Arctic grazing systems and industrial development: can we minimize conflicts?

[摘要] The industrialized world is expanding its search for energy, minerals, timber and other resources into the Arctic and adjacent higher latitudes. Up to now, large-scale development projects in the Arctic and sub-Arctic have been few. We can, however, profit from experiences gained from several of these, including oil and gas exploration and development in Alaska and on Russia's Yamal Peninsula, the Norilsk metalurgical complex of Siberia, Alaska's Red Dog mine and others. Conclusions drawn from these experiences are that industrial impacts on Arctic grazing systems can be minimized if the following considerations guide their planning: 1) most of the large development projects that have been undertaken in the North have lacked adequate background information on the grazing systems that they might impact; 2) there needs to be recognition by industry and governments for the amount of time required to gather such information and provision made for this; 3) because types of impacts on northern grazing systems t...

[学科分类] 自然科学（综合）