Researchers are developing a tool to help regulators gain a clearer picture on how a given development project might affect caribou.
Ecologist Colin Daniel said the project aims to take into account a multitude of factors SA国际影视传媒� things like climate change, other industrial development, wildfires and overall habitat change, birth rates, hunting and predation SA国际影视传媒� to form the context that would help better understand the impact a development project may have on nearby caribou.
World Wildlife Fund Canada announced on Aug. 10 it would be funding this project and 13 others throughout CanadaSA国际影视传媒檚 North in this yearSA国际影视传媒檚 iteration of WWF-CanadaSA国际影视传媒檚 Arctic Species Conservation Fund.
SA国际影视传媒淭here are a lot of moving pieces when you're trying to do this,SA国际影视传媒� said Daniel. SA国际影视传媒淭here's a lot of different ways that different things could have effects on caribou. Over my career, scientists really did a lot of work on different parts of that puzzle, more or less independently.
SA国际影视传媒淲hat we're trying to do with this project really at this point is to find ways to bring all that understanding together into one piece.SA国际影视传媒�
Currently, he said, research conducted ahead of development tends to look at just a piece of the puzzle rather than taking the larger view.
Daniel said the growing understanding of caribou, and all the moving pieces that affect them, is similar to the way climate knowledge and weather forecasting grew. While itSA国际影视传媒檚 impossible to predict with full accuracy, weather forecasts provide likelihoods for when it might rain, for example.
Daniel said he hopes this project can contribute to caribou scientists eventually having a full enough understanding of the variety of factors at play that they could assign a numerical value on whether a project may affect caribou.
Daniel is part of the team at Apex Resource Management Solutions, which is partnered with Shadow Lake Environmental Consulting and the GNWT on the cumulative impact modelling project. He said they are aiming to have the project finished at the end of this calendar year.
The other NWT projects being funded by WWF-Canada include a partnership between the GNWT and Umingmak Productions to produce a video explaining caribou survey methods; research on the effects of mining infrastructure on caribou that will be conducted through a partnership between the GNWT, the University of Northern British Columbia and the Circumpolar Arctic Rangifer Monitoring and Assessment Network; and the creation of a database of for the Deninu Kue First Nation of its traditional knowledge on caribou.
Close to $400,000 was given out in total, with grants for individual projects typically ranging from $20,000 to $30,000, according to Brandon Laforest, senior specialist in Arctic species and ecosystems for WWF-Canada.
This year, close to 30 applications for funding were submitted, according to Laforest.
He said the projects that were funded were picked for having real potential for a tangible outcome that would further wildlife conservation, with a higher priority on projects that have the support of, and could benefit, local Northern communities.
SA国际影视传媒淭he way the system works,SA国际影视传媒� said Laforest, SA国际影视传媒淚s we're very transparent and we lay out what our conservation priorities are for the Arctic wildlife and Arctic ecosystems and we invite interested parties who want to work with us to send us proposals that we can evaluate.SA国际影视传媒�
The call for proposals goes out every December.
