The Northern Contaminants Program (NCP) funds research and action by federal and territorial government agencies, universities, and Indigenous peoples’ organizations (Dene Nation, Council for Yukon First Nations, Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, and Inuit Circumpolar Conference (Canada)) to address various contaminants in the North, including persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and heavy metals. The programme is a rarely heralded success story. Not only has it provided scientific data used by Canada to evaluate the significance of the issue, it has visibly informed circumpolar work carried out by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, much of which was published in 1997. As well, the programme equipped the Government of Canada to advocate on the international stage for legal agreements to ban or phase out POPs that end up in the Arctic, contaminating traditional “country food.”
ICC (Canada) has been in the vanguard of international efforts to negotiate and conclude a global agreement to address POPs. Speeches delivered by the president of ICC (Canada) on this issue at sites around the world are found on the ICC (Canada) web site (www.inuitcircumpolar.com). Working in cooperation with Dene and Yukon First Nations, we have had some remarkable successes. The global convention on POPs, finalized in South Africa in December 2000 and signed in Sweden in May 2001, singles out Indigenous peoples and the Arctic as a fragile and vulnerable regionthe first global convention to do so. ICC (Canada) is currently working to promote early ratification of the convention.
1. The Problem Revealed
In the mid to late 1980s Canadian scientists working in northern Canada found that many Inuit had elevated levels of certain persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in their blood and lipid (fatty) tissues. Many POPs, often with difficult to pronounce names, end-up in the Arctic, including pesticides (dieldrin, DDT, toxaphene, chlordane, and hexachlorocyclohexane); industrial compounds (PCBs, HCBs, and short-chain chlorinated paraffins); and some industrial and combustion by-products (PAHs, PCDDs, and PCDFs).
With the exception of PCBs which are found in some military sites, these substances are not used in the North. They arrive in the Arctic “sink” via air and water currents. Once in the Arctic many POPs bioaccumulate and biomagnify in the food chain. They have a high lipid solubility – which means they concentrate in the fatty tissue of animals – particularly those in the marine environment. In northern Canada many Inuit and other indigenous peoples ingest POPs when they eat country food. Depending on the amount and type of country food consumed, many Inuit, in particular, have levels of POPs in their bodies well in excess of the “level of concern” defined by Health Canada.
Many POPs are endocrine disruptors that cause reproductive, neurological, and immune system dysfunctions. Research published in the United States points to learning “deficits” and subtle behavioural effects in children born to mothers with high levels of POPs in their bodies. Most of these pollutants have intergenerational effects, for they pass the placental barrier. Women in these American studies had consumed, over a long period, large quantities of Lake Michigan fish contaminated with POPs. The levels of POPs in these mothers and their children are generally below levels recorded in many Inuit in northern Canada and Greenland raising obvious concerns about the long-term health effects of POPs on Inuit generally.
To northerners, including Inuit, POPs in the Arctic is a matter of public health and only secondarily an environmental issue. Inuit want to know the long-term health effects on people chronically exposed to POPs through their food. It is widely recognized that the only long-term solution is international action to reduce the release of POPs to the environment. In light of these concerns, ICC Canada is active in four areas: research through the federal government’s Northern Contaminants Programme (NCP) into the effects of POPs in the Canadian Arctic; participation in the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) of the eight-nation Arctic Council; advocacy toward the POPs protocol to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution; and advocacy toward a global convention on POPs sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
2. The Northern Contaminants Programme
Established through the federal government’s 1991 Green Plan and Arctic Environmental Strategy(AES) the NCP was renewed in 1997-1998 for a further five years. The programme sponsors and contributes funds to research sources, pathways, and effects of POPs in the Arctic and to help northerners make informed food choices. Chaired by the federal Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, representatives of ICC Canada, Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, Dens Nation, Metis Nation-NWT, and the Council for Yukon First Nations sit on the Science Managers Committee with representatives of federal and territorial government agencies to determines research priorities and evaluate research proposals. Much data collected through the NCP is published in the peer reviewed scientific literature. All interested in POPs in the Arctic should examine the programme’s compendium volume:
J. Jensen, J. Adare, and R. Shearer (eds.) Canadian Arctic Contaminants Assessment ReportNorthern Contaminants Programme, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, Ottawa, 1997) 460 pp.
A summary and user friendly version of this report has been prepared:
Highlights Of The Canadian Arctic Contaminants Assessment Report: A Community Reference Manual Northern Contaminants Programme, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Ottawa, 1997.
The NCP web site is www.inac.gc.ca/ncp. The above reports may be ordered directly on this site. A summary of the structure of the NCP and an independent analysis of the Canadian Arctic Contaminants Assessment Report is found in Northern Perspectives Volume 25 No. 2 (Winter 1998) at www.carc.org. Representatives of ICC Canada and other aboriginal peoples organizations sit on the Board of Directors of the McGill University Centre for Indigenous Peoples Nutrition and the Environment (CINE). This organization was established with NCP funding and conducts research into diet and contaminant loadings in country food both in Canada and internationally. CINE’s web site iswww.cine.mcgill.ca.
Interestingly, much data collected by the NCP has been used by the Government of Canada and other Arctic nations in ongoing negotiations to conclude international agreements to phase out use of key POPs of concern to Arctic residents.
3. The Arctic Monitoring And Assessment Programme
A constituent working group of the eight-nation Arctic Council, the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) has conducted transboundary contaminants inventory and assessments on a circumpolar scale mirroring work completed by the NCP within Canada. Two excellent volumes are available from AMAP:
Arctic Pollution Issues: A State Of The Arctic Environment Report Arctic Assessment and Monitoring Programme (AMAP), Oslo, Norway, 1997, xii 180 pp.
