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Conservation and management decisions require an understanding of important habitats for species. “Identifying such habitat begins with looking at the environmental conditions that animals use consistently,” said Dr. Marie Auger-Méthé, Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries and Department of Statistics, and a co-author of a recent paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Indigenous Knowledge can provide a holistic understanding of species’ habitat use given that it “contains, among other things, observations of multiple species across seasons and includes animals’ complex relationships with other species and habitats,” said Dr. Rowenna Gryba, lead author of the recent paper and a settler who undertook this research as part of her PhD work at UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries and Department of Statistics.

Current methods for estimating critical habitat are limited

Despite Indigenous Knowledge providing valuable insights into species’ habitat use, conservation and management decisions tend to be made solely based on ‘Western’ scientific data, which is often limited to what can be determined from, for example, telemetry or aerial surveys. Data collected using these methods typically suffer small sample sizes and span short durations. Such limitations are especially problematic when conservation and management decisions involve rapidly changing habitats and hard-to-track species, such as Arctic seals.

Researchers from UBC collaborated with Indigenous Knowledge holders of Utqiaġvik, Alaska and the North Slope Borough Department of Wildlife Management to co-produce an approach to translate Indigenous Knowledge of relationships between local species and their habitats into a format compatible with ‘Western’ scientific frameworks– a process that the authors acknowledge can be extractive. However, this approach was developed in recognition of the need for Indigenous Knowledge to be more readily included in ‘Western’ conservation management approaches.

Indigenous Knowledge improves understanding of species’ habitat use

The authors applied their approach to a case study on ringed seals – a species that is important culturally and for subsistence to many Inuit – but whose critical habitat has previously been debated. Given that Iñupiat hunters observe ringed seals across seasons, and throughout the region, the knowledge they shared with the authors provided detailed information about ringed seals’ relationships with different habitats and environmental variables, such as sea ice concentration.

The Indigenous Knowledge shared was documented qualitatively, quantitatively, and spatially and then statistically characterized to estimate habitat use and important areas for ringed seals throughout the region using Indigenous Knowledge as the only data source. Indigenous Knowledge holders contributed throughout the process, “providing needed corrections to accurately reflect the Indigenous Knowledge shared and also to ensure the results were meaningful and accurate,” explained Gryba.

Their study is the first to solely use Indigenous Knowledge in habitat models to identify important habitats while accounting for dynamic habitat types and complex species-habitat relationships. “We showed that Indigenous Knowledge reflects some of the same processes that ‘Western’ science approaches have captured,” explained Gryba. “But we also showed that Indigenous Knowledge provides population-level understanding that satellite telemetry has not yet been able to capture and reflect. For example, how ringed seals use sea ice and currents.” This new approach is especially useful in the context of climate change, as sea ice thickness and the timing of ice formation and retreat vary annually and can affect habitat use by Arctic seals.

Centring Indigenous Knowledge in conservation and management

‘Western’ approaches to understanding species’ habitat use have typically informed the definitions of critical habitats for many species at risk. These decisions can have implications for Indigenous communities who rely on these species for cultural and subsistence purposes. By demonstrating that Indigenous Knowledge alone can be used to identify important and potentially critical habitats, the authors challenge the notion that only ‘Western’ scientific data can inform statistical models used for species management.

Recognizing Indigenous Knowledge as a robust knowledge source and supporting Indigenous-led management frameworks can provide more detailed insights to better inform conservation and management decisions and contribute to decolonizing current management approaches. Taqulik Hepa, subsistence hunter and Director of the North Slope Borough Department of Wildlife Management, explained, “this approach helps to show the depth of understanding of Indigenous Knowledge and there is a need to help grow the understanding of Indigenous Knowledge for management use.”

The study “Indigenous Knowledge as a sole data source in habitat selection functions” was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Tags: Alaska, animal movement, Arctic, faculty, habitats, Indigenous fisheries, Indigenous Knowledge, IOF students, Marie Auger-Methe, movement ecology, Research, seals