Side Event

Creating and Maintaining Meaningful Partnerships in the North West Territories Protected Areas Strategy

Organizer
Government of the Northwest Territories

Date and Time
2 November 2009 13:15 - 14:45

Meeting
Sixth meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Article 8(j) and Related Provisions (WG8J 6)

The NWT Protected Areas Strategy (PAS) outlines a community-based process to establish a network of protected areas across the NWT. It promotes a sound approach to land use decision-making by including the best available traditional, ecological, cultural, and economic knowledge. The goals of the PAS are to identify and protect: - Special natural and cultural areas in the NWT. - Core representative areas within each of the 42 ecoregions of the NWT. The PAS involves all people and groups with an interest in the land. Representatives from Aboriginal organizations, the federal and territorial governments, environmental non-governmental organizations, and industry, oversee the planning process through their participation on the NWT PAS Steering Committee. In 2009, Saoyú-ʔehdacho near the community of Délįne became the first protected area established under the PAS. Home to the Sahtugot’ine, the Dene of Great Bear Lake, Saoyú-ʔehdacho consists of the two major peninsulas (Grizzly Bear Mountain and the Scented Grass Hills, in English respectively) on the west arm of Great Bear Lake. Their landscape is rich in history and culture, and helps to define who the Sahtugot’ine are as a people.