AMAP Assessment Report: Arctic Pollution Issues Arctic Assessment and Monitoring Programme (AMAP), Oslo, Norway, 1998, xii 859 pp.
To order these reports consult the AMAP web site at www.grida.no/amap.
ICC Canada participated in AMAP’s planning and implementation meetings. Under contract to AMAP, ICC drafted chapter four – Peoples of the North – for inclusion in the first report. In particular ICC urges all interested in POPs in the Arctic to read the Executive Summary and Recommendations of this report.
Beginning in Summer 1998 ICC Canada has been working with the AMAP Secretariat based in Oslo, agencies of the Government of the Federation of Russia, and with RAIPON to prepare a proposal to examine contaminants in country food consumed by indigenous peoples in Chukotka, Taimyr Peninsula, northern Pechora basin, and the Kola Peninsula. This US$2.7 proposal, modeled in part on the NCP was forwarded to the Global Environment Facility (GEF) by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in late December 1999.
4. The LRTAP POPs Protocol
Faced with data showing that certain POPs were accumulating in the Arctic with unknown but worrying public health results, the governments of Sweden and Canada suggested in 1990 and 1991 that emissions of POPs be addressed through a protocol to the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution. This short convention, originally signed in 1979 and with protocols adopted periodically thereafter, brings together countries of North America, Europe, and the former Soviet Union under the umbrella of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE). In 1994 the LRTAP Executive Body, a permanent institution established by the convention, struck an Ad Hoc Preparatory Working Group on POPs that in 1995 was asked to draft a “composite negotiating text,” a document to restrict, ban or phase out uses of 15 named POPs. Following numerous negotiating sessions in Geneva, a POPs protocol was signed in Denmark in 1998.
The full protocol text may be found at www.unece.org/env/lrtap/protocol/98pop.htm. A description and analysis of the involvement of Arctic indigenous peoples in the negotiations is available in Northern Perspectives Volume 25, Number 2 (Winter 1998), at www.carc.org.
Using its official observer status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, ICC Canada partnered with other northern indigenous peoples to observe POPs protocol negotiations in Geneva. While industry was well represented at the back of the negotiating room and was in constant contact with many negotiating delegations, particularly that from the United States, no environmental, public health, or public interest organizations were present. Canada was the first nation to ratify the protocol which has yet to come into force as few nations have done likewise.
Some progress but much more to do: Jim Willis, UNEP Chemicals, John Buccini, Chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee, Klaus Topfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, and Sheila Watt-Cloutier, President of ICC Canada, brief the media in Nairobi about POPs negotiations. Photo courtesy of Terry Fenge.
While a step forward, the protocol is weak. A compelling aim of the protocol is to bring “economies in transition” into a legally-binding multilateral environmental agreement. While the protocol does just this, it gives nations of the former Soviet Union and eastern Europe a generation to live up to certain obligations that other signatories have to implement almost immediately. Even with this relaxed timetable, the Government of Russia has refused to sign the protocol and has given no indication when or whether it might do so. ICC Canada’s main concerns with the protocol concern its very weak mechanisms to monitor and verify implementation. Notwithstanding these concerns, we urge visitors to our web site from UN/ECE countries to contact their national governments urging them to ratify the LRTAP POPs protocol. If you do so, please e-mail ICC Canada at tuktu@magi.com informing us of your action.
5. Toward A Global POPs Agreement
The global POPs negotiations in Nairobi, February 1999. Photo courtesy of Terry Fenge.
While a POPs agreement among nations under the UN/ECE umbrella is useful, many POPs that end-up in the Arctic come from southern and eastern Asia, Latin America and Africa. To truly come to grips with this problem requires a global solution. As a result of the work of the NCP and AMAP, and the early negotiations under the UN/ECE, the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) agreed to sponsor negotiation of a new, legally-binding convention on 13 named POPs – commonly referred to as the “dirty dozen, actually a baker’s dozen.” The first of these negotiations took place in Montreal in Summer 1998, followed by Nairobi in February 1999 and Geneva in September 1999. Additional sessions are scheduled for Bonn and South Africa in March and November 2000 respectively. Assuming sufficient progress, a signing ceremony is to take place in Sweden in 2001. Summaries of negotiations are found at www.chem.unep.ch/pops.
Attending and participating in the global POPs negotiations is a high priority for ICC Canada. ICC Canada is particularly active within the Canadian Arctic Indigenous Peoples Against POPs (CAIPAP) which was recently expanded to include indigenous peoples from around the circumpolar Arctic. We are pressing for a global POPs convention that is comprehensive, rigorously implemented, verifiable, and for greater access to POPs related public health information. In addition, we are encouraging the eight Arctic nations to work together in this global process. Speeches delivered at global POPs negotiations by Sheila Watt-Cloutier, President of ICC Canada, are included in this web site and in the second edition of Silarjualiriniq, ICC Canada’s policy journal. Formal positions of CAIPAP are also included in this web site. Indigenous peoples from northern Canada have a representative on the Canadian delegation to the global POPs negotiations.
In these global negotiations ICC Canada co-operates with other non-governmental organizations that are promoting a strong POPs convention. These groups include: Indigenous Environmental Network, Physicians for Social Responsibility, World Wide Fund for Nature and, in particular, the International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN) which brings together numerous organizations from around the globe. While significant progress has been made toward a global POPs convention, the key issue of funding to implement it has yet to be seriously addressed. The developing world seems prepared to assume legally-binding obligations to phase out use and generation of key POPs, but insists that the developing world provide money, technology, and institutional capacity to implement the prospective convention. These issues will command attention at the next negotiating session in Bonn.