NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Sahtu Settlement Area

Tags: environmental assessment, social sciences, climatology, aquatic ecosystems, climate change, land use

Objective(s): To integrate the consideration of the present and future impacts of climate change into the Great Bear Lake Watershed Management Plan and the Sahtu Land Use Plan.

Project Description: The organizations leading this project represent claim participants in the Deline District. The project will thus be directed by organizations representing the local community, such as the Déline First Nation (DFN), and The Déline Renewable Resources Council (DRRC). The objectives of this research project are: a. to develop a research gap analysis and climate change vulnerability assessment for the aquatic ecosystems of the Great Bear Lake Watershed (GBLW); b. to integrate traditional and scientific ecological knowledge in climate change planning; c. to give traditional ecological knowledge a role in management decision-making; d. to develop a water monitoring program for GBLW; e. to involve the community in understanding and monitoring the impacts of climate change on water systems; f. to increase the capacity of the community to adapt to climate change impacts on an important resource; and g. to better integrate the consideration of the present and future impacts of climate change into the Great Bear Lake Watershed Management Plan and the Sahtu Land Use Plan. The proposed methodology derives from the reality that we don’t have control over the capacity of ecosystems to adapt to climate change impacts. However, we need to understand climate change impacts to modify our activities in order to preserve the ecological and cultural integrity of GBLW. The research team proposes first to conduct an assessment of the vulnerability of GBLW’s aquatic ecosystems to climate change, including a research gap analysis, and then develop a water monitoring plan. Project staff will compile past and current scientific research on climate change and the aquatic ecosystems of GBLW and produce a summary/progress report on the research. The information identified and gathered during the elaboration of the Great Bear Lake Watershed Management will serve as first step for the literature review. This will be complemented by scientific journal articles, recent research conducted by Environment Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate change research, conversations with experts, and climate statistics compiled by the Government of the NWT. The research team has requested that the University of Alaska Fairbanks – Scenarios Network for Alaska Planning (SNAP) program develop climate change models and scenarios for GBLW to provide a more detailed understanding of local climate change impacts. Project staff will invite climate change experts, including scientists in INAC’s Yellowknife office, to review the summary report on scientific climate change research and evaluate the process to develop the vulnerability assessment. Project staff will work with Deline’s elders and local hunters in workshops to review the scientific summary report and compile traditional ecological knowledge on the ecosystems of GBLW and on current climate change impacts on those ecosystems. Project staff will develop a water monitoring program to monitor the effects of climate change on GBLW based on the vulnerabilities identified in the vulnerability assessment. Project staff will present project activities and research in meetings and workshops for review by Deline’s elders, community leaders, and interested community members. Copies of all documents will remain in Deline. A website will be set up, to communicate project activities and results within and outside the community. The website will contain material as approved by workshop participants and the Déline Renewable Resources Council (DRRC) Board. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from April 13, 2011 to July 31, 2011.