Yukon First Nations tackle ANWR

Gary Park

for Petroleum News

Yukon First Nations leaders are applying pressure on four of Canada’s largest banks to stop investing in Arctic energy projects, including Alaska, to protect the range of a vital caribou herd.

During a pre-Christmas meeting in Toronto, the delegation urged the banks - RBC, Scotiabank, TD Canada Trust and CIBC, all of which are believed to have stakes in Arctic oil development - not to participate in the sale of lease agreements in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Cheryl Charlie, a council member of the Vuntut Gwich’in First Nation, VGFN, said the objective was to impress on the banks the importance of ANWR, a calving ground for caribou, in the Gwich’in way of life.

She said the banks were petitioned to refuse financing for any oil and gas program specific to the 1002 lands within ANWR.

Given the serious financial implications, the banks did not make any commitments, Charlie said, but was adamant that the First Nations will follow up on their meeting in 2020.

She said the Gwich’in people are survivors of the land they have occupied for millennia, noting the caribou herd is “part of our survival as a people and we will always stand together and defend our way of life and our culture and identity, which is all related to the caribou.”

In addition to Charlie, the delegation consisted of representatives of the Gwich’in Tribal Council; Liz Staples, the caribou coordinator with VGFN; and two representatives from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.

The trip was made on the heels of an announcement by Goldman Sachs that it will make no further investments in ANWR, joining several other international banking giants in pulling out of energy exploration.

The decision was part of an updated environmental policy by Goldman Sachs, which acknowledged that Indigenous people have used the Arctic region for centuries.

The Porcupine caribou herd calves along the Alaska coast, which is sheltered from predators while offering a nutritious diet of grasses and sedges.

Although caribou and energy development co-exist elsewhere in Alaska and the Yukon, studies have concluded that the herd does not tolerate development on calving grounds, especially during the weeks before and after birth.

- GARY PARK