Three remote northern communities are anticipating word from the federal government that would help protect great swaths of the Western Arctic -- including areas of intense interest to resource companies.

An announcement, which sources said could come as early as Wednesday, could involve more than 100,000 square kilometres in the Northwest Territories. It would include land for a new national park as well as areas protected under land-claims agreements.

The entire area would be larger than New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island combined.

Eric Richer, spokesman for Environment Minister John Baird, said late Monday no announcement was planned "at this time.''

But sources told The Canadian Press that Baird is scheduled to meet Wednesday morning with delegations from the N.W.T. communities of Fort Good Hope, Deline and Lutsel K'e. All three communities are near major parcels of land on which withdrawal negotiations are complete.

Baird is also scheduled to speak Wednesday evening at a reception put on by the Canadian Boreal Initiative.

"It's our expectation the minister will be making some positive commitment to these communities,'' said Larry Innes, the environmental group's executive director.

"We're certainly sensing a lot of sensitivity from senior officials.''

Land withdrawals protect an area from industry activity until final details of the land's status can be worked out. They typically last five years and require no immediate financial commitment.

Some of these proposals have been sitting in front of cabinet for years. Moving on them now would give Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government the chance to burnish its environmental credentials at a time when polls suggest the Conservatives trail the Liberals on the issue.

The largest area up for consideration is the long-awaited East Arm National Park between Great Slave Lake and the N.W.T. boundary.

About 35,000 square kilometres have been identified for the park. Another 60,000 square kilometres adjacent to it would be part of a land withdrawal for the Akaitcho Dene.

Negotiations have been complete for months and the land withdrawal has only been awaiting an order in council from the federal cabinet.

East Arm is home to vast herds of caribou as well as beaver, muskrat, lynx, wolf, red fox, wolverine, martin, mink, otter, moose and black bear. The land, a transition zone between the northern boreal forest and the open tundra, includes innumerable deep, clear lakes, a rich scattering of islands in Great Slave Lake, long fault-block escarpments, gorges and waterfalls.

The fate of the East Arm lands has been closely watched. Much of the nearby tundra has been heavily staked by energy, gold, diamond and uranium companies.

Also up for consideration is the Horn Plateau -- known as Edezhie to the Dogrib -- which requires renewal of its land withdrawal order to protect 25,000 square kilometres west of Great Slave Lake.

As well, 14,000 square kilometres of rugged highland country known as The Ramparts, northwest of Great Bear Lake near the community of Fort Good Hope, is also in line for withdrawal. The region, too, lacks only an order in council to get relief from development pressures.

The Ramparts is along the proposed Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline corridor. 

Environmentalists also hope any announcement would add more land to Nahanni National Park, something pledged last fall by former environment minister Rona Ambrose, but that would likely affect operations of a nearby tungsten mine.

Wednesday will also see the release of a report on the natural capital of the Mackenzie region, an attempt to put a dollar value on the non-monetary worth of the ecosystem -- everything from carbon storage to water filtration to recreational value.

Innes said the report will peg the natural capital of the region at an astronomical $442 billion a year -- nearly half of Canada's entire trillon-dollar gross domestic product.

"It just goes to show what we're taking for granted,'' he said.