Expressions of Intent for International Polar Year 2007-2008 Activities

Expression of Interest Details

PROPOSAL INFORMATION

Conservation Hunting in the Arctic: An Analysis of Constraints and Opportunities  (Conservation Hunting in the Arctic)

Outline
Wildlife research strongly suggests that a number of observed environmental changes are predicted to continue impacting various economically, socially, culturally and nutritionally important wildlife populations. Conservation hunting, given the socio-economic and cultural benefit it has been shown to provide in many northern communities, has the potential to contribute to enlightened adaptive response to these evolving and probable new northern realities. Conservation policies, if they are to be acceptable and effective, will require greater understanding of evolving human-wildlife relationships in the Arctic. The term ‘conservation hunting’ is now applied to sport or recreational hunting when those hunts result in demonstrable conservation and social benefits. Conservation hunting, most commonly for polar bear (but also for muskox and caribou) began in the early 1970s in the Canadian Arctic, and now provides many Inuit communities with important seasonal employment and revenue-generating opportunities. However, conservation hunting requires a re-allocation of local wildlife resources to non-resident hunters. This reallocation of scarce (i.e. quota-controlled) and culturally-valued (subsistence) resources is subject to intense discussion in some Inuit communities when the division of community quotas between resident and non-resident hunters is being decided. Such discussions illustrate differing views about this resource re-allocation, and reflect changing community values that could have implications for, e.g., wildlife stewardship, development of Inuit entrepreneurship, and interpersonal relationships. This project will investigate these changing views and their implications, and how the impacts of such changes are being mediated. This research will investigate the opportunities and challenges associated with conservation hunting within the context of relevant national and international conservation regulations and agreements. The research seeks to contribute to the formulation of enlightened conservation policies in the North, and assist northerners increase their capacity to participate in these developments. The research objectives include: (1) contributing to culturally-appropriate and equitable northern policy-making, (2) strengthening co-management institutions through capacity building, (3) strengthening research partnerships with northern institutions, (4) encouraging the establishment of sustainable and socio-economically-beneficial community-based conservation practices, and (5) ensuring a diverse hunting community becomes knowledgeable about conservation-hunting best practices, and (6) bringing conservation hunting more prominently into mainstream conservation thinking. It is anticipated that such research outcomes will provide practical means for conservation and management professionals, hunters and northern communities to find a common way forward for responsibly maximizing opportunities. The study will also utilize and contribute to international research and programs relating to conservation hunting and sustainable use principles and practices.

What significant advance(s) in relation to the IPY themes and targets can be anticipated from this project?
-Informed decisions regarding sustainable use of wildlife in northern Canada and Greenland. -Contribute to enhanced but sustainable socio-economic, cultural and environmental gains for northerners. -Demonstrate ways of incorporating traditional science into environmental research and management. -Contribute to the research and management capacity in northern organizations and communities. -Document the contribution of sustainable use of wildlife for successful biodiversity conservation. -Provide guidelines for conservation practitioners and northern communities to find a common way forward to maximize conservation and social benefits. -Improving compliance with conservation measures affecting local wildlife resources by demonstrating the social and economic benefits of well-managed conservation-hunting programs. -Enhance global understanding of the conservation benefits associated with the C-H. -Bringing C-H prominently into mainstream conservation thinking in order to facilitate more socially-aware environmental policy-making. -Develop a code of conduct for conservation-hunting stakeholders. -Assist in implementing Canada’s commitments to the biodiversity protocols, Canada’s biodiversity strategy and Species at Risk action plans. -Generate output-oriented guidelines, through developing C-H best practices manual. -Encourage conservationists to promote the importance of conservation hunting and associated indigenous communities’ sustainable economic development.

What international collaboration is involved in this project?
Researchers from the Canada, Norway and the U.K. are currently involved in this project. The linkages this research project has with the IUCN global conservation community and with the CIC-International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation ensures some degree of interaction with non-polar nations. IUCN-SUSG will be convening an international conference focusing on the topic of recreational hunting and rural/remote community livelihoods and economic development, to be held in London (UK) during 2006. Some participants and partners in this conservation hunting research project will be participating in the London conference, and likely also in another international conference (Hunting in the 21st Century) being organized by the Northern Land Council and a number of partnering aboriginal organizations in Darwin (Northern Territory, Australia) also in 2006.

