CARIBOU AND CLIMATE CHANGE

The world’s weather is heating up, and so is concern about what global warming will do to winter roads, wildlife and other integral aspects of life in Canada’s North. This past winter, Maclean’s magazine reported that glaciers are retreating and the Polar ice cap is thinning dramatically. The Globe and Mail, meanwhile, speculated that within two decades, the Northwest Passage could be ice-free year-round, replacing the Panama Canal as a speedier route for ships travelling between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Concern has hit close to home on the caribou range, too. In the Hudson Bay area, for example, “polar bears seem to be in some type of decline, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” says Dr. Peter Scott, scientific co-ordinator with the Churchill Northern Studies Centre.

Signs of change

Polar bears are at the top of the food chain. When their sea ice disappears, it affects everything else in the polar bear’s habitat – seals, caribou, calving grounds, berries, geese, and more. Are these changes all climate-related? Scientists can’t say for sure, but that’s what they want to find out.

In March, BQCMB chairman David Kritterdlik, board member George Kuksuk, alternate Noah Makayak and secretary-treasurer Gunther Abrahamson were hastily invited to attend a workshop in Rankin Inlet organized by Scott. The Hudson Bay Workshop was a follow-up to the Circumpolar Ecosystems 2000 conference held in Churchill a month earlier. Another get-together is tentatively set for October in Winnipeg.

Scott says the meetings are being used to spread the word about climate change, to tell people about government programs available to study climate change (“there’s lots of research money,”says Scott), and to tell them about different partners who would co-operate with them on studies. Letting scientists know what government funds are available is the first step toward getting climate change monitoring in place.

At the Hudson Bay workshop, a working paper that resulted from the earlier Churchill meeting was released, along with other climate change initiatives related to the Hudson Bay region.

The federal government is also pursuing action on climate change through its National Strategy on Climate Change. Implementation plans were unveiled at a February meeting in Yellowknife attended, in part, by Leslie Wakelyn, author of Protecting Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou and Caribou Range, as well as Gary Kofinas of the University of British Columbia’s Institute for Resources and Environment.

Manitoba Conservation’s Cam Elliott, a BQCMB member, was at the Churchill conference, where climate researchers warned that serious climate change lay ahead for areas occupied by the Qamanirjuaq herd and, to a lesser extent, the Beverly herd. In as little as 20 years from now, the area may be too warm for winter roads. To keep supplies coming to remote communities, all-weather roads would have to replace them. And that would likely mean more hunters from the south, and more caribou being harvested.

Although the BQCMB group did not make it to the Rankin Inlet workshop, the BQCMB invited Scott to address its Churchill meeting in May in order to brief all board members.

Climate change a hot topic

Climate change will be a recurring theme because Kofinas will also be there to discuss in more detail a project that he, Yukon biologist Don Russell and the University of Alaska’s Brad Griffith have proposed to help the BQCMB and communities monitor and assess the Beverly herd, the Qamanirjuaq herd, or both herds, for signs of climate change.

The trio did similar work with the Porcupine caribou, where the use of local knowledge was critical. This was a key point that Russell touched on when he spoke to BQCMB members about the proposed climate change project in Winnipeg last year, at the board’s last meeting. BQCMB members agreed to take the ideas Russell presented back to communities.

Kofinas, who has worked for many years with Porcupine caribou user communities on research and co-management studies, says he is especially interested in hearing what community users have to say about the effects of changing weather that they’ve seen on caribou and local hunting.

AROUND THE RANGE

Caribou at mine site. The impact of human activities on caribou is one of the reasons that ‘Caribou and Man’ will be the theme for next year’s North American Caribou Workshop in Kujjuuaq, Quebec. Since northern Quebec is home to the world’s largest population of free-ranging ungulates, the George River Herd, as well as several aboriginal groups, the traditional knowledge that people have acquired of caribou will also be examined

Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, GNWT

Caribou galore… for some

The hunting was very good for folks in northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan this winter, with lots of caribou close to the communities. Beverly and Qamanirjuaq caribou spent time together on the Beverly range. Some satellite collared Qamanirjuaq travelled even further. One ventured near Alberta, while another was found in the Bathurst herd, northwest of the Beverly range.

