgal, C., Contaminants in Canadian Arctic biota and implications for human health. Science of the Total Environment 2005; 351-352; 1-3.

Northern Contaminants Program, Canadian Arctic Contaminants Assessment Report II (5 volumes), Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, Ottawa, 2003.

Van Oostdam, J., Gilman, A., Dewailly, E., Usher, P., Wheatley, B., Kuhnlein, H., Neve, S., Walker, J., Tracy, B., Feeley, M., Jerome, V. and Kwavnick, B., Human health implications of environmental contaminants in Arctic Canada: A review. Science of the Total Environment 1999; 230:1-82.

Figure A-2: Map of Athabaskan communities in northern Canada

Click to enlarge

Source: www.arcticathabaskancouncil.com/maps/index.php

Case study: Athabaskan contributions to the elimination/reduction of persistent organic pollutants

by Chris Paci, Cindy Dickson and Carole Mills, Arctic Athabaskan Council⁸⁸

Introduction

By 1989, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), such as dichlo rodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), lindane and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and heavy metals, such as mercury, were being reported in traditional foods in the Canadian North. As a result, Indigenous Peoples wanted to know what kinds of contaminants were in their traditional foods, where these were coming from, what the health implications were from continued exposure and what they could do to help "shut off the tap" on contaminants coming into the North. The federal government and scientists conducted research to explain to residents, as well as national and international observers, where contaminants were coming from and the environmental health impacts these contaminants were having. The primary source for many of the POPs was from uses far removed from the North.

Athabaskans wanted to know what types of POPs and metals were in our environment and food chains. The research and explanation of these questions turned into a multistakeholder research program, the Northern Contaminants Program (NCP). Program results confirmed that the primary source for contaminants in the North was from the long-range transport of POPs into Denendeh (the Dene name for their traditional territories that form the bulk of the Northwest Territories) and the Yukon through air and water currents. POPs are naturally carried from areas where they are first used north to areas where they have never been used. As results were relayed and discussed, Indigenous Peoples were clear that the only viable solution for reducing our exposure to environmental contaminants was to put our efforts into removing the source of contaminants, not by limiting the consumption of traditional/country foods. This direction prompted Athabaskans to engage at the international and local levels in actions to reduce contaminant sources.

Athabaskans have extensive knowledge of the northern environment. Relative to southern Canadians, northern Indigenous Peoples are the most impacted peoples to be exposed to long- range contamination. The ongoing experience and participation of Athabaskans in international conventions continue to provide Canada with valuable contributions towards the elimination and reduction of POPs, controls reflected by the Stockholm Convention and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP) Protocols for POPs and Heavy Metals.

Contaminants from Athabaskan perspectives

Athabaskans understand the potential health risks posed by contaminants in the North, often expressing their views of health by way of their confidence in what the land provides to them. Both the general health of the Dene, Yukon First Nations and Metis and the specific health of families and individuals have been mirrored by the relative health of the land. When the land is healthy, so too are Indigenous Peoples. When the land is sick, no matter what is causing the sickness, this is felt by Indigenous Peoples in terms of spiritual, emotional and physical well-being. Our survival as Indigenous Peoples is dependent on a healthy northern environment (AMAP 2002:v). A lack of confidence in the safety of traditional foods contributes to the cultural degradation of Indigenous Peoples. Sickness of the land surfaces as a political issue that requires organizational representation.

Teaching the next generation about the land

© Council of Yukon First Nations

Northern Contaminants Program (NCP) and northern peoples

In the early 1990s, the NCP brought together a number of northern Aboriginal governmental organizations, federal and territorial government departments and academic institutions in search of scientific answers about contaminants in traditional/country foods. A unique partnership was formed, one that provided each partner with the capacity to make informed decisions about the relative risk and benefits of consuming traditional foods. Each partner in the NCP set its own organizational needs to focus on research and the proper communication of results to those most impacted by long-range contaminants.

Dene Nation became a key partner in the NCP, along with Council of Yukon First Nations, Metis Nation and Inuit organizations. For each of these Aboriginal governmental organizations, the NCP became the forum to encourage the reduction and, where possible, elimination of contaminants in traditional foods, while providing information to assist our members in making informed decisions about their food use.

The federal government has invested in the participation of Dene and other Indigenous Peoples in the management of the NCP, which has strengthened the program and contributed substantially to its success (Furgal et al. 2003:18). For example, Dene Nation sits on the NCP Management Committee and from 2001 to 2004 was co-chair of the Northwest Territories Environmental Contaminants Committee. The NCP enabled Dene and other Indigenous Peoples to establish a world-leading research laboratory at McGill University (Centre for Indigenous Nutrition and Environment).

The NCP recognized that any information Indigenous Peoples receive about contaminants in traditional/country foods could significantly affect our diets, economies and ways of life. Therefore, the program invested considerable time and resources into education, training, capacity building and communications. Several unique and institutional arrangements and models were conceived, such as territorial contaminants committees, regional contaminants coordinators, community tours, front-line training courses, school contaminants curriculum and so on.

The NCP has built the community capacity of northern Indigenous Peoples by developing technical capacity in the North (e.g., regional contaminants coordinators) and building bridges between traditional and scientific knowledge holders. For example, Dene Nation hosted three Elders' and Scientists' Retreats, produced videos on these meetings and developed a handbook on traditional knowledge in Denendeh. All research has been published in the academic press, to increase the value and knowledge of contaminant-related impacts in the North, and results have been disseminated to northern communities in all languages and in ways that Indigenous Peoples understand.

Curriculum specific to the North and contaminant issues has been developed for use in northern schools. In addition, Denendeh Contaminant Tours have been completed for the sole purpose of contaminants education and communication throughout Dene communities. Through the NCP, a network of trusted Aboriginal contacts has been formed in the North, which has facilitated a better understanding of the issues and has reduced misunderstandings of contaminants research and activities.

Dene Drummers

Photo by: T. Parker / © Northwest Territories Tourism

Contaminants research in Denendeh

In May 2000, media reported on a scientist's statements made at a conference in southern Canada, which focused on contaminant levels in Tutcho (Great Slave Lake), a primary food source for many Dene people. The statements were both inaccurate and alarmist. Alarmist messages can have considerable negative consequences on economically and culturally important traditional food systems (harvesting activities) and can have impacts on human nutrition and health (consumption) when fear leads to shifts away from traditional food use. The scientist was not working under the NCP and was not known by the communities that could be affected by the inaccurate statements. Rather than becoming anxious and believing the media reports, communities knew to immediately contact Dene Nation and other trusted contacts for clarification. This was possible because of the trusted network built by the NCP and because of a good understanding of the state of knowledge of contaminants facilitated by the NCP. Without the trust and knowledge, federal governments would have expended a great deal of energy denying those results and may not ultimately have been believed.

Canadian Arctic Contaminants Assessment Reports

The findings of the first five years of NCP-sponsored research were published in 1997 (Jensen et al. 1997) as the first Canadian Arctic Contaminants Assessment Report (CACAR). This report provided a good idea of the contaminants coming to the Northwest Territories from elsewhere, acknowledging which heavy metals, POPs and radionuclides were found in traditional foods. In 2003, the second assessment, CACAR II, was published (Furgal et al. 2003), providing greater insight on the state of environmental health. The second report provided a more accessible continuation of this work. NCP research has enabled the Council of Yukon First Nations and Dene Nation to conclude that long-range contaminants are having minimal effects on the quality of traditional foods. Therefore, an important finding resulting from NCP research is that "traditional Athabaskan foods are healthy," with relatively low levels of contaminants and high nutritional value. Health risk and benefit assessment has been advanced a great deal by the work of the NCP. Risk management for Denendeh, for example, would rank exposure to long-range contaminants in traditional foods as low. A note of caution to this announcement is that cumulative impacts and mixtures of contaminants, as well as new and emerging contaminants and local point source contamination (e.g., from historical mining in Denedeh), are not included in the risk designation of the NCP. Traditional Athabaskan foods are healthy, except in the cases where health consumption advisories have been issued.

Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme

The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) of the Arctic Council has released two major assessments on northern contaminants (AMAP 1997, 1998, 2002, 2003), and the next report is expected in 2012. These assessments rely on domestic data, which Canada provides through the NCP. Indigenous Peoples participate directly in AMAP as well as sitting on the Arctic Council. Canada provides AMAP with relevant research priorities, successful communication models and accurate contaminants information.

Indigenous expertise in assessments

The value of Indigenous participation in this work can be demonstrated with a recent example from the second AMAP assessment report (2002). In the summary report, it was inaccurately shown that cesium-137 was extremely high in caribou for a northern Canadian community — so high, in fact, that it had to be wrong (AMAP 2002:76). Such reporting could have had negative impacts on the residents of that community who depend extensively on caribou. It was pointed out at the AMAP Symposium by technical staff of the Gwich'in Council International and Arctic Athabaskan Council (AAC) that the report was in error. The point was reinforced at the Inari Ministerial Meeting (2002) and corrected before it could be inaccurately communicated further.

International engagement of Arctic Indigenous leaders

It became clear through successive research studies that the primary source of contaminants to the North was from industrial and agricultural activities in other parts of the world. Long-range transport of contaminants affected all aspects of the health of Indigenous Peoples. It was realized that a great effort was needed to end the flow of contaminants north. We needed to address the issue together at the international level. It was noted that not all Arctic Indigenous Peoples were represented by the three accredited United Nations bodies: Saami Council, Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON) and Inuit Circumpolar Conference. To address this, the Dene Nation hosted the first meeting of Arctic Indigenous leaders from the Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alaska and Russia, including peoples not accredited by the United Nations in 1996. This meeting helped inform the Arctic Council member states on the necessity of recognizing all Aboriginal Peoples as Permanent Participants to the Council. The Dene Nation, the Council of Yukon First Nations and Metis Nation entered into an international treaty to create the Arctic Athabaskan Council (AAC). Since the initial meeting, three permanent participants, including AAC, have been added to the existing three. Athabaskans continue to play an important role in the Arctic Council, contributing the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA 2005) and the Arctic Human Development Report (AHDR 2004).

The institutional linkages of AAC provide us with the ability to meaningfully monitor and help implement the elimination of circumpolar pollution. Arctic Council projects offer us insight on how we are able to work on this important issue and attract additional resources. The institutional capacity of AAC to participate in the Stockholm Convention and protocols on heavy metals and POPs depends on resources.

Northern Ecosystem Initiative (NEI)

Although significant progress was made at eliminating the sources of contaminants from other parts of the world, Elders told us that there were still problems with the land. We knew that problems with the land were not coming solely from other parts of the world; local point sources were also contributing to local environments. We turned to Canada's Northern Ecosystem Initiative (NEI) in our concern to understand the contributions of climate change to contaminants and the health of northern ecosystems. Government policies and programs in northern Canada were disconnected when it came to climate change issues. In 2002, Dene Nation secured funds for the first Denendeh Environmental Working Group workshops and, at the end of 2002, joined the National Steering Committee under a Partnership Agreement. Council of Yukon First Nations joined the Steering Committee shortly thereafter. Athabaskans have actively lobbied at the Contaminants Partner- Issue table for local contaminant concern funding to better understand the issues related to local contaminants impacting ecosystem health. Dene Nation, Council of Yukon First Nations and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami sit at the NEI National Steering Committee; in addition, all three are active members of the Contaminants Partner-Issue table.

