Success via Cooperation
Of all the strides made throughout the board’s history, none is more important than the improved level of trust and respect among different Indigenous and government groups that these meetings have fostered. Before, relations were uneasy as different cultures and knowledge systems collided. But both sides have made tremendous efforts to find common ground, in order to conserve caribou for the use of future generations.
Kiggavik Uranium Mine and Mill Project
In 2010, the BQCMB received $90,000 in federal funding to participate in the environmental review of the proposed Kiggavik uranium mine and mill project, a $1.5-billion project 80 kilometres west of Baker Lake, Nunavut that – if approved – would become Nunavut’s first uranium mine. The proposed project would create four open pit mines, one underground mine, a mill, a new transportation network and more.
The BQCMB is not against mining or other forms of economic development but believes that it is essential that key important caribou habitats are protected.
BQCMB comments and analysis on the proposed Kiggavik project date back to March 2007. Up to and including participating in the Final Hearing in 2015, the BQCMB never wavered in its believe that the precedent-setting project could cause significant impacts on caribou, habitat and hunting activities. This includes numerous short- and long-term potential impacts and cumulative impacts associated with disturbance, radioactive materials and other environmental contaminants. These would affect not only Inuit in Nunavut but traditional hunters from the Northwest Territories (NWT), Saskatchewan and Manitoba, too.
In July 2016, federal Ministers accepted the NIRB’s recommendation issued in May 2015 that the Kiggavik Project should NOT proceed at this time.
Minister’s Decision Re: NIRB Final Hearing ReportBQCMB Caribou Workshop
More than 75 elders, hunters, government staff, scientists and others from Saskatchewan, NWT, Nunavut, Manitoba, Alberta, Yukon, British Columbia and Ontario gathered in Saskatoon Feb. 23-25, 2010 to explore ways to protect Beverly and Qamanirjuaq caribou and habitat.
Through a series of small group discussions, participants at the 2010 BQCMB Caribou Workshop concluded that five main factors affect the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq herds today:
- climate change
- loss of habitat due to forest fires on the winter range
- disturbance from human land use activities
- harvesting, and
- predation (especially on the calving grounds).
The 60-page Detailed Report, 26-page Overview Report and Summary produced following the workshop can be found under ‘Resources‘.
Caribou Economic Valuation Revised Report – 2013 A 2008 socio-economic evaluation of the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq herds by InterGroup Consultants put the total annual net value of the caribou harvest at more than $20 million. This report was revised in 2013 and can be found in the Library (link to page).
20th Anniversary Report: Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board 1982 – 2002– This 62-page full-colour report profiles the herds and people of the caribou range, the challenges facing the caribou and their habitat, and the Board’s management efforts to meet these challenges.
Protecting Calving Grounds, Post-Calving Areas and Other Important Habitats for Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou: A Position Paper by the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board – In September 2004, the BQCMB released a position paper making five key recommendations to governments and relevant planning and regulatory agencies, among them long-term legislated protection for the herds’ traditional calving grounds and post-calving areas that prohibits activities causing serious or irreversible negative effects to caribou or habitat.
Important Habitats Report, CD-ROM and Data –with mining developments promising to alter the landscape of Canada’s North, the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board took steps in 1996 to research and map out the most important habitats of the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq ranges. The result was the report, Protecting Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou and Caribou Range, published in January 1999. A CD-ROM, Protecting Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou and Caribou Range. Part 2: Map Atlas and Documentation, was released in 2000. With 75 maps of the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq caribou range, 30 tables summarizing sources of data, a water- and ice-crossings rating system, and the entire 52-page report, it is an excellent tool for people involved in land use planning, protected areas planning, and impact assessment work on the caribou range.
A separate Data CD has SPANS GIS data and mapping files created for mapping caribou distribution and movements, and supporting documentation. It was created to make this information available to others to use during land use planning, protected areas planning, and impact assessment processes. Copies of the Data CD are on deposit with the Manitoba Conservation Data Centre in Winnipeg, and the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre in Regina.
Contact information for data requests is provided on the Map Atlas CD under Part 2: Map Atlas and Documentation – Information about Data Sources.
Established Categories of Priority Use – The Board’s Priority of Use categories for the allocation of caribou harvest, in descending order of priority:
1. Traditional users – for domestic use
2. Resident users – for domestic use
3. Traditional or Resident users when guiding non-resident hunters
4. Local use – for commercial purposes
5. Export use – for commercial purposes
Man and the Biosphere Acceptable Harvest Practices Study – the BQCMB guided a University of Alaska research team on this initiative gleaning viewpoints of traditional users and wildlife managers on caribou harvesting practices. This was part of a larger project comparing the management systems of Canada’s Beverly and Qamanirjuaq herds with the parallel structure overseeing the United States’ Western Arctic herd.
Barren-Ground Caribou Schools Program – produced between 1983 and 1985, this four-volume kit provided teachers in caribou-range communities with activity books, videos, slides and other resource material that introduced to them the world of caribou management. This was done by talking about caribou both from the perspective of traditional knowledge (from people who have used caribou for generations), and scientific knowledge.
Caribou Schools Competition – an annual event until 1999, the Caribou Schools Competition encouraged schoolchildren living on the caribou range to enter their posters, stories and other creations in a contest that focused on a pivotal aspect of these children’s lives: caribou. Entries were judged by board members, and cash prizes awarded.
Caribou News – the BQCMB was born of the need for improved communication. The board’s independent newspaper, Caribou News, helped to accomplish that by investigating a wide array of issues, reflecting life as it is in the caribou-range communities, and encouraging frank and open discussion from readers. First printed in October 1980, Caribou News endured until June 1996 when funding ran out (once published six times a year, it later dwindled to two issues yearly). It has since been replaced by the smaller Caribou News in Brief.