Meanwhile, radio collared Bathurst caribou were reported entering Saskatchewan north of Fond du Lac. The abundance of caribou in Manitoba also drew Cree hunters from the central part of the province, and neighboring hunters from Saskatchewan into Lac Brochet. While Rankin Inlet saw the arrival of a few animals, it was slim pickings for Arviat hunters, although not as bad as the previous winter.

Manitoba’s new winter roads

Manitoba Conservation kept an eye on traffic along the new $1.2-million winter road linking Brochet, Lac Brochet and Tadoule Lake. Equally funded by the federal and provincial governments, the road replaces the Tadoule Lake winter road traditionally mounted by a private contractor, and the Brochet/Lac Brochet road created by the Barren Lands First Nation. Instead of snaking along lakes, though, the new winter road is land-based. That means it can open earlier than the normal Jan. 25 winter road opening, and stay in business longer than the usual six weeks. It all adds up to more traffic, and more caribou hunters on the Qamanirjuaq range. Manitoba Conservation’s Cam Elliott says the number and origin of hunters who visited, the number of caribou they harvested and other statistics will be provided to the BQCMB when it meets in May 2000.

The BQCMB assembled with its newest official partner, Nunavut, for the first time in November. Members are (front row, left to right): Albert Thorassie, August Enzoe, David Kritterdlik, Bas Oosenbrug, Tim Trottier, Richard Mercredi. Back row, left to right: Mitch Campbell, Cam Elliott, Jimmy Laban, Jerome Denechezhe and Billy Shott. Missing is George Kuksuk.

Caribou workshop slated for Kuujjuaq

Kuujjuaq, home of the massive George River caribou herd of northern Quebec, has been chosen as the site of the 9th North American Caribou Workshop, coming up April 23-27, 2001. Organizers say the growing interest in the relationship between caribou and their human neighbors has prompted them to make ëCaribou and Man’ the workshop’s theme, with a focus on traditional knowledge and human intervention.

Athabasca all-season road opens

Fanfare greeted the official Feb. 7 opening of the Points North to Black Lake road. Dignitaries, including Athabascan elders, First Nations and MÈtis leaders, mining industry officials and public servants, travelled the 190-kilometre stretch, stopping to rename crossings and offer ceremonial tobacco in ode to the land’s traditional use. Still, northern residents are wary that the all-season road will let southern First Nations people hunt more caribou, says Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management’s Mike Goodyear.

BQCMB meeting

Board members head to Churchill, Manitoba for a May 26-28 meeting, to be staged at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre. As always, the meeting is open to the public.

CORRECTION

In the November 1999 issue of Caribou News in Brief, the article “People and Caribou” reported that Nunavut’s new Institutions of Public Government (IPGs) come under the jurisdiction of the Department of Sustainable Development. While the IPGs work with the Department, they are in fact independent of the territorial government. We apologize for any confusion this error may have caused.

HOW TO ORDER OUR NEW CD-ROM

The BQCMB’s new CD-ROM, Protecting Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou and Caribou Range. Part 2: Map Atlas and Documentation, can now be ordered.

With about 150 pages of text, photographs and maps, the CD-ROM is an excellent tool for people involved in land use planning, protected areas planning, and impact assessment work on the caribou range . An initial 75 copies of the CD are being sent out to communities and agencies with responsibilities for land use planning and environmental assessment on the caribou range. The CD-ROM is Part 2 of a series of reference materials that the BQCMB is publishing about Beverly and Qamanirjuaq caribou, caribou range, and land use activities. Part 1 is the January 1999 report, Protecting Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou and Caribou Range, also found on the CD-ROM. Part 3 involves archiving the GIS mapping files for future use. For individuals, aboriginal organizations, governments and educational institutions, the CD-ROM is $20 (includes shipping and handling). For business and industry, it’s $40. To order, send a cheque to:

Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board
3656 Revelstoke Dr.
Ottawa ON K1V 7B9

SURVEYS: BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD

Surveying of the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq caribou has been put on hold for a year until biologists and mathematicians go back to the drawing board to figure out a formula that yields more accurate estimates.

