Socio-economic predictors of Inuit hunting choices and their implications for climate change adaptation

Abstract

In the Arctic, seasonal variation in the accessibility of the land, sea ice and open waters influences which resources can be harvested safely and efficiently. Climate stressors are also increasingly affecting access to subsistence resources. Within Inuit communities, people differ in their involvement with subsistence activities, but little is known about how engagement in the cash economy (time and money available) and other socio-economic factors shape the food production choices of Inuit harvesters, and their ability to adapt to rapid ecological change. We analyse 281 foraging trips involving 23 Inuit harvesters from Kangiqsujuaq, Nunavik, Canada using a Bayesian approach modelling both patch choice and within-patch success. Gender and income predict Inuit harvest strategies: while men, especially men from low-income households, often visit patches with a relatively low success probability, women and high-income hunters generally have a higher propensity to choose low-risk patches. Inland hunting, marine hunting and fishing differ in the required equipment and effort, and hunters may have to shift their subsistence activities if certain patches become less profitable or less safe owing to high costs of transportation or climate change (e.g. navigate larger areas inland instead of targeting seals on the sea ice). Our finding that household income predicts patch choice suggests that the capacity to maintain access to country foods depends on engagement with the cash economy. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Climate change adaptation needs a science of culture’.

Climate change adaptation needs a science of culture

“…[41][42][43]). Several articles in this theme issue provide detailed qualitative and quantitative data on the relationship between cultural practices and contemporary climate, which can be compared and contrasted across contexts [16,[44][45][46] and can be compared to environmental data, such as carbon emissions data [14]. Agent-based models draw from both past and contemporary data to simulate future outcomes (e.g.…”

“…For example, the adoption of variants by individual farmers at the micro level (like different approaches to watering) affects ecology at the meso level [ 98 ] and determines which adaptations become locally predominant [ 14 , 15 ]. In other cases, national-level policies (macro) impact the transmission of TEK (micro), with implications for its preservation among Indigenous peoples (meso; [ 44 , 46 ]). In short, though scientists, organizations and policymakers may focus on just one of these three levels to make their research tractable or to set funding priorities, all three are fundamentally interconnected.…”