NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: North Slave Region

Tags: social sciences, wildlife management, climate adaptation

Objective(s): To identify and prioritize possible wildlife management actions to adequately adapt to climate change based on NWT experiences and regional priorities.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No.4906. The objective of the research is to identify and prioritize possible wildlife management actions to adequately adapt to climate change based on NWT experiences and regional priorities. The research team aim to gather information from around the NWT to adequately assess the public’s thoughts, opinions and recommendations on how the GNWT should approach wildlife management in the territory as climate change increases into the future. In order to achieve this, the GNWT is conducting phone and zoom interviews with members of communities around the NWT. Interviewees will be asked questions regarding their opinions on the challenges to wildlife management due to climate change and what their vision of wildlife management is for the future effected by climate change. Interviews will begin in February 2021 and continue until April 2, 2021. Community organizations will be contacted via email to set up the interviews. Each Conference of Management Authorities (CMA) member organization will be asked to find 5 Elders and Youth for the interviews. Interviews will be set up based on the number of participants identified and their availability. Depending on the community's preferred method of communication, phone or zoom will be used. If a community decides to undertake the interviews themselves, the Principal Investigator will be in contact with that organization and ensure data collection into the GNWT system. The CMA has been established under the Species at Risk (NWT) Act (https://www.nwtspeciesatrisk.ca/CMA/AboutCma). The members of the CMA are the wildlife co-management boards and governments that share management responsibility for species at risk in the NWT. The CMA are the partners and the organizations to be consulted for this permit and overall project. This project is currently in the information gathering phase. Once ready, the research team will carry out a formal engagement process to inform the development of the draft Climate Change Adaptation Strategy for Wildlife Management in the NWT. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from February 13, 2021 to April 02, 2021.