Community-led Monitoring of the Bluenose-East Caribou Herd Calving Grounds
Organization: University of Montana
Location: Kugluktuk, Nunavut.
Communities that will directly benefit from the project: The community of Kugluktuk, Nunavut, Canada, X0B 0E0, will be mostly affected by the project. However, all Indigenous communities who live alongside the Bathurst and Bluenose-East caribou herds will also benefit.
Country: Canada
Other Organizations Involved: Kugluktuk Angoniatit Association (KAA) – Hunters' and Trappers' Organization.
@ Government of Nunavut
Background
Caribou (Rangifer tarandus)—or “ekwò” in Tłı̨chǫ, or “tuktu” in Inuvialuitun— are of special ecological, economic, and cultural importance in northern North America. Caribou affect plant and lichen growth patterns and large-scale nutrient cycling, and support a large assemblage of carnivores and scavengers. Caribou are also indispensable to many Indigenous communities who rely on them for food security, clothing, tools, and cultural sustenance. In the past decades, however, several barren-ground caribou herds have unprecedentedly collapsed by >80% in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, Canada. Concurrent to the continued dwindling of caribou numbers is a devastating loss of purpose and connection for the people who have lived in reciprocity with caribou for millennia. Helping fellow caribou bounce back to large sustainable numbers is thus a pressing priority in the Inuit community of Kugluktuk, Nunavut.
Goals
To support local Indigenous conservation interests and safeguard traditional knowledge and reciprocity with caribou, our project’s main goal is to build local wildlife monitoring capacity in Kugluktuk, Nunavut. Specifically, our project will support community-led monitoring of the effects of climate change on predator-caribou dynamics. Such monitoring is needed to recognize which management actions will effectively help caribou bounce back from their declines.
Main activities
Our project’s first activity will be to acquire state-of-the-art, remote motion-detection cameras, memory cards, batteries, and accompanying camera mounts for the Kugluktuk Angoniatit Association. Second, our project will train local personnel on the logistics of how to use this equipment to implement a systematic non-invasive wildlife monitoring program. Lastly, our project will set-up a 9×9 grid of non-invasive motion-detection camera traps on the Bluenose-East caribou herd calving grounds, to monitor predator-caribou dynamics.
Expected outcomes
Deliverables from our project will include co-produced interactive spatiotemporal maps of caribou and their predators on the calving grounds. We will use these maps to facilitate knowledge-sharing with communities and partners. Further deliverables include co-produced management reports that we will share with local governments and caribou co-management boards. These reports will improve future caribou management. Importantly, our community-led project will help redress colonial practices in wildlife management and empower the Indigenous community of Kugluktuk by building local monitoring capacity and prioritizing local conservation interests. Our project will equip the Kugluktuk Angoniatit Association with advanced wildlife monitoring equipment and fund/train local field personnel and a logistics coordinator.