This fall or winter, Nunavut biologist and board member Mitch Campbell, along with NWT biologists Anne Gunn, Robert Mulders and possibly B.C. biologist Doug Heard, will sit down with statisticians and “tear the method apart,” promises Campbell.

“We are going to try to re-evaluate past methods to see if we can determine trend, and then apply that to this method we’ve got.”

The Beverly and Qamanirjuaq surveys would then likely be slated for June 2001.

While the Qamanirjuaq range also falls into northern Manitoba, Manitoba biologist and BQCMB member Cam Elliott indicated it was unlikely he would attend, and that discussions would largely be between Nunavut and NWT.

In December 1999, BQCMB chairman David Kritterdlik wrote to the ministers responsible for wildlife in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nunavut and NWT, urging that survey work proceed on schedule in June 2000.

The herds are usually surveyed every six years, during the June calving period. Population surveys provide the most important information for managing caribou. Knowing the herd’s total head count allows wildlife managers to calculate how many caribou can be safely harvested without endangering the size of the herd.

Kritterdlik’s letter prompted officials with Nunavut’s Department of Sustainable Development to rethink the task ahead of them.

(In past years, the government of the Northwest Territories funded the surveys. But with the creation of the territory of Nunavut last year, the caribou calving grounds fall within Nunavut’s boundaries. That government is now expected to play a lead role in surveys. The government of the Northwest Territories, however, has said it is prepared to provide technical support for the survey of the Beverly herd. Both the provincial governments of Saskatchewan and Manitoba are expected to participate.)

While current photographic surveys have been “the best that we can find,” says Campbell, the problem is given “the size of the herd and the size of the area we’re dealing with, they haven’t been accurate enough to determine trend.” The result is population estimates that have very loose confidence limits.’

Confidence limits are the give-or-take figure on either side of the official estimate.

“Why are we spending over $100,000, $150,000 (the estimated cost of the surveys) when we’re not getting information that’s telling us if the group is going up or going down?”

Too much give-or-take

The Qamanirjuaq herd, for example, numbers 496,000 ñ plus or minus 105,400. The Beverly herd stands at 276,000, plus or minus 111,000. Both herds were last surveyed in 1994.

The mathematical formula currently used by scientists shows that the greatest probability of the herd’s true size is the estimate in the middle – 496,000 for the Qamanirjuaq, or 276,000 for the Beverly. There’s a very, very small chance that the population would be at either end of the scale: 390,600 or 601,400 for the Qamanirjuaq; 165,000 or 387,000 for the Beverly.

But, there’s still a chance.

The danger, too, of an inaccurate estimate on the low side, Campbell points out, is that commercial harvest quotas for sport hunting and meat processing businesses that create much-needed jobs for communities could be completely eliminated. Subsistence harvesting takes priority, and commercial harvest quotas have already been fully used up.

“We’ve got new methods now and we should apply them,” he continues. “We shouldn’t just run in and do a survey.” New methods such as distance sampling and post survey stratification could tighten confidence limits. In fact, post survey stratification, “which was never accepted before and (is) just starting to be accepted now,” could be used to tighten figures of past surveys as well.

For now, no extra tags

In the meantime, the Aqiggiak Hunters and Trappers Organization (HTO) has expressed an interest in setting up a portable abattoir in the Rankin Inlet/Whale Cove area, requesting an increase of commercial tags from 145 to 1,500 to support the operation.

BQCMB chairman David Kritterdlik told Nunavut’s Minister of Sustainable Development that, until new population surveys are conducted, the board could not recommend the increase requested by the HTO.

For the same reason, requests for additional tags by northern Manitoba outfitters have also been put on hold.

A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO FIGHTING FIRES

The 1990s saw seven of the hottest years in Saskatchewan in the last century and a half, resulting in more forest fires

Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management

Residents in northern Saskatchewan are urged to speak out about the way the province fights forest fires when officials from Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management (SERM) unveil a new draft policy at community meetings this spring.

According to SERM’s web site, its old policy doesn’t deal with forest insect and disease management, nor is it in step with newer beliefs about the beneficial role in forest ecosystems of natural and prescribed fire, insect activity and forest diseases. Three people are leading SERM’s interdepartmental committee to develop a new policy, and two of them ñ Daryl Jessop, Integrated Fire Manager with Fire Management and Forest Protection, and Paul Maczek, Fire Specialist with Forest Ecosystems Branch ñ will attend the BQCMB’s Churchill meeting to brief members.

