Aglukkaq talks about Inuit traditional knowledge at Lima conference

Leona Aglukkaq, the Nunavut MP and federal environment minister, speaking in Iqaluit this past fall. At a Dec. 8 speech in Lima, Peru, she said governments should incorporate traditional Aboriginal knowledge into environmental decision-making. (FILE PHOTO)

Saying it’s a subject “near and dear” to her heart, Leona Aglukkaq, the federal environment minister and Nunavut MP, played up her government’s support for traditional aboriginal knowledge in a speech given Dec. 8 during a United Nations-sponsored COP20 climate change conference in Lima, Peru.

“The importance and value of traditional knowledge is rooted in history and has supported the survival of Arctic peoples in a harsh environment for thousands of years,” Aglukkaq said in speaking notes obtained by Nunatsiaq News.

From Dec. 1 to Dec. 12, representatives from 196 countries have been meeting in Lima to talk about a draft text for a new global climate change treaty that would be completed in December 2015 at the COP21 conference to be held in Paris.

Nunavut Environment Minister Johnny Mike, and environment ministers from Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta are part of the Canadian delegation.

In her speech, given at a discussion on indigenous traditional knowledge held at the Canadian embassy in Lima, Aglukkaq cited Canada’s record on polar bear management as an example of how traditional Aboriginal knowledge can help governments shape environmental policy.

“For example, traditional knowledge has helped shape Canada’s world-class polar bear management system by providing key information about changes in sub-populations, movement, and behaviour of the species,” Aglukkaq’s speaking notes said.

That respect for traditional Inuit knowledge was evident in submissions that Aglukkaq’s department, Environment Canada, made last week to the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board’s public hearing on the Western Hudson Bay polar bear sub-population.

In its submission, Environment Canada acknowledged “the value of information of information provided by Aboriginal peoples living within the Western Hudson Bay region.”

And in their assessment of the subpopulation, they noted that Western Hudson Bay polar bear numbers may have increased in recent years.

Indeed, by incorporating this knowledge we have a better understanding of the polar bear,” Aglukkaq said.

She also cited Parks Canada’s management of Quttinirpaaq National Park on Ellesmere Island.

“Inuit work alongside the Government of Canada in making long-term decisions about the park on its co-management board,” she said.

She also encouraged scientific researchers to establish “trust-based” relationships with Aboriginal peoples who live off the land.

“I’m proud to say that this is an area Canada is leading in,” Aglukkaq said.

And she said Canada “is increasing its efforts to include traditional knowledge in all phases of scientific research activities, including: data collection, analysis, and interpretation.”

The UN conference in Lima is part of the process flowing from the Framework Convention on Climate Change that created the 1997 Kyoto Accord

Last week, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, told CBC News that Canada should do more to reduce fossil fuel emissions.

To that end, Aglukkaq’s environment department has yet to announced long-promised regulations for Canada’s oil and gas industry, similar to new regulations that now cover electricity production and transportation.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Dec. 9 in the House of Commons, in response to opposition questions, that it would be “crazy economic policy to do unilateral penalties on that sector.”

That’s because the country’s petroleum industry is getting hammered by a glut in global production that has seen crude oil prices sink to nearly $60 a barrel, down about 40 per cent from last summer.