The BQCMB has long been upheld as a model of co-management for conserving barren-ground caribou. (Photo 12712656 © Vanessa Gifford | Dreamstime.com)

By Derek Cornet

shared responsibility

Arctic caribou management board releases 10-year plan

Jun 17, 2024 | 5:00 PM

The Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board (BQCMB) has released a 10-year management plan that takes a step further by including actions other parties can take to help conserve the herds.

Caribou is Life: The Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Plan 2023-2032 describes how the BQCMB will work with people across the ranges of the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq barren ground caribou to follow two guiding principles–shared responsibility and prioritizing caribou in the caribou-people relationship.

“The “Shared Responsibility” principle is essential because we can’t do this alone–the herds have declined. So, we included activities for anyone whose actions or decisions might affect the health of the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq herds,” said BQCMB Executive Director Tina Giroux-Robillard, noted the management plan was built on collaboration.

The management plan is divided into four main priority areas and each priority includes a list of suggested actions for the BQCMB, along with actions for community and regional organizations, individuals, Indigenous governments, public governments, regulatory bodies, industry, non-government organizations, and the tourism industry.

BQCMB Chair Earl Evans, who represents the Northwest Territory Métis Nation, added the second guiding principle came directly from caribou-using communities.

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“People kept repeating the same thing – caribou should come first,” he said.

One of those people is Dennis Larocque, BQCMB member from Camsell Portage, Saskatchewan, who recently shared a personal essay with the board in which he wrote, “Look after the caribou and the caribou will look after you, and they’ll be everlasting.”

To track the management plan’s progress, the BQCMB has created an online tool called Caribou Connect for people and organizations to submit projects and activities taking place on the range of the two herds and plot them on a map.

The BQCMB has long been upheld as a model of co-management for conserving barren-ground caribou. Since early times, the Cree, Dene, Inuit and Métis people of northern Manitoba, northern Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut have depended on the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq caribou for food, clothing and shelter.

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com