Boy with mask at celebration

Photo by: W. Towriss © Government of Yukon

Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA 1999)

The Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA 1999) is a primary federal tool for Canada to implement the Stockholm Convention. The Act limits or curtails the production (including unintentionally produced POPs, or UPOPs) and use of the dirty dozen POPs listed in the Stockholm Convention. The National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) is managed under CEPA 1999. The legislation is to be reviewed every five years. The year 2005 marks the first five-year anniversary of the Act and ushers in the Parliamentary review process. An important feature of CEPA 1999 is the involvement of a National Advisory Committee, an intergovernmental forum that includes up to six representatives of Aboriginal governments. Furthermore, CEPA 1999 regulates more toxic substances than the 12 POPs listed in the Stockholm Convention. The Assembly of First Nations organized a regional First Nations meeting to hear from member organizations, including Dene Nation, in developing a briefing for the Ministers of Environment and of Health, the two ministers responsible for CEPA 1999. Representatives of Environment Canada and Health Canada also have travelled through Canada for "stakeholder" consultations. Dene Nation attended the Yellowknife meeting, and we subsequently attended a meeting hosted by Environment Canada in Ottawa on the National Implementation Plan (NIP). The substance of Athabaskan views is contained in this case study.

Arctic Climate Impact Assessment

Because of our close ties to the land, Arctic Indigenous Peoples have provided the first indications of changing climate and biodiversity. Changes in climate have a direct relationship to the release of contaminants in the Arctic, as heating and cooling will add to the levels of contaminants already in the environment. In the case of metals such as mercury, increased thawing of permafrost is thought to increase the potential release of contaminants in water and fish. The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) began in 2000; while it originated in AMAP, it also involves the International Arctic Science Committee and Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna. The level of engagement of Athabaskans and all northern Indigenous Peoples has been very significant. The ACIA Symposium, held in November 2004, saw presentations from key Indigenous leaders and collaborative scientific research. Key results were released in a synthesis report in 2004, with the scientific report published in 2005.

Stockholm Convention

The impact that Indigenous Peoples can have on international initiatives is evidenced in our participation in the negotiations of the Stockholm Convention on POPs. The rapid and successful completion of the negotiations was due in part to Indigenous Peoples' contributions to the development of Canada's positions and driven by the unexpected high levels of contaminants found in Arctic Indigenous Peoples. We were able to keep our cultural health as a focus for the discussions.

International lobby

Dene Nation, Council of Yukon First Nations and Inuit organizations played a very important role in the chain of events leading to the Stockholm Convention. In 1993, Athabaskan leadership supported a study to look at the levels of contaminants in the umbilical cord blood of people who consume traditional foods. Dene Nation and regional Inuit organizations developed a culturally sensitive recruitment protocol and information materials, contributed to study design and assisted in the dissemination of results. The studies received a very high participation rate, and the recruitment protocol has been adopted by other regions and countries. The results from the studies showed levels of contaminants in traditional food users, elevated enough, in enough people, to warrant immediate international attention. Discussions began at the UNECE and soon progressed to UNEP, resulting in the Stockholm Convention, ratified in 2004. This is a prime example of how Indigenous partnerships helped negotiate an international treaty to protect the global environment.

Canada's NIP/National Action Plan (NAP) for the Stockholm Convention is the most recent stage in developing a collective response to the problems of long-range transport of contaminants. The NIP includes consultations with key partners and stakeholders and the development of a NAP. Indigenous Peoples can contribute by providing an effective communications network, identifying new concerns and partnering in the monitoring of contaminants. The success of the NIP/NAP will depend on the continued building of partnerships between Canada and Indigenous Peoples. The global implementation of the Convention starts in the North and will require our work internationally in a coordinated and effective way. Like the NCP before it, the NIP/NAP requires key investments and creative partnerships.

