INUVIK/TUKTOYAKTUK - A call from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to postpone the sale of oil and gas exploration rights in the Beaufort Sea was met with cries of outrage from several Northern leaders.

The WWF has lobbied Prime Minister Stephen Harper to postpone the sale of oil and gas exploration rights until an environmental management plan is available for the region. The exploration rights are to be awarded on June 2.

Nellie Cournoyea: "The Inuvialuit are sick and tired of having their future economic well-being blindsided by southern-based environmental organizations..."

The WWF said the sale is premature without a management plan.

"Because there is no proven technique for recovering oil from iced waters (industry and all the governments in the Arctic council acknowledge that), it is quite bizarre to think that someone would move down that path with the very real possibility of an Exon Valdez-type oil spill occurring in that area," said Pete Ewins, species conservation director with the WWF.

The first backlash came from the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. In a strongly worded press release, IRC Chair and CEO Nellie Cournoyea made it clear what she thought of the WWF's call for postponement.

"The Inuvialuit are sick and tired of having their future economic well-being blindsided by southern-based environmental organizations that poke their self-righteous noses into someone else's backyard without either having the decency to consult with the people that live there or offer any realistic alternatives to their economic challenges," said Cournoyea.

She also blamed the WWF for playing a role in the recent move by the US government to list the polar bear as an endangered species.

"They don't want to know the facts. The argument that they had on that issue was that they've got to save the polar bear because the ice is melting and their habitat is going. Well making a few Inuit suffer from lack of opportunities is not going to save the environment. Canada has about two per cent of the (carbon) emissions of the US. If they are that worried about the environment then the areas to spend their time and effort on would probably be the US and China," said Cournoyea.

On the WWF website, the US listing of the polar bear as an endangered species is highly promoted. This despite the fact that the US clearly stated the listing would not have any bearing on its environmental policy or greenhouse gas emissions.

Cournoyea said she has never heard consultation from the WWF on this issue or any other in her time as CEO of the IRC.

Ewins denied the Inuvialuit had not been consulted on this or other issues.

"There was full consultation then and continuing through the whole of the Mackenzie pipeline hearings and the steering committee for the NWT protected areas strategy, where we sit with the Inuvialuit on the steering committee.," said Ewins.

"All of these same principals, putting planning in place before you approve major developments, are there," Ewins continued.

"So virtually every month, certainly every six months, we are jointly discussing these things at different levels in different places with people from the NWT. So it's completely false that this is new or without consultation. It has been ongoing for 10 years," Ewins insisted.

The next swipe at the WWF came from Premier Floyd Roland, who again called on southern advocacy groups to allow Northerners to govern themselves without outside interference.

"A southern-based group cannot be allowed to influence decisions concerning the future of our Northern economy," said Roland.

Tuktoyaktuk mayor Mervin Gruben also expressed outrage at the WWF and asked why the people directly affected were not consulted.

"You would think they would come and talk to us. As yet we have to hear from these environmental people. They never ever come and talk to us. I agree 100 per cent in what Nellie Cournoyea, our IRC chair says, and I as well am tired of being used as a pawn in this world of green games," said Gruben.

Gruben also expressed outrage that outsiders are trying to influence conservation methods when the Inuvialuit have always protected their land and continue to work towards conservation.

"Over the last few years we also implemented countless regulations that even we, as the caretakers of our own land, have a hard time to follow. But we do because we know it is for the better of our lands, waters and future generations," said Gruben.

Ewins said the call for a postponement was aimed at the federal government, and was not meant to discredit aboriginal or territorial conservation actions.

"We fully support the views, systems, and processes (of conservation). We support many of them financially ourselves with money we send up from southern Canada to try and fill the priority gaps without those processes because the government of Canada is not prioritizing and providing resources for those things," said Ewins.