NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area

Tags: social sciences, policy development, traditional knowledge, wildlife management, grizzly bear

Objective(s): This study aims to gain a greater understanding of how social and cultural contexts influence wildlife management systems, and particularly how people in those systems adapt to change. Grizzly bear management is evolving in different ways in northern and southern Canada (e.g., the Yukon/ NWT North Slope, the Kluane region, Baker Lake, and Jasper National Park), providing an opportunity to study how it may be influenced by a range of social and cultural factors. The history of grizzly bear management will be obtained through interviews with people involved in and affected by bear management, and by reviewing agency and scientific documents. These cases will not be compared to each other to determine which is "best"; rather, their unique sets of influences will be examined. A focus will be placed on who is involved in grizzly bear management systems, how they work together, how they learn as a group from their experience, and how they adapt to change. The ways in which traditional knowledge is used in these management processes is of particular interest, but the researcher's goal is not to document traditional knowledge of grizzly bears. Community members will be involved in this research, where possible, and the results of the study will be communicated directly to all people and communities involved.