The Ring of Fire projects may change that forever. However, European settlers and subsequent governments in Canada thought of the boggy, hard-to-navigate peatlands as wastelands and largely left them alone. These communities depend on the peatlands to harvest berries and hunt moose and caribou. Indigenous peoples have had a unique relationship with the Hudson Bay lowlands for millennia. The proposed Ring of Fire mining projects in the James Bay lowlands in Ontario span some 5000 square kilometers (1,900 square miles). “The communities living in the region have depended on these wetlands for thousands of years for their livelihoods,” says Vern Cheechoo, director of lands and resources at the Mushkegowuk Council, an assembly of chiefs representing Cree First Nations in northern Ontario. Although First Nations have not yet reached a consensus on development, most communities have objected due to lack of Indigenous participation in environmental assessments and a potential violation of a treaty right that protects their livelihoods in the region. However, environmentalists and surrounding First Nations communities have raised concerns. The federal and provincial governments in Canada have touted this project as bringing industrial development to remote parts of northern Ontario, and say “stringent environmental standards” will be met during the exploitation process. The project was dubbed “Ring of Fire,” after the song by U.S. They span an area of 5,000 square kilometers (1,900 square miles), and the minerals they contain are believed to be vital for Canada to move toward cleaner sources of energy and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. In the early 2000s, a mining company called Noront Resources uncovered significant deposits of chromite, copper, nickel, platinum and palladium, thought to be worth billions of dollars. These peatlands are the biggest land-based carbon vault in North America, and the second-largest in the world.īut now mining companies want to open a part of that vault. Underneath the moss lies a treasure trove: thousands of years of well-preserved remains of dead moss and other vegetation that have sequestered eye-popping amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Sphagnum moss, a tiny, colorful plant, covers the peatlands’ surface. Image by David Stanley via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).
“Every peatland is connected to every other peatland that is next to it, which is then connected to the streams, which go to the rivers downstream, all the way down to Hudson Bay and James Bay.” Peatlands cover only 3% of the planet’s land surface but store a considerable amount of terrestrial carbon thousands of years old. “It’s such a watery landscape,” says Lorna Harris, a peatland ecosystem scientist at the Wildlife Conservation Society Canada. The Cree Indigenous people who have lived here for millennia call these peatlands Yehewin Aski, or “the Breathing Lands,” for they believe these wetlands act as the lungs of Mother Earth. On their way, they’ve created swaths of wetlands, filled with carbon-packed peat bog. Since the last ice age, wide rivers have meandered toward the southern shores of Hudson Bay in Canada, to join its salty waters. Many of the affected First Nations have issued moratoriums against the project or have taken the provincial government to court, citing treaty violations and lack of consultations by the governments prior to greenlighting the project and issuing mining claims.Environmentalists say the proposed development threatens to degrade peatlands, which act as a massive carbon store, and could lead to an increase in emissions First Nations communities have also voiced concerns about mining impacts on traditional lands and livelihoods.According to the federal and provincial governments, this region hosts one of the “most promising mineral development opportunities,” which is expected to generate jobs and revenues in the remote region.A massive mining project called the Ring of Fire is being proposed in Canada’s Hudson Bay lowlands, a region that houses one of the biggest peatland complexes in the world and is home to several Indigenous communities.
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