The Mackenzie River region in the Northwest Territories is worth 10 times more in its natural state than the value industrial development would bring, says a Canadian Boreal Initiative study released in Ottawa on Wednesday.

Entitled The Real Wealth of the Mackenzie Region, the study calculated the region's ecological goods and services to be worth $448 billion if left undisturbed.

In comparison, it estimated the wealth generated by industrial development such as the proposed Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline and related resource extraction to be $41 billion.

The report is the first watershed-based natural capital review ever conducted in Canada.

'It truly is one of the most important areas of the plant, globally, as a large, intact natural system.'—Larry Innes, Canadian Boreal Initiative

Canadian Boreal Initiative spokesman Larry Innes said federal politicians need to take the region's natural assets into account when making decisions about the region's future.

"Let's also consider the value of what's there now," Innes said.

"It truly is one of the most important areas of the planet, globally, as a large, intact natural system."

The Mackenzie River watershed feeds the boreal forest, which stores carbon and is critical in the fight against global warming, he said.

N.W.T. resident Morris Neyelle, 55, who travelled to Ottawa for the report's release, said clean land and water and abundant wildlife are more important to him than the short-term jobs that would come with the proposed gas pipeline.

"If the animals, the fish are all there, then I can survive without anything," he said. "But if they are gone, then I'm gone."