ABSTRACT. It is now a policy requirement that "traditional ecological knowledge" (TEK) be incorporated into environmental assessment and resource management in the North. However, there is little common understanding about what TEK is, and no guidance on how to implement the policy in public arenas where knowledge claims must be tested. The problems are inconsistent and unclear definitions of TEK, and insufficient attention to appropriate methods of organizing and presenting it for assessment and management purposes. TEK can be classified as knowledge about the environment, knowledge about the use of the environment, values about the environment, and the knowledge system itself. All categories are required for environmental assessment, but each must be presented and examined differently. TEK and "Western" science provide partially different information, based on different sets of observations and procedures, and sometimes on different knowledge claims. It is important that TEK be comprehensible and testable as a knowledge claim in public reviews, and usable for ongoing public monitoring and co-management processes. To this end, certain procedures are recommended for recording, organizing, and presenting TEK, with particular emphasis on the need to differentiate between observation and inference or association. Documenting TEK as recommended usually requires trained intermediaries, but they in turn require the support and cooperation of those who have TEK. One consequence is that it is often both impractical and inappropriate to require development proponents to incorporate TEK into their environmental impact statements. However, the environmental assessment process must facilitate the use of TEK in the public review phase.Key words: traditional ecological knowledge, environmental assessment, co-management, research methods, public policy, Canada RÉSUMÉ. Les politiques publiques exigent maintenant que le «savoir écologique traditionnel» (SÉT) soit inclus dans les évaluations environnementales et la gestion des ressources du Nord. On ne s'accorde toutefois pas très bien sur la nature du SÉT et il n'existe pas de principes directeurs sur la façon d'appliquer la politique dans la sphère publique où la revendication du savoir doit être mise à l'essai. Les problèmes sont dus au fait que le SÉT est défini en termes vagues et contradictoires, et que les méthodes appropriées à l'organisation et à la présentation de ce savoir à des fins de gestion ne sont pas toujours suivies. On peut placer le SÉT dans les catégories de connaissance de l'environnement, de connaissance de l'utilisation de l'environnement, de valeurs concernant l'environnement et du système de savoir lui-même. Toutes les catégories sont requises pour l'évaluation environnementale, mais chacune doit être présentée et étudiée sous un angle différent. Le SÉT et la science dite occidentale offrent des renseignements en partie divergents, qui s'appuient sur des ensembles d'observations et de procédures différents, et parfois sur des revendications du savoir dif...

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Native harvest statistics are counts, or estimates, of the number of animals by category taken by a specific group of native people during a specific time period. These statistics are significant for basic research in the social and biological sciences, for public policy and for the resolution of environmental conflicts in the North. This paper reviews and assesses two common sources of native harvest dataadministrative and monitoring records, and special-purpose studiesand provides an extensive bibliography for the latter. Native harvest data are normally obtained by recall survey rather than direct observation. The existing data base is therefore evaluated in terms of the methodological norms of social surveys, with particular attention to precision and uniformity of survey parameters and interview terminology, sampling procedures, non-response bias and response bias. Despite some lack of methodological rigour, especially regarding parameters, terminology and projection from reported harvests, it is concluded that the existing body of information may be used to recreate an historical statistical series of substantial breadth and depth, useful for both socioeconomic and biological research purposes.

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