• Caribou herd rebounds as Indigenous stew

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Mon Mar 28 22:30:40 2022
    Caribou herd rebounds as Indigenous stewards lead conservation efforts
    Researcher says collaborative recovery moves Klinse-Za caribou from brink
    of extinction

    Date:
    March 28, 2022
    Source:
    University of British Columbia Okanagan campus
    Summary:
    Despite recovery efforts from federal and provincial governments,
    caribou populations across Canada continue to decline, largely due
    to human activity. But as a new study finds, in central British
    Columbia there is one herd of mountain caribou, the Klinse-Za,
    whose numbers are going in the opposite direction -- all thanks to
    a collaborative recovery effort led by West Moberly First Nations
    and Saulteau First Nations.



    FULL STORY ========================================================================== Despite recovery efforts from federal and provincial governments,
    caribou populations across Canada continue to decline, largely due to
    human activity.


    ==========================================================================
    But as a new UBC Okanagan study finds, in central British Columbia there
    is one herd of mountain caribou, the Klinse-Za, whose numbers are going
    in the opposite direction -- all thanks to a collaborative recovery
    effort led by West Moberly First Nations and Saulteau First Nations.

    In partnership with many organizations and governments, the Indigenous-led conservation initiative paired short-term recovery actions such as
    predator reduction and caribou guardians at maternal pens, with ongoing
    work to secure landscape-level protection in an effort to create a self-sustaining caribou population.

    Their efforts paid off.

    Dr. Clayton Lamb, a Liber Ero Fellow, along with Carmen Richter, a biology master's student, and Dr. Adam T. Ford, Canada Research Chair in Wildlife Restoration Ecology, conduct research in the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science. Their latest study shows Klinse-Za caribou numbers have nearly
    tripled in under a decade.

    "We have an Indigenous-led conservation effort to thank for averting
    the looming extinction of this herd," says Dr. Lamb. "The population
    was declining rapidly -- a West Moberly Elder once described the herd
    as a 'sea of caribou,' but by 2013 it had declined to only 38 animals."
    Today, the herd count is more than 110 and numbers continue to rise.



    ========================================================================== "This work provides an innovative, community-led, paradigm shift to conservation in Canada," Dr. Lamb says. "While Indigenous Peoples have
    been actively stewarding landscapes for a long time, this approach is new
    in the level of collaboration among western scientists and Indigenous
    Peoples to create positive outcomes on the land and put an endangered
    species on the path to recovery." Richter, who is a Saulteau First
    Nations member, says Indigenous communities have really come together
    for the good of the caribou.

    "We are working hard to recover these caribou. Each year, community
    members pick bags and bags of lichen to feed the mother caribou in the
    pen while other members live up at the top of the mountain with the
    animals. One day, we hope to return the herds to a sustainable size,"
    she says.

    Though the partnership has yielded great success, Dr. Ford is the first
    to acknowledge that more time and effort will be needed to fully recover
    the Klinse-Za.

    "This work is also an important part of decolonizing the mindset of conservation, which has historically worked to exclude the views of
    Indigenous Peoples," he adds.

    With caribou declines exceeding 40 per cent in recent decades across
    Canada, many populations have already been lost. But Dr. Ford insists
    there is a brighter path forward, and this study proves it.

    "This is truly an unprecedented success and signals the critical role
    that Indigenous Peoples can play in conservation," he says. "I hope this success opens doors to collaborative stewardship among other communities
    and agencies.

    We can accomplish so much more when working together." This study was co-produced by western scientists and members of West Moberly First
    Nations and Saulteau First Nations. The work was recently published in Ecological Applications and is supported by a companion manuscript in Ecological Applications exploring the expeditious population growth.


    ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_British_Columbia_Okanagan_campus. Note: Content may be
    edited for style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. Clayton T. Lamb, Roland Willson, Carmen Richter, Naomi
    Owens‐Beek,
    Julian Napoleon, Bruce Muir, R. Scott McNay, Estelle Lavis, Mark
    Hebblewhite, Line Giguere, Tamara Dokkie, Stan Boutin, Adam T. Ford.

    Indigenous‐led conservation: Pathways to recovery for the
    nearly extirpated Klinse‐Za mountain caribou. Ecological
    Applications, 2022; DOI: 10.1002/eap.2581 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220328160654.htm

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