magazine / ja11
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July/August 2011 issue |
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| Massey Medal recipient David
Livingstone at Yellowknife Bay
on Great Slave Lake, N.W.T. (Photo: Fran Hurcomb) |
David Livingstone
knows full well the
challenges of treading
a fine line between the conflicting
interests of resource
development and conservation.
At one point during
his 16 years as director of
Renewable Resources and
Environment for the federal
Department of Indian Affairs
and Northern Development
in the Northwest Territories,
he was responsible for mining
development as well as the
remediation of abandoned,
contaminated mine sites. But
Livingstone, who retired
in 2009, believes the two
endeavours are not incompatible.
“Let’s have development,
but let’s make it responsible,”
he says, “and let’s make sure
it’s in the context of sound
environmental stewardship.”
That principle guided
Livingstone as he helped
create the Independent
Environmental Monitoring
Agency to oversee the environmental
management of
the Ekati Diamond Mine —
Canada’s first — in the 1990s.
Without such independent
supervision, aboriginal governments
in the Northwest
Territories may not have
supported development. This
public watchdog served as a
model for two more agencies
that now monitor the Diavik
and De Beers’ Snap Lake
diamond mining projects.
Livingstone was also the
lead federal architect of the
Protected Areas Strategy,
a community-based plan
to establish a network of
protected zones across the
Northwest Territories.
While the process of
preserving regions
— some as large
as Vancouver
Island — is frustratingly
slow,
says Livingstone,
there is now at least a commitment
to conservation.
When he first got involved in
developing the strategy, which
was signed in 1999, even his
own department was opposed
to the idea.
For these and countless
other pioneering initiatives
in the Northwest Territories,
ranging from watershed stewardship
to the management
of the Bathurst caribou herd,
Livingstone has been awarded
the 2011 Massey Medal.
Inaugurated by Governor
General Vincent Massey in
1959 and administered by The
Royal Canadian Geographical
Society, the award recognizes
outstanding achievement in
Canadian geography.
While Livingstone’s
list of achievements
is impressive,
his partnership
approach earned
him the respect
of northerners.
Originally from
Elliot Lake, Ont., and a resident
of Yellowknife for nearly
25 years, he feels strongly that
aboriginal communities and
governments must play an
integral part in deciding on
industrial development and
conservation efforts in their
own backyard. “David’s
strength was always making
sure that people in the communities
be directly involved,
not ‘tokenly’ involved, in
the decision making,” says
Gary Bohnet, deputy minister
of the N.W.T. Department
of Environment and Natural
Resources and a former
leader of the Métis Nation.
“New environmental programs
had to be designed
from the community level
upward, not imposed on
them by Ottawa or
Yellowknife.”
— Monique Roy-Sole
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EXPEDITIONS
River journeys
Ateam of six paddlers,
led by University of
Saskatchewan hydrology student
Ross Phillips, has received
the $25,000 Expedition of the
Year grant, awarded by The
Royal Canadian Geographical
Society and financed by the
RBC Blue Water Project. The
Cross Canada Canoe Odyssey
crew left Vancouver in April
on a 165-day, 7,000-kilometre
trek to Saint John, N.B., to
raise public awareness of the
importance of Canada’s freshwater
resources.
The Society is also supporting
two expeditions along
remote rivers this summer.
Biologist Benjamin Dy of
Rimouski, Que., and expedition
partner Simon Barbarit
will photograph and film the
Koroc River that flows from
the Torngat Mountains to
Ungava Bay.
Adam Shoalts of Fenwick,
Ont., and Wesley Crowe of
Ridgeville, Ont., will embark
on the first-known exploration
of a 165-kilometre
nameless river in the Hudson
Bay Lowlands of northern
Ontario.
The deadline to apply for
a Society Expeditions Series
grant for next year is March
15, 2012. For more information,
go to www.rcgs.org/programs/expeditions.
— Jessica Harding
MAGAZINE
Laurels for Canadian Geographic
Canadian Geographic struck gold at the National Magazine
Awards in Toronto in June, taking the top honour in the
Editorial Package category for its October 2010 issue, which
examined the expected impacts of climate change in Canada.
Photographer Peter Sibbald won a silver in the Photojournalism
& Photo Essay category for “Rarin’ to ride” (July/Aug 2010),
a behind-the-scenes look at small-town rodeos in Ontario. His
photo essay also garnered a Bronze Cube award from the Art
Directors Club in New York City in the magazine editorial
photography category.
Canadian Geographic also received seven honourable mentions at the National Magazine Awards: “Rarin’ to ride”
(July/Aug 2010) in Words & Pictures; “Return to the wild” for Best Digital Design; “Still waiting in Attawapiskat”
(December 2010) for Best Multimedia Feature; “Borderlines” (July/Aug 2010) in Editorial Package; “The green magnate
of Coaldale” (October 2010) in One of a Kind; “In habitat” for Spot Illustration; and “Vital signs” (October 2010) in
Health & Medicine.
At the Northern Lights Awards for excellence in travel journalism, held in New York City in April, Canadian
Geographic managing editor Dan Rubinstein won second place in the Independent
Journalist, Magazine category for his account of a hiking trip in Quebec’s Charlevoix region (Canadian Geographic Travel, Fall 2010).
EVENTS
Celebrating water
On June 10, The Royal
Canadian Geographical
Society launched a multimedia
initiative, in partnership with
the RBC Blue Water Project, to
encourage Canadians to protect
their watersheds. Jeff Boyd, a
regional president of RBC, Meg Beckel,
president and CEO of the
Canadian Museum of Nature,
and André Préfontaine, executive
director of the Society,
spoke at the event in Ottawa
marking RBC’s Blue Water Day.
The cornerstone of the
project is an interactive map
that describes
595 Canadian watersheds and
enables users to find their local
watershed.
The online tool is “a tremendous
resource for teachers,” says
Anne Smith, an adjunct instructor
in the faculty of education
at Queen’s University. “It is a
perfect example of a product
that will increase geographic
literacy among students, in our
efforts to create global citizens.”
PHOTOGRAPHY
Fetching fauna
Photo: Jamie Scarrow
This portrait of a wading grizzly by Jamie Scarrow
of Comox, B.C., is one of 30 photographs in an
exhibition featuring the winners of the third edition
of the Canadian Wildlife Photography of the Year
Contest. The exhibition opened on June 17 and runs
until November 27 at the Canadian Museum of
Nature in Ottawa. More than 3,700 entries were submitted
to the contest, which is organized by Canadian
Geographic, in partnership with the Canadian Museum
of Nature and the Alliance of Natural History
Museums of Canada.
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