Conservation Hunting

Conservation Hunting & Sustainable Development

Conservation Hunting, Economic Development and
Community Values: Legal, Policy and Ethical Concerns

Project Description:

A number of international environmental conventions (e.g., CITES, the Convention on Biological Diversity) and conservation organizations (e.g., WWF and IUCN) recognize that regulated sustainable use of wildlife resources can provide economic incentives that contribute to biodiversity conservation and cultural sustainability. Wildlife-derived employment and economic diversification may serve to protect wildlife habitat and cultural practices from the damaging impacts of alternative land use practices (e.g., industrial developments, such as hydro-electric developments) that, whilst offering needed short-term employment opportunities, may place additional pressures on northern human and biological communities subject to climatic and other stressors.

This project will examine the legal, policy and ethical framework within which an economically-important sustainable use, namely conservation hunting, is practiced in the Canadian Arctic. The term 'conservation hunting' is now applied to sport or recreational hunting when those hunts result in demonstrable conservation and social benefits. Conservation hunting, most commonly for polar bear (but also for muskox and caribou) began in the early 1970s in the Canadian Arctic, and now provides a number of Inuit communities with seasonal employment and significant revenue-generating opportunities. However, conservation hunting requires a reallocation of local wildlife resources to non-resident hunters. This reallocation of scarce (i.e., quota-controlled) and culturally-valued (subsistence) resources is subject to intense discussion in some Inuit communities, where the division of the community quota between resident and non-resident hunters is decided. The reasons for community residents' differences regarding this resource re-allocation are varied and appear to reflect changing cultural values that could have implications for, e.g., wildlife stewardship, development of Inuit entrepreneurship, and community interpersonal relations. This project will investigate these changing views and explore their implications and how the impacts of such changes are being mediated.

The research will document and analyze variations in Canadian Arctic conservation hunting programs, and critically assess the conservation and social benefits (and costs) derived from this form of resource use, as well as the legal and policy framework within which these programs operate. This framework includes national regulations (e.g., Territorial Wildlife Acts and the federal Species at Risk Act), the laws of other states (e.g. the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act), and international accords (the International Polar Bear Agreement and CITES). In Canada, legal and constitutional safeguards protect Inuit hunting rights (e.g., the Constitution Act and Land Claims agreements) and international laws and accords also potentially offer protection for these rights (through, e.g., Article 8(j) of CBD and the UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights).

We see this research as timely, given an apparent increase in public, scientific and political concern about the threats to wildlife posed by global warming affecting higher latitude environments. In the event that such environmental stressors affect these economically, socially, culturally and nutritionally important wildlife populations, a greater understanding of evolving human-wildlife relationships in the Arctic should enable an enlightened policy response directed to mitigating the negative consequences of such changes.

Researchers:

Dr Milton Freeman	Canadian Circumpolar Institute, University of Alberta , Edmonton , Alberta
Professor Nigel D. Bankes	Faculty of Law, University of Calgary , Calgary , AB
Dr. Douglas Clark	Yukon College, Whitehorse, Yukon, and Renewable Resources Department, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
Dr. Susan G. Clark	School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale University , New Haven CT.
Ms. Martha Dowsley	Geography Department, Lakehead University , Thunder Bay , ON
Dr. Michael Evans	Community, Culture & Global Studies, University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna , BC
Dr. Lee Foote	Renewable Resources Department, University of Alberta , Edmonton , AB
Dr. Grete K. Hovelsrud	Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research-Oslo , Norway
Mr. Darren Keith, M.A.	Kitikmeot Heritage Society, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
Dr. David S. Lee	Wildlife Department, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., Rankin Inlet, Nunavut
Mr. Moshi Kotierk, M.Sc	Social Science Researcher, Wildlife Management Service, Government of Nunavut, Igloolik, Nunavut
Dr. Brenda Parlee	Department of Rural Economy, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta
Dr. Kerrie Ann Shannon	Anthropology Department, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Alaska
Dr. Marc G. Stevenson	All Nations' Services, Edmonton, Alberta
Dr. Martina Tyrrell	Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, U.K.
Dr. George W. Wenzel	Geography Department, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec
Mr. Daniel Slavik, M.Sc. Candidate	Rural Economy Department, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta