NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: South Slave Region

Tags: social sciences, traditional knowledge, environmental adaptation, environmental change

Objective(s): This research aims to examine how traditional knowledge and social capital can be used to improve understandings of change and responses to change through capacity building and planning, in a complex delta environment.

Project Description: This research aims to examine how traditional knowledge and social capital can be used to improve understandings of change and responses to change through capacity building and planning, in a complex delta environment. Specific objectives include: a) developing a framework of trends and indicators of environmental change, impacts and adaptations based on traditional knowledge, b) examining how existing social capital influences local adaptive capacity, c) developing a methodological framework for more effective integration of TK with scientific approaches for environmental change research, and d) determining how results from an interdisciplinary analysis of TK and natural science can be applied to regional ecosystem management. This is the final year of a planned four-year study. This study is based on a qualitative approach that is participatory in nature. Collaborative partnerships developed in Fort Resolution provide for a variety of qualitative methods to be used: semi-structured interviews, focus groups, workshops, a household survey and participant observation (through guided trips on the land). Research activities in 2007 will include community presentations and a participatory workshop. Other activities initiated in 2004 and 2005 (as described above) will be continued as needed. Results will be verified and communicated to local residents through community presentations and participatory workshops. Written reports and results posters will also be provided to local government offices and Deninu School, and will be available for community members. Results will also be communicated through conferences and other public fora where possible (e.g. Science in the Changing North conference in Yellowknife). This study has involved local community members from its inception. Since June 2004 team members have been working on project development in partnership with Deninu Kue First Nation employees. The researchers have also developed a partnership with Deninu School where team members give periodic presentations and engage students in educational activities based on the project theme. Students have participated in a visioning exercise about the future of their town, and in module development for a video project with local elders. Community members have been involved in guiding the project through community meetings and workshops, and continue to participate as research assistants, interviewees, focus group members, and field guides. Fieldwork will be conducted from September 10 to December 31, 2007 in and around Fort Resolution, NT.