Conclusions

The resources required to work on international initiatives such as ACIA and AMAP take advantage of various synergies, including domestic programs set up by the federal government, such as the NCP and NEI. Being connected through various institutions is important, and equally important is the capacity that is enhanced by each project activity. Having well-trained and capable staff, educated and aware leadership and connected networks of researchers and scientists is essential for capacity building, to enable northerners to increase their ability to deal with complex environmental problems. Such was the case when Elders and scientists first voiced their concerns that traditional foods were contaminated. We have enough experience and knowledge to say that in Denendeh our traditional foods are healthy, but we must remain vigilant to ensure that they stay healthy.

Canada's current and past actions allow it to meet the requirements of the Stockholm Convention. However, Canada also needs to continue to lead the world in the reduction and elimination of contaminants by building on the successful engagement of Indigenous Peoples in the implementation of the Stockholm Convention. We know that our involvement in the NAP will be of critical importance to Canada.

The connection of circumpolar environments at the policy level is crucial. We have learned invaluable lessons from the UNECE LRTAP protocols (Heavy Metals and POPs) and the Stockholm Convention. The work at the international level illustrates a real need for and benefit to putting northern Indigenous Peoples face to face with policy- and decision-makers. Furthermore, this work is supported by extensive work at the domestic, regional and community levels. It is important to ensure that the channels of communication are open, with information flowing both ways. When Athabaskans are engaged in discussions of impacts on their environment, there is an opportunity to demonstrate connections we share, despite great geographic distances.

References

ACIA (2005). Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. Cambridge University Press. www.acia.uaf.edu

AHDR (2004). Arctic Human Development Report. Stefansson Arctic Institute, Akureyri, Iceland. www.svs.is/AHDR/ AHDR%20chapters/Chapters%20PDF.htm

AMAP (1997). Arctic Pollution Issues: A State of the Arctic Environment Report. Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, Oslo, Norway.

AMAP (1998). AMAP Assessment Report: Arctic Pollution Issues. Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, Oslo, Norway.

AMAP (2002). AMAP Arctic Pollution 2002. Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, Oslo, Norway.

AMAP (2003). AMAP Assessment 2002: Human Health in the Arctic. Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, Oslo, Norway.

Damstra, T. et al. (eds.) (2002). Global Assessment of the State- of-the-Science of Endocrine Disruptors. World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.

Dene Nation (n.d., ca. 1997). "Strengthening the Ties in Denendeh." Video (38 min).

Dene Nation (n.d., ca. 1998). "Strengthening the Ties in Denendeh 2." Video (34 min).

Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (2003). Highlights of the Canadian Arctic Contaminants Assessment Report II. Ottawa. www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ncp/pub/pdf/hig/hil_e.pdf

Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (2003). Knowledge in Action. Canadian Arctic Contaminants Assessment Report II. Ottawa. www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ncp/pub/pdf/kno/kno_e.pdf

Jensen, J., Adare, K. and Shearer, R. (eds.) (1997). Canadian Arctic Contaminants Assessment Report (CACAR). Public Works, Ottawa.

Johansson, G., Paci, C., Stenersen, S., Fedorova, C. and Keskitalo, J.H. (2004). Education. In: Arctic Human Development Report. Stefansson Arctic Institute, Akureyri, Iceland, pp. 169-186.

Paci, C. (2003). Northern Contaminants Program in the NWT. EPINorth 15(4):1, 15.

Paci, C., Dickson, C., Nickels, S., Chan, L. and Furgal, C. (2004). Food Security of Northern Indigenous Peopls in a Time of Uncertainty. A position paper presented for the 3rd Northern Research Forum Open Meeting in Yellowknife and Rae Edzo, September 15-18, 2004.

Paci, C., Dickson, C., Nickels, S., Chan, L. and Furgal, C. (2005). Climate change and human health, a Canadian example of traditional/country food security research. In: L. Hinenen et al. (eds.), The Resilient North: Human Responses to Global Change.

Tyson, M. (1999). TK for Dummies. Dene Nation, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

⁸⁷ The authors are responsible for the information and opinions contained in this case study, which do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Government of Canada.

⁸⁸ The authors are responsible for the information and opinions contained in this case study, which do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Government of Canada.