Environmental Protection, Indigenous Rights and the Arctic Council: Rock Paper, Scissors on the Ice?

By Jennifer McIver

This article argues that the indigenous peoples in the Arctic have sovereign territorial rights that are inadequately acknowledged under the Declaration on the Establishment of the Arctic Council through which the eight Arctic States seek to develop a regional approach to environmental protection and sustainable development of the Arctic region. The article first explores those natural and climatic factors which make the Arctic the world's most environmentally vulnerable region, as well as the impact of environmental pollution originating in other parts of the world. The article then discusses the increasing focus on environmental protection in the Arctic through the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy and particularly the Declaration on the Establishment of the Arctic Council, along with the role of indigenous peoples as defined in these instruments.

The author discusses the traditional connection and convergence between environmental protection and indigenous interests and how this is now beginning to diverge. In particular, the author notes that indigenous peoples' right to cultural integrity may conflict with and legitimately override environmental law's focus on sustainable development and the prioritization of environmental protection over other interests. The author likens the Arctic's competing interests to the power dynamics in a game of "Rock-Paper-Scissors" where none of the competing interests are absolute. As such, the author argues that indigenous peoples in the Arctic should be full partners in the development of a regional plan to protect the Arctic environment and have a genuinely equal voice in the decision-making structure of the Arctic Council, which currently acknowledges only the eight Arctic States as full "members" of the Council.