To provide essential knowledge for improving woodland caribou recovery plans, the Canadian Forest Service initiated an integrative research project in collaboration with the Pessamit Innu community (QC North Shore). This community is very concerned  about caribou and has carefully monitored populations across their ancestral territory, the nitassinan, in recent years

The project has six interrelated components that integrate science and indigenous knowledge:

  • Mobilizing scientific and indigenous knowledge and add the community’s perspective to inform the North Shore caribou  recovery plan

  • Prediction of disturbance, climate change and forest management impacts on caribou habitat quality

  • A decision support tool for caribou and its habitat in northern Ontario

  • Development of genomic tools to characterize the caribou diet and microbiome from feces

  • Assessing the potential of caribou as an umbrella species for maintaining biodiversity

  • Assessing food habitat quality of different forest types