In 2014, boreal caribou in the NWT were listed as a Threatened species under the NWT Species at Risk Act and a NWT Recovery Strategy was prepared to guide boreal caribou recovery actions. One of the recovery strategy objectives is to ensure that harvest of boreal caribou is sustainable. Boreal caribou are harvested for food by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous residents, but there is little information available on total harvest levels. It is also difficult to get accurate population estimates for boreal caribou. This makes it challenging to measure whether harvest levels are sustainable.
Computer population and harvest models can help explain how a boreal caribou population is changing over time and predict how it is likely to be affected by different levels of hunting. Combined with other information on boreal caribou and their management in the NWT, we can estimate what level of hunting is sustainable. In 2019, the Government of the Northwest Territories (GWNT) hired Paragon Wildlife Research and Analysis to develop population and harvest models for boreal caribou in the NWT. This is a summary of the results.
This report is part of a three-part resource that also includes:
- Northwest Territories boreal caribou population and harvest models (Full report)
- Fact Sheet: Boreal Caribou Sustainable Harvest Assessment