The draft policy reflects comments received from the public when officials first conducted consultations in larger settlements in 1999. It also includes suggestions from groups like the BQCMB, which drew attention to recommendations in the 1994 BQCMB report, A Review of Fire Management on Forested Range of the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Herd of Caribou. That report called for a stronger role for traditional users in fire management, and highlighted priority firefighting and hunting zones on the range.

The BQCMB also questioned Saskatchewan’s practice of dividing forests into a primary and secondary zone, saying it created bad feelings between northern communities in the primary and secondary zones.

It doesn’t look likely that the board’s call for a fire bomber for Stony Rapids, or the relaxation of current regulations to allow firefighting after dark, will be granted.

SERM Minister Buckley Belanger wrote to the BQCMB in January, saying “the province will continue to operate water bombers in areas on an as-needed basis.” And though he promised night firefighting would be considered in the new review, Buckley added “there are occupational health and safety legislative issues to consider.”

SPORT HUNT GETS JOBS, EXTRA MEAT FOR COMMUNITIES

Five years after non-resident caribou sport hunting began in Manitoba, residents have come to count on the payoffs – regular seasonal employment, and extra caribou meat for everyone.

Last year, Nejanilini Lake Lodge, north of Tadoule Lake, hired eight people from Tadoule Lake and put them through their guide training course, while Gangler’s North Seal River at Egenolf Lake northeast of Lac Brochet hired four guides from Brochet, and Seal River Heritage Lodge hired one guide from Churchill.

The end-of-August to mid-October caribou hunting season also helps to extend the employment of fishing guides, maintenance and housekeeping staff who work at the lodges. Nejanilini Lodge, for example, has a dining room, cocktail lounge, store and convention/meeting facilities, all of which require staff too.

Last year was also the first time the Manitoba government allowed non-resident hunters to purchase a second caribou license, meaning they can hunt two caribou now instead of one.

“We tied community benefits into that,” says Manitoba Conservation’s Cam Elliott. Hunters are required to donate excess meat they can’t take home with them to local communities, namely Brochet, Lac Brochet, Tadoule Lake and Churchill. For hunters who catch two caribou, that works out to about 70 kg of excess meat. The lodges must pack and refrigerate the meat, then fly it down to the community it has agreed to benefit.

Nejanilini, whose lodge hosted 51 mostly American hunters, flew 750 kg of meat to Tadoule Lake.

Primarily fishing lodges that lure visitors with promises of northern pike, Arctic grayling, whitefish and lake trout, Manitoba’s lodges are diversifying their services to take advantage of non-resident hunting. Non-resident hunters must be accompanied by a guide.

In 1999, 108 non-resident sport hunting packages were snapped up, out of a total of 195 available.

WHAT’S NEW ON THE WEB

Need a BQCMB report? Chances are you can now download the whole thing and print it out from the board’s web site.

Online you’ll find:

Protecting Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou and Caribou Range, the extensive study mapping important habitat on the caribou range
the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Management Plan 1996 – 2002, along with Part II – Action Plans
A Review of Fire Management on Forested Range of the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Herd of Caribou, Technical Report 1 and A Review of Fire Management on Forested Range of the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Herd of Caribou, Management Report 1
Caribou News Index
The Beverly Caribou Herd – Continental Wilderness Travelers and The Qamanirjuaq Caribou Herd – An Arctic Enigma, two case studies for the Wild Caribou of North America education project.

A map of satellite collaring locations for collared Qamanirjuaq caribou has been posted for the Dec. 1999 – Jan. 2000 period, too.

OVER AND OUT

Lutselk’e opposition ends the move to collar Beverly caribou

Despite a motion passed at the BQCMB’s November 1999 meeting supporting a two-year satellite collaring program for Beverly caribou, the $154,000 project won’t go ahead. Lutselk’e elders once more firmly put their foot down at a meeting held Jan. 26 in Lutselk’e between NWT Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development (RWED) staff and the community.

It was the final chance for a ‘yes’ decision in order to qualify for current funding from the different agencies and government departments that had agreed to pitch in ñ the West Kitikmeot South Slave Society (WKSS), RWED, the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board and the BQCMB.

At the BQCMB’s last meeting, board member August Enzoe of Lutselk’e said the Lutselk’e Wildlife and Environment Committee would support satellite collaring as long as it was a two-year pilot project. Board member Jimmy Laban and alternate Pierre Robillard, both of Black Lake, said elders in their area would also support a two-year pilot project. The board agreed to give $5,000 yearly to the collaring program.

The possibility of collaring the Beverly caribou has been tossed around at BQCMB meetings since 1994. For years, Athabascan elders from Saskatchewan were also critical of the idea, but eventually agreed to a two-year trial run.

A handful of neighboring Qamanirjuaq caribou have been wearing satellite collars since 1993. Staff with the government of Nunavut’s Department of Sustainable Development track their locations, map the co-ordinates and send updated maps to band offices, hunters and trappers organizations, government departments, and other groups. That program is financed by Sustainable Development and mining company WMC International. (A map of Dec. 1999-Jan. 2000 locations can also be viewed online at www.arctic-caribou.com/satellite.html)

Even though satellite collars are worn by only a few cows in each herd (10 in the Qamanirjuaq herd, for example), the information they furnish gives scientists a better idea of population size and movements, the location of calving grounds for field surveys, and whether different herds mix.

The co-ordinates also help hunters find caribou more easily, and allow government officials to better monitor land use, and enforce the Caribou Protection Measures Act. One factor that has prompted the collaring of certain herds is the increase of mining developments on the range.

Lutselk’e elders, though, fear collars could have an adverse effect on the animals, and told RWED officials that during a July 1999 meeting in Lutselk’e (see Caribou News in Brief, November 1999).

TAKE IT SLOWLY, BQCMB TELLS SASKATCHEWAN’S RAN

The BQCMB has written the minister of Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management (SERM) to say that communities in northern Saskatchewan won’t support the designation of proposed protected regions under the Saskatchewan Representative Areas Network (RAN) until they’re more directly involved in consultations.

As a result, SERM is setting up a working advisory committee consisting of representatives from the six northern communities most affected, and interest groups like the Saskatchewan Trappers Association. Committee members appointed so far include BQCMB member Billy Shott and Harold Grasley, both from Uranium City, Clara Laroque of Camsell Portage, Billy Sandypoint of Black Lake, and Jim Yuel of the Saskatchewan Outfitters Association. SERM is waiting to receive more nominations to complete the committee.

Board member Jimmy Laban relayed fears that the BQCMB’s initial December 1998 letter was interpreted by the Saskatchewan government as complete, unquestioning support for the RAN program. Residents from Black Lake and Fond du Lac oppose the areas selected by government, and the RAN project’s quick progress. They want more consultation and information about how the land will be managed.

Manitoba Dene must also be consulted, BQCMB member Jerome Denechezhe pointed out, since some of the lands targeted are their traditional lands, and subject to selection under the Treaty Land Entitlement program.

TALK OF A ROAD, HYDRO TO NUNAVUT STIRS DEBATE

Manitoba’s Gillam hydro station, the possible starting point for a transmission line to Nunavut. Inset: Manitoba Highway and Government Services’ Richard Danis

Manitoba Hydro

Businesses and governments in Manitoba and Nunavut have a dream – to see a hydro line extending from Churchill to Rankin Inlet, and a road linking Kivalliq communities to southern Canada via Manitoba.

Cheaper power and lower shipping costs, increased tourism and mining, and greater business dealings on both sides of the 60th Parallel would ensue. With mines expected in Nunavut in the near future ñ the Meadowbank project near Baker Lake, and the Meliadine East and West projects near Rankin Inlet are well-advanced gold exploration operations ñ the idea of a road is welcomed by the mining industry. The developments, in all cases, would cross the range of the Qamanirjuaq caribou.

But in northern Manitoba, where treaty negotiations are underway with the federal government, there is alarm that too much is happening too fast, without proper community consultation.

