Native Harvest Surveys and Statistics: A Critique of Their Construction and Use

Usher, Peter J.; Wenzel, George W.

doi:10.14430/arctic1759

Cited by 59 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Methods for obtaining and organizing Category 2 TEK are already well established (e.g., Freeman, 1976;Ellanna et al, 1985;Usher and Wenzel, 1987). There are also emerging norms for TEK research specifically directed to assessment and management issues (Neis et al, 1999).…”

Section: Documenting and Presenting Tek In Environmental Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Environmental Assessment and Management

Usher¹

2000

ARCTIC

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347

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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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Section: Documenting and Presenting Tek In Environmental Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Environmental Assessment and Management

Usher¹

2000

ARCTIC

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321

347

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“…Mansfield 1967, Usher 1975, Malouf 1986) or police reports which are of varying quality and precision (e.g. Riewe andAmsden 1979, Usher andWenzel 1987). Skin sales are obviously sensitive to market factors, so considerable uncertainty exists about what the trade statistics signify.…”

Section: Status Of Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distribution, abundance and biology of ringed seals (<i>Phoca hispida</i>): an overview

Reeves

1998

NAMMCOSP

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The ringed seal (Phoca hispida) has a circumpolar Arctic distribution. Because of its great importance to northern communities and its role as the primary food of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) the ringed seal has been studied extensively in Canada, Alaska, Russia, Svalbard and Greenland as well as in the Baltic Sea and Karelian lakes. No clear-cut boundaries are known to separate ringed seal stocks in marine waters. Adult seals are thought to be relatively sedentary, but sub-adults sometimes disperse over long distances. Stable ice with good snow cover is considered the most productive habitat although production in pack ice has been little studied. Populations appear to be structured so that immature animals and young adults are consigned to sub-optimal habitat during the spring pupping and breeding season. Annual production in ringed seal populations, defined as the pup percentage in the total population after the late winter pupping season, is probably in the order of 18-24%. Most ~stimates of maximum sustainable yield are in the order of 7%.The world population of ringed seals is at least a few million. Methods of abundance estimation have included aerial surveys, dog searches and remote sensing of lairs and breathing holes, acoustic monitoring, correlation analysis by reference to sizes of polar bear populations, and inference from estimated energy requirements of bear populations. Aerial strip survey has been the method of choice for estimating seal densities over large areas. Adjustment factors to account for seals not hauled out at the time of the survey, for seals that dove ahead of the aircraft, and for seals on the ice within the surveyed strip but not detected by the observers, are required for estimates of absolute abundance.Male and female ringed seals are sexually mature by 5-7 years of age (earlier at Svalbard). Pupping usually occurs in March or early April and is followed by 5-7 weeks of lactation. Breeding takes place in mid to late May, and implantation is delayed for about 3 months. In at least some parts of their range, ringed seals feed mainly on schooling gadids from late autumn through early spring and on benthic crustaceans and polar cod (Boreogadus saida) from late spring through summer. Little feeding is done during the moult, which takes place in late spring and early summer. Pelagic crustaceans offshore and mysids inshore become important prey in late summer and early autumn in some areas. Ringed seals have several natural predators, the most important of which is the polar bear in most arctic regions. Arctic foxes (Alopex lagopus) kill a large percentage of pups in some areas.From a conservation perspective, the ringed seal appears to be secure. Levels of exploitation of arctic populations have usually been considered sustainable, except in the Okhotsk Sea. Large fluctuations in production of ringed seals in the Beaufort Sea and Amundsen Gulf are thought to be driven by natural variability in environmental conditions. While concern has been expressed about the potential imp...

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“…Informal exchanges between households, whether local or not, may in fact constitute a good proxy for the perpetuation of the social bonds favored by many Arctic cultures. Arctic societies are believed to have created an original form of economic organization combining formal income and other forms of activity and exchange; the keepers of official statistics have often been criticized for not taking into account the elements of this informal economy, such as hunting, fishing, gathering, and the associated processes of redistribution (Usher et al, 2003;Usher and Wenzel, 1987;Wolfe and Walker, 1987). It is desirable to investigate the informal economy more routinely to understand the functioning of Arctic economies and to receive an indicator of its sociocultural functioning.…”

Section: Belongingmentioning

confidence: 99%