Regions: Sahtu Settlement Area
Tags: social sciences, caribou, traditional food, traditional knowledge, wildlife, wildlife management
| Principal Investigator: | Parlee, Brenda L (25) |
| Licence Number: | 14473 |
| Organization: | University of Alberta |
| Licensed Year(s): |
2009
|
| Issued: | May 08, 2009 |
| Project Team: | Tiarella Hanna (Graduate student, University of Alberta) |
Objective(s): The primary objectives of this research are: 1) to understand how factors such as; caribou availability, wage economy opportunities, fuel prices, store-bought food prices, alternative country food availability, and income affect harvesting behaviour; 2) to explore what extent other meat sources are used to replace caribou in times of scarcity; 3) to investigate how the timing and location of hunting activities adjust with caribou availability and movement.
Project Description: This licence is being issued for the scientific research application No. 904. The primary objectives of this research are: 1) to understand how factors such as caribou availability, wage economy opportunities, fuel prices, store-bought food prices, alternative country food availability, and income affect harvesting behaviour; 2) to explore to what extent other meat sources are used to replace caribou in times of scarcity; 3) to investigate how the timing and location of hunting activities adjust with caribou availability and movement. The secondary objectives are: 1) to contribute to the ongoing documentation of the Sahtu harvest of wild meat and traditional lifestyles; 2) to provide information that assists local managers and international caribou committees in making decisions that are equitable for Sahtu residents and protect caribou. Data will be collected in the spring by interviews on-the-land as often as possible. The researcher will return to the Sahtu in the summer 2009 to verify and share the findings in a community workshop. The interviews will involve some semi-structured discussions and a choice experiment survey. During these meetings the researchers will be asking questions about the participants harvesting decisions. Such as: When caribou are less available annually, do harvesters reduce caribou hunting efforts and/or increase other harvest efforts? What meat source (wild or store bought) is the preferred substitute? How does a growing wage economy affect time spent harvesting on the land? Which factors (wage economy, caribou availability, fuel costs, store bought food prices) influence caribou harvest efforts and how? How does community harvest and allocation of caribou operate? (i.e. are there “super-hunters” who provide for the community) Does participation in the wage economy increase or decrease the time spent on the land and the distance traveled? The only technology used will be a voice recorder during interviews (if consent to tape is given). A local assistant from each case study community - Deline and Fort Good Hope will be hired. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted in Deline and Fort Good Hope from May 08 to August 31, 2009.
