Delegates, stakeholders and observers gathered on day one of the international Arctic Frontiers conference in Tromso Norway today.
RCI’s Eilis Quinn was there and spoke to us.
ListenFor this tenth annual edition, foreign ministers from several Arctic and near Arctic nations spoke about broad policy issues.
However, there were also strong calls from indigenous speakers from Greenland, Alaska and Norway that things be done differently than they were in the past when it comes to development in the Arctic.
There were comments that too often “southern” ideas, methods, concepts, practices etc were simply transposed to the north where they didn’t really work and caused more harm than good.
The idea that development and environmental protection along with indigenous concerns can be balanced was indicated in examples in Greenland where indigenous communities had an actual say in how development was carried out, and benefits distributed more equitably.
Canada did not speak on this first day. Eilis will have more details on discussions tomorrow and throughout the week.
For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.