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Arctic development hotspots

Projects in developing extraction of fossil fuels, such as oil and natural gas are underway in several places in the Arctic - both on land and in the sea. The fuels are to be transported by both land and sea pipelines, as well as shipped on water. The development of these activities threaten natural habitats, in hotspots for conservation and wildlife. This map displays some of the latest hotspots with current or proposed development, together with a human impacta analysis, from the GLOBIO programme.

Impact of human activities on reindeer habitat - Barents region

The impact of infrastructure development on reindeer potentially threatens the cultural traditions of the Barents region indigenous people and their chosen way of life. The probability of impact on wildlife, vegetation and ecosystems is related to distance to different types of infrastructure. The distance zones of impact are lowest in forest and highest in open tundra. The extent of the zones are based upon several hundred field studies from international scientific journals. Impacts, modelled using the GLOBIO model, include reduced abundance of wildlife, reduced accessability to important grazing habitat, and changes in predator-prey relationship as a result of infrastructure and associated human activity.

The encroachment of road networks in Northern Norway, 1940-2000.

The development of human settlements and the road network linking them together are fragmenting natural habitats especially for larger mammals, such as bears, wolves or reindeer. The nature loses its status as wilderness. The region displayed in the graphic is home to the largest area of reindeer husbandry in the Sami area.

Traditional practices, infrastructure and development.

Indigneous peoples have lived in Arctic for thousands of years, and continue to depend upon the natural resources of the region today. Their traditional subsistence practices include hunting, trapping, fishing and reindeer herding. All of which are conducted in a sustainable manner; that is, in a way that does not lead to long-term or large-scale degredation of the environment. However, the balance they have achieved with the environment through their traditional practices is being disrupted by new development. New pipelines, roads, holiday-cabin settlements, and expanded military training areas are examples of spreading infrastructure that compress the ranges available for reindeer herding. Clear felling of forests (a particular problem in parts of northern Russia) depletes a renewable resource of fuel, and a place to harvest supplementary foods like berries and mushrooms. Substandard installations for the oil & gas industry, and polluting mineral processing facilities threaten large-scale devestation of the environment.