FIELD ACTIVITY DETAILS

Geographical location(s) for the proposed field activities:
Tuktoyaktuk, NWT, Canada 69o24N 130o05/W Taloyoak, Nunavut, Canada 69o29/N 93o30/W Kugaaruk, Nunavut, Canada 68o32/N 89o55/W Arviat, Nunavut, Canada 61o54/N 94o30/W Clyde River, Nunavut, Canada 70o28/N 68o36/W Pangnirtung, Nunavut, Canada 66o42/N 65o55/W Nuuk, Greenland 64o12/N 57o42/W Pond Inlet, Nunavut, Canada 72o42/N 77o59/W Gjoa Heaven, Nunavut, Canada 68o36/N 95o42/W Qikiqtarjuaq, Nunavut, Canada 67o36/N 64o0/W Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, Canada 62o42/N 92o10/W

Approximate timeframe(s) for proposed field activities:
Arctic: October 2005 – March 2006      April 2006 – September 2006      October 2006 – March 2007 April 2007 – March 2008
Antarctic: n/a

Significant facilities will be required for this project:

Will the project leave a legacy of infrastructure?
Project will leave a legacy of enhanced capacity regarding community-based conservation and C-H potential, best practices and prospects. Research partnerships will be further strengthened, as cooperation Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and the Kitikmeot Heritage Society, among others, are included as research partners. In addition, we anticipate working closely with the Government of Nunavut Department of Environment, and other indigenous and government agencies in the Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and Yukon. One objective of our seeking partnership with indigenous organizations and northern colleges and research institutes is to cooperate in their own programs and desires to develop Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP) through mentoring and training opportunities. We have initiated contact with Nunavut Arctic College and will hope to do the same with other northern institutions. At least two PhD students and two post-doctoral scholars are currently involved in this project, and we anticipate further recruitment of similar qualified personnel during the life of the project. We plan an active web-based communications program to be associated with this research project. Materials and documentation resulting from the project will be shared with northern communities, organizations and governments, as well as with interested agencies and researchers in other polar nations. Project researchers are expected to actively publish their findings in appropriate journals, as well as communicate their findings at professional meetings and in meetings the CCI will arrange with the cooperation of northern partners. We anticipate convening an international conference on the subject of the sustainable use of arctic wildlife where the findings of this research and similar endeavours will be discussed, to be followed by a monograph on the subject of conservation hunting, to be published by CCI Press in 2008.

How is it envisaged that the required logistic support will be secured?
Commercial operator
Own support
Other sources of support

The project would be mostly carried out as a research endeavour based at the Canadian Circumpolar Institute of the University of Alberta. All means of resources including published and unpublished data, reports, journals, and online resources would be employed for the purpose of research. This information would be coupled with fieldwork and critical information will be obtained from various other governmental and non-government sources. We anticipate collaboration with Greenland and possibly elsewhere in the Arctic. This project is potentially or actually relevant in all countries where sustainable hunting of wildlife supports various community-based programs and developments. Researchers will organize field visits and required logistical arrangements by themselves or with northern partners.

Has the project been "endorsed" at a national or international level?
Yes - The proposed research is part of a parallel thematic research program that examines the anthropological, legal, ethical and public policy aspects of wildlife sustainable use, conservation and management practices in the Arctic. This larger program is being carried out by a multidisciplinary team involving researchers from Canada, Norway and the U.K together with northern partners. The purpose of these two parallel research programs is to follow-up on recommendations made during two international conferences (held in 2003 and 2004). The 2004 conference in particular recommended the production of a conservation-hunting best-practices manual for use in northern North America. To implement this particular recommendation, funding proposals have been submitted to the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs (DIAND) and the Canadian Wildlife Service; at this time a start-up funding has been received from the former agency. A further recommendation made during the 2004 conferece was that a North American program of research on conservation hunting be initiated under the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC). In June 2005 a proposal by an Alberta-based group to establish the IUCN North America Sustainable Use Specialist Group (SUSG) was accepted by the IUCN-SSC. The IUCN North America SUSG is about to begin a program of research on conservation hunting in North America, in which the Conservation Hunting in the Arctic project will be a constituent research activity.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND STRUCTURE

Is the project a short-term expansion (over the IPY 2007-2008 timeframe) of an existing plan, programme or initiative or is it a new autonomous proposal?


This is a new activity developed for the IPY period; it follows discussion and decisions taken at two international meetings held during the last two years to examine the future and scope of conservation hunting and its relationship with community-based conservation. The first of these discussions took place in December 2003 during the 3rd International Wildlife Management Congress held in Christchurch, New Zealand. The congress session examined conservation-hunting case studies from Africa, Central and South Asia, North America (including Nunavut), and the South Pacific. The October 2004 conference, titled People, Hunting and Wildlife: Emerging Conservation Paradigms, was held in Alberta, Canada, and focused discussion on a number of conservation hunting programs operating in the Canadian Northwest, Nunavut and Yukon territories. The need for further analysis and understanding, leading to completion of best practices guidelines, has been heightened by the announcement that Greenland will introduce polar bear sport hunting programs for the first time in the immediate future. There is little published material relating to conservation hunting best practices. The proposed activity seeks to initiate multi-disciplinary research on this topic in order to better inform appropriate program and policy development and effective application of the resulting findings and recommendations to such programs and policies.

