Commentary: Conservation in the North - An Ecological Perspective

Abstract

... In conclusion, the economic system has created a greater need for conservation than ever existed when immediate ecosystems regulated human populations and human endeavour in the north. Reasons include an expansion of what are considered resources, a shift from renewable (wildlife) to non-renewable (mineral) resources, and an increase in the importance of northern activities which extends well beyond the north. Thus, conservation has required the development of a broader definition which includes a number of strategies [managed-use, protection, preservation, restoration]. The need to broaden this definition, brought on by the economic system, has not been matched by sufficient acceptance of the importance of ecological considerations to land management, philosophically or in practice. Preservation of our northern wilderness heritage, one of the conservation strategies, has especially suffered under the economic proprietorship of the north, despite compelling reasons not to ignore it. Unless public values change, the future of the north will continue to be determined solely by economic opportunism rather than by any plurality of values. Unless we allow ecological realities to dictate once again the extent and amount of human activities in the north, in effect to curb and set strict limits on the economic system, then we will never have more than an ecological appliqué of virtually insignificant long-term consequences. If we squander our northern inheritance, the environment ultimately will impose sentence materially and spiritually, just as certainly as it set limits on human populations of old.