WILDLIFE ABUNDANCE AND AVAILABILITY

Biodiversity trends and indicators are a helpful way of understanding ecosystem and wildlife health. As an example, the Arctic Species Trend Index (McRae et al., 2010) tracks 965 populations of 306 species, which represent 35% of known vertebrate species living in the Arctic. Between 1970 and 2004, abundance in vertebrate species declined by 26% in the High Arctic. Low Arctic species experienced an increasing abundance during this time, while Sub Arctic species have declined since the mid-1980s (McRae et al., 2010). Current bans on the harvesting of caribou exist in Nunatsiavut and regions of the NWT because of estimates of low numbers of animals.

As noted by GRID-Arendal (2009), climate change poses a specific threat to traditional/country food security in the North because it affects wildlife abundance and availability, the extent to which humans can access wild food, and the safety and quality of traditional/country food. For example, the people of the Deh Gah Got’ie First Nation (NWT) and Beaver Creek (Yukon) have noted changes in species, water levels, weather, and ice patterns (Guyot et al., 2006); the Denesoline of Lutsel K’e (NWT) reported recent declines in duck and goose populations as well as shrinking water tables (Berkes et al., 2005);

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Labrador communities have reported that lower water levels in rivers and ponds have negatively impacted access to and health of fish species (Furgal et al., 2002; Nickels et al., 2005); and dwindling caribou populations have been recorded across the NWT (Fisher et al., 2009). The Peary caribou, for example, has been listed as “endangered” under the federal Species at Risk Act since 2011 (Giroux et al., 2012), and under the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) since 2004 (COSEWIC, 2011a).

COSEWIC has reported that Peary caribou’s population has declined by 72%

over the last three generations. This is mostly due to “catastrophic” die-offs, which are caused by starvation due to severe icing events. Their continuing decline, coupled with predicted changes in long-term weather patterns, places this species at “imminent” risk of extinction (COSEWIC, 2011b).

Survey results by the Government of Nunavut suggest that the South Baffin Caribou Herd has declined by 95% in the last 20 years (Jenkins et al., 2013).

Elders and hunters from communities on southern Baffin Island have reported that caribou are more difficult to find and have expressed concerns about the negative impacts of land use and other factors on caribou and their habitat. The survey cites climate change, disease, and anthropogenic activities, including mineral development and unrestricted harvest, as possible threats to the herd (Jenkins et al., 2013). Recent surveys of the Beverly caribou, whose range covers parts of the NWT, northern Saskatchewan, northern Manitoba, and Nunavut, also show a decline of almost 50% from 1994 to 2011 (Campbell et al., 2012).

Other researchers have also documented the effects of climate change and variability on wildlife numbers, distribution, and accessibility in northern Canada (Ford et al., 2006, Ford & Pearce, 2010; Ford & Beaumier, 2011). The implications of their observations are that with decreasing availability of, and access to, subsistence food species, there will likely be reductions in the food security and nutritional status of northern Aboriginal peoples — accompanied by an accelerated nutrition transition (Egeland et al., 2013). The expansion of southern species into northern regions, introduced species, and species hybridizations, such as that seen between the polar bear and grizzly in the ISR (Derocher, 2010), may impact important food species and subsistence hunting (Humphries et al., 2004). The impact of climate change, however, is not always uniform and negative. For example, a study done in Naujaat and Kugaaruk in Nunavut reported that climate change observed in the two communities was community specific, inconsistent, and affecting the country food harvest in both positive and negative ways (Nancarrow & Chan, 2010).

Direct impacts of climate change on wildlife abundance and distribution are only some of the ways that environmental change affects northern food security.

Various communities and scholars have identified climate change as having made traditional practices more dangerous in which to engage, related to, for example, unpredictable and early break-up of sea ice and the resulting inability to hunt at certain times of the year (Nickels et al., 2005; IPCC, 2007; Furgal, 2008; Furgal & Prowse, 2008; Pearce et al., 2009). Hunters interviewed for The Sea Ice Is Our Highway (2008),³² an Inuit Circumpolar Council (Canada) report, indicated that they had to travel further to access wildlife, and formerly safe travel routes had become insecure due to a warming climate and melting ice.

Higher winds and dangerous travel conditions around Nunavut and Nunavik communities have also limited opportunities for hunting seals and whales in open water (Ford et al., 2006; Nickels et al., 2005). In the ISR, Nunavut and Nunavik, it has been observed that ice thickness is decreasing and the length of the ice-free season is extending as a result of warmer winter temperatures. This has increased the risks associated with hunting and reduced access by hunters to ice-based wildlife such as ringed seal, narwhal, and polar bear (Ford et al., 2006; Nickels et al., 2005). The connection between sea-ice loss and hunting is not always straightforward. For instance, Gearheard et al. (2006) found that although hunters are able to adapt in many ways, they may find it strange to be hunting from a boat at times of the year when they would normally expect to hunt by snowmobile or dog team atop the ice.

Conditions under which younger generations learn and transmit traditional knowledge about the land, wildlife, and harvesting are also being transformed, with negative implications for current and future food security. For harvesting expeditions to be viable, a well-developed understanding of ice conditions, weather patterns, and migratory routes of animals is required (Dowsley & Wenzel, 2008; Beaumier & Ford, 2010; Wong et al., 2011). Transmission of traditional environmental knowledge is impacted by new and unreliable weather patterns and shifting environmental conditions, reinforcing reduced participation in hunting among youth. It is also affected by the reality of declining numbers of experienced full-time hunters in northern communities (Beaumier & Ford, 2010). Box 8.2 presents a selection of research projects that aim to facilitate knowledge exchange on this topic.

32 The Sea Ice Is Our Highway: An Inuit perspective on transportation in the Arctic, a contribution by the Inuit Circumpolar Council to the Arctic Council’s Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment.

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8.4 CONTAMINANTS AND TRADITIONAL/COUNTRY FOOD