When Richard Danis, a policy consultant with Manitoba Highway and Government Services, Manitoba Hydro’s Jack Wilson and former BQCMB chairman Ross Thompson of Manitoba’s Intergovernmental Affairs Department spoke to BQCMB members about the proposed road and hydro line at the board’s November 1999 meeting in Winnipeg, Manitoba board members Albert Thorassie and Jerome Denechezhe protested that things were moving too quickly.

Talks with federal government representatives are still underway to settle issues regarding treaty and aboriginal rights of Manitoba Dene hunting inside Nunavut’s borders, following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in 1999. And the Northlands Denesuline First Nation of Lac Brochet signed a Treaty Land Entitlement Agreement last November to receive almost 94,000 acres of land and close to $2.3 million.

A long-term dream

The governments of Manitoba and Nunavut must now explore how that dream becomes reality. It could take up to 20 years, and at this point, no political decisions or even funding commitments have been made.

In late February, Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik and Manitoba Premier Gary Doer signed a memorandum of understanding in Rankin Inlet, pledging to study ways to achieve these goals, and others related to mining, health, tourism, cultural development, arts and crafts, value-added processing, resource development, trade and commerce, regional and community economic development, and education.

One objective is a trades training school in Churchill that would prepare workers for future developments such as the massive road/hydro project.

The two governments, both of whom want the federal government to get involved, will need to do additional studies, community consultations and environmental impact assessments before anything moves ahead.

“This is not a done deal,” stresses Danis.

Billions of dollars

Two prefeasibility studies undertaken by the government of Manitoba targeted the five least expensive road routes possible, and two alternative transmission line corridors. Still, combined costs run into the billions of dollars.

An all-weather road could cost up to $1.94 billion to build, while a much cheaper yet more restricted winter road would run up to $20.5 million. The five routes suggested would serve Arviat, Whale Cove and Rankin Inlet from either Churchill (it’s linked to southern Manitoba by rail only), Gillam, or three westerly routes hooking up to Lynn Lake. One of the possibilities is an ice road crossing the west coast of Hudson Bay.

Additional road links could also be later built to Baker Lake and Chesterfield Inlet. All-weather links would cost from $199 to $659 milion; winter roads would tally up to $6.8 million.

Meanwhile, a transmission line could go to $215 million. The hydro study also looked at generating power locally, either as stand-alone facilities to serve a specific need, such as a mine, or connected facilities to supply communities.

At Winnipeg’s meeting, BQCMB chairman David Kritterdlik recommended that the board be consulted by governments throughout developments, especially given that the BQCMB is interjurisdictional.

Biologist Mitch Campbell of Arviat has since been named the BQCMB’s representative on the Manitoba-Nunavut Transportation Assessment Advisory Committee.

PEOPLE AND CARIBOU

The BQCMB’s November 1999 meeting in Winnipeg drew quite a crowd – Alex Sandberry of Tadoule Lake’s Hunters and Trappers Association, Parks Canada’s Micheline Manseau (who travelled with chairman David Kritterdlik to last year’s conference on caribou and reindeer in Finland), University of Manitoba Natural Resources Institute students Anne Kendrick, Phil Livyer and Dyanna Riedlinger, and Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management biologist Mike Goodyear. Goodyear is filling in for longtime BQMCB member Tim Trottier at the office while Trottier is away on a leave of absence. Trottier continues to attend BQCMB meetings.

The board’s next meeting, in Churchill, looks like it should be just as popular. Leslie Wakelyn plans to travel south from Yellowknife.

Brett Elkin, a wildlife disease specialist with the government of the Northwest Territories, flew out to the Beverly range at the beginning of April to harvest 20 caribou for samples that could indicate whether contaminant levels have changed over time. In 1995, Elkin completed a study on contaminants in barren ground caribou across NWT. Pat Thomas of the University of Saskatchewan also recently probed the Beverly herd for contaminants. Hand in hand with mining and other developments in NWT has been the progress of a Protected Areas Strategy (PAS), the result of concerted efforts between the federal and NWT governments since 1996. Under the direction of Bas Oosenbrug of RWED’s Wildlife and Fisheries Division, the PAS is working with communities to establish protected areas, using traditional, ecological, cultural and economic knowledge. A newly released CD-ROM demonstrates how a Geographic Information System (computer mapping software) can aid the selection process.