Project Description:

The Pan-Canadian Approach to Transforming Species at Risk (SAR) Conservation in Canada is a national framework to focus our collaborative and collective work to protect SAR. This approach prioritizes using a multi-species and ecosystem-based approaches to maximize biodiversity conservation of shared priorities species, places, and sectors. To support this initiative, the Canadian Wildlife Service and Natural Resources Canada are proposing a project that will combine a suite of models for priority species (e.g. boreal caribou and other SAR) and other important ecological indicators (e.g. migratory birds and carbon sequestration), traditional ecological knowledge, and simulations of future landscape conditions in responses to natural (i.e. wildfire and insect outbreaks) and anthropogenic (i.e. forestry, energy, urban development) disturbances, and climate change across the western boreal forest from 2010 to 2100.

Project Outcomes or Intended Outcomes:

A key component of this project would be the inclusion of traditional ecological knowledge about biodiversity distribution and species ecology. There are examples where researchers have worked with indigenous communities, and examples of community-led initiatives, to produce "knowledge-based datasets and maps" for important boreal caribou areas. These types of products provide the opportunity to co-produce Indigenous knowledge and western science in a comprehensive modelling approach that can result in a more holistic representation of important ecological processes to inform conservation planning.

Project Description:

The objective of this project was to engage local communities (First Nations and Métis) in central and northern Saskatchewan, in order to document local and traditional knowledge (WCTEK) of boreal woodland caribou to support the provincial range planning process for conservation of woodland caribou. This report is based on a study from November 2014 to March 2017 within the boreal woodland caribou range in Saskatchewan. The success of WCTEK research is ultimately determined by the willingness of communities and individuals to participate and share their knowledge. we conducted 56 individual interviews, two full group meetings (meetings devoted exclusively to data collection) and four other meetings (organised for other reasons such as trappers annual meetings but that allowed us to collect data) and 12 information sharing meetings (to discuss the data collection process, listen to stories about caribou, collect additional data, and receive feedback on our findings). The group meetings and personal interviews totalled 153 people, while the information sharing meetings include 300+ trappers from northern Saskatchewan.

Project Outcomes or Intended Outcomes:

Written summary report and GIS mapping file of the habitat model for boreal caribou across Saskatchewan based on Traditional Ecological Knowledge.

Written Report:
Mamun, A., Brook, R.K. 2017. Characterizing, Mapping and Modelling Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge about Woodland Caribou in Saskatchewan in Support of Range Planning. Technical Report to the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment.