A toast to the future of the Arctic



I feel privileged to have recently joined a program that is building on over 30 years of work by WWF in the Arctic.  Over that time, we’ve helped to conserve habitat for species like caribou and bowhead whales, and to protect some of the wildest lands and waters on the planet.  Now, as a new ocean literally emerges from the melting Arctic ice, we face new challenges as well as new opportunities.

(c) James Carpenter/WWF-Canada
Our challenge is to rethink our strategies and methods to achieve our conservation objectives in a dynamic and rapidly changing environment.  Simply saving what’s important today is no longer good enough; we have to be thinking ahead, to the habitat needs of species like polar bears in an environment that is both dramatically transformed as well as significantly more accessible.
The opportunity lies in the increasing attention the Arctic is receiving, from political leaders – with U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton leading her country’s delegations at the Arctic Council meeting just wrapping up in Greenland – from Canadians, and from the various industries interested in exploiting those newly accessible resources – oil and gas, fishing, mining, and the shipping needed to service these industries.  The Arctic is once more a new frontier.

That’s a risk too, of course, but I call it first and foremost an opportunity.  It’s an opportunity to get the rules right, and to do so in advance of major new developments.  Can we learn from past mistakes and chart a new course?  We think so.  The Indigenous peoples and communities who have made the Arctic their home expect and deserve nothing less, and we’re ready to contribute our energy, intelligence, innovative science and commitment to make it a reality.

And, building on the outstanding work we’ve already invested in, we’re not afraid to think big.  Big in terms of protecting 50 percent of the Canadian Arctic.  Conserving the planet’s last remaining Arctic summer sea ice and the critical habitat it provides for polar bears, narwhal and other species.  And, to help us think big, we’re hosting WWF International’s Global Arctic Programme, so as to extend our reach in a truly circumarctic campaign.
The future Arctic we’re planning for will not look like the Arctic of yesteryear – that much is a given – but with your support we can help shape a future path that is grounded above all in the principle of stewardship, and in the practice of sound conservation and responsible development.