traditional knowledge

Content related to: traditional knowledge

Webinar Series: Indigenous Led Caribou Conservation

This webinar series, hosted by the Indigenous Knowledge Circle of the National Boreal Caribou Knowledge Consortium, highlights Indigenous-led work to protect and restore caribou and their habitat.

Past webinars include:

'Arctic Crashes:' Revisiting the Human-Animal Disequilibrium Model in a Time of Rapid Change

This study examined data on the status of three northern mammal species – caribou/reindeer, Pacific walrus, and polar bear—during two decades of the ongoing Arctic warming. The emerging record may be best approached as a series of local human-animal disequilibria interpreted from different angles by population biologists, indigenous peoples, and anthropologists, rather than a top-down climate-induced ‘crash.’ Such new understanding implies the varying speed of change in the physical, animal, and human domains, which was not factored in the earlier models of climate–animal–people’s interactions.

Organization:

Arctic Borderlands Ecological Knowledge Cooperative: Can Local Knowledge Inform Caribou Management?

This project looked at local knowledge of the Porcupine Caribou Herd, collected by the Arctic Borderlands Ecological Knowledge Co-op (ABEKC). While local observations indicated that the herd was healthy during 2000-2007, quantitative estimates for the same period predicted a decline. When the herd was surveyed in 2010, results indicated that the herd had indeed grown. The study concluded that community-based interviews provided a valid, unique information source to better understand caribou ecology and express community perceptions of overall herd status and could provide a valuable contribution to management decision making.

Evaluation of Approaches to Depicting First Nations, Inupiat and Inuvialuit Environmental Information in GIS Format: Options for the Handling of Spatial Information in the Arctic Borderlands Ecological Knowledge Co-Op Database

This Master's project documented an evaluation of the spatial utility of the Arctic Borderlands Ecological Knowledge Co-op database and the many steps that are involved in the collection, storage, and organization of the Co-op’s data. It provided an excellent opportunity to explore the problem of depicting complex qualitative information on northern landscape change in an intelligible GIS format. Initial attempts to develop the database in spatial format were critically evaluated and recommendations were provided in order to explore whether the data gathering and subsequent mapping process can be improved, whether more useful information can be obtained from the data, and to ensure the proper handling of the data in future years.

From Felt Tip to Technology: The Challenges of Representing Traditional Knowledge in a GIS Platform to Create a Knowledge Surface

This project explored the challenges of representing Traditional Knowledge using western technologies, and the application of fuzzy methodologies for improving the representation. Inuit Elders and hunters in Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, used maps to help represent their knowledge of caribou in the region, and these maps were processed in a GIS.