How will the project be organised and managed?
The proposed research project will be led by a Principal Investigator (PI) assisted by a Co-investigator, working with a number of researchers based at other institutions in Canada and overseas who will each be responsible for their own research funding. However, the PI and Co-investigator will seek project funding for certain project expenses (e.g. project website development and maintenance) and for convening annual workshops designed to bring the research team, northern partners, and Steering Committee members together. This research activity is part of CCI’s activities aiming to serve northern science and the peoples of the North; CCI professional staff will be responsible for financial accounting of funds received by the PI and Co-applicant. Information collected from this research will be maintained as a searchable/usable database at CCI, and together with an interactive project website, will be managed by part-time staff at CCI. The website will ensure that feedback concerning workshop meetings and discussions occurring in northern communities and elsewhere is provided in timely fashion to those involved in the consultations and discussions, and to stimulate ongoing communication among an interested conservation community within and outside the North.

What are the initial plans of the project for addressing the education, outreach and communication issues outlined in the Framework document?
Focused discussions and workshops are to be held in northern communities, as well as meetings with hunting outfitters, hunters, resource managers and policy makers. Such discussions will contribute to the overall educational, outreach and communication objectives of the project. Interested community members will be directly involved with these community-based discussions, and we will be particularly concerned to communicate with youth. We will work with our northern partners in developing appropriate information items (e.g., written items, posters, or by electronic means) that will be made widely available in the North. The proposed Conservation Networking Linkage (by way of website and list serve) aims to provide effective communication amongst diverse participants/collaborators of this research. We are seeking funds to arrange meetings of researchers and northern partners, and if funds allow, to use video-conferencing to increase outreach in order to improve shared understanding and capacity building in respect to, e.g., the human-dimensions of wildlife management, tourism, economic development, and the relevance and role of local knowledge/Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit in research and management.

What are the initial plans of the project to address data management issues (as outlined in the Framework document?
Information collected from this research will be managed as a searchable/usable database at CCI and by engaging part-time staff to manage this database and the project website (currently being developed). The project partners will share management responsibility and ownership of data generated through this research, although project researchers’ will retain the right to publish the results of their research in peer-reviewed or project-sponsored publications. It is planned to deposit all project findings in the Canadian Circumpolar Library at the University of Alberta, so that it is readily accessible worldwide. Copies of all project findings will be deposited at appropriate locations in the Canadian North as advised by our northern project partners.

How is it proposed to fund the project?
At this time, funds are being sought by the PI and Co-applicant from ArcticNet, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, the Canadian Wildlife Service and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Seed funding has been obtained from the Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Conservation Force (USA), CCI and the University of Alberta. Other funding proposals are in preparation by the PI, Co-applicant and in preparation or submitted by individual researchers.

Is there additional information you wish to provide?
Research in the subject-area subsumed under ‘human dimensions of wildlife’ necessarily involves a high degree of inter-disciplinarity, and our team members and partners are committed to interdisciplinary discourse. In this regard, we consider the sharing of knowledge and insights with our northern partners and consultants as a further enrichment of inter-disciplinarity. The research team includes individuals trained in various disciplines, including anthropology, conservation biology, cultural/human geography, environmental studies, and law. We aim to bring socio-economic, cultural, legal and critical wildlife management issues into a broad-based policy-relevant discussion. Analysis of information and insights obtained from these interactions and exercises will result in a comprehensive report and ongoing informed discussions (appropriate for workshops, conferences and outreach) aimed to inform conservation-hunting futures, culturally-sensitive public policy formulations, capacity building in indigenous communities and organizations, and improved acceptance and sustainability of these initiatives and outcomes. The current study will (1) outline the linkages between cultural diversity and sustainable use of resources, (2) the role of conservation and sustainable use of wildlife in the sustainable development of northern communities, and (3) assist in the diversifying the regional economy of the North. Stakeholders consulted in the course of this research will include representatives of indigenous communities and organizations, non-resident recreational hunters, government personnel and other wildlife professionals, hunting outfitters, and representatives of conservation NGOs.

PROPOSER DETAILS

Dr Milton Freeman
University of Alberta
Suite 308 Campus Tower
8625-112 Street Edmonton, Alberta
T6G 0H1
Canada

Tel: 780-492-4682
Mobile: no
Fax: 780-492-1153
Email:

Other project members and their affiliation