Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Environmental Assessment and Management

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.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 différentes. Il est important que le SÉT puisse être compris et testé en tant que revendication du savoir lors des examens publics, et qu'il puisse être utilisable dans les processus permanents de contrôle public et de cogestion. À cette fin, certaines procédures sont recommandées pour consigner, organiser et présenter le SÉT, procédures qui insistent tout particulièrement sur le besoin de différencier entre l'observation et l'inférence ou l'association. La documentation du SÉT telle qu'elle est recommandée exige d'ordinaire des intermédiaires qui ont reçu une formation, mais eux-mêmes, à leur tour, ont besoin de l'appui et de la coopération des individus qui possèdent le SÉT. Une des conséquences est qu'il s'avère souvent à la fois peu pratique et inapproprié d'exiger que les adeptes de la mise en valeur intègrent le SÉT dans leurs énoncés des incidences environnementales. Le processus d'évaluation environnementale doit toutefois faciliter l'utilisation du SÉT dans la phase de l'examen public

Inuvialuit Use of the Beaufort Sea and its Resources, 1960-2000

Comprehensive, census-type surveys of Inuvialuit harvesters were conducted in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR) in the 1960s (Area Economic Surveys) and 1970s (Inuit Land Use and Occupancy Project) and in the 1990s (Inuvialuit Harvest Study). These surveys, supplemented by other case studies, provide a basis for comparing Inuvialuit use of the Beaufort Sea and its resources in the 1960s and the 1990s. The geographic extent of harvesting was about the same in both decades. The number of harvesters grew, although by less than the rate of population growth. Mean annual harvest of country food per hunter declined from 2083 kg/yr to 707 kg/yr. The chief reason for the decline in harvest was the near-abandonment of dogs for transport. If we take into account the share of country food likely consumed by dogs, the per capita harvest of country food for human consumption may not have changed significantly between the two decades. What has changed, however, is the composition of the harvest: the ratio (by weight) of country foods from marine and terrestrial sources was 75:25 in the 1960s, but 45:55 in the 1990s. Available country food amounted to 115.2 kg/capita/yr in the 1990s, a significant contribution to the household economy. Thus, contrary to many predictions in the 1960s, subsistence harvesting persists as a significant economic as well as cultural preoccupation in the lives of Inuvialuit today. The results of this study suggest that the measurement of subsistence and commercial harvesting in terms of location, participation, inputs, and outputs is of continuing importance for fish and wildlife management and for economic planning.Des enquêtes par recensement détaillées portant sur les exploitants pêcheurs ont été menées dans la Région désignée des Inuvialuit (RDI) au cours des années 1960 (Enquêtes économiques dans le secteur), des années 1970 (Projet d'utilisation et d'occupation du territoire par les Inuits) et des années 1990 (Étude sur les prélèvements par les Inuvialuit). Ces enquêtes, complétées par d'autres études de cas, offrent une base de comparaison à l'utilisation qu'ont faite les Inuvialuit de la mer de Beaufort et de ses ressources dans les années 1960 et 1990. L'étendue géographique des prélèvements était à peu près la même au cours des deux décennies. Le nombre d'exploitants a augmenté, bien qu'il soit resté inférieur au taux de croissance démographique. La moyenne annuelle par chasseur des prélèvements de nourriture traditionnelle a baissé de 2083 kg/an à 707 kg/an. Ce déclin est dû en grande partie au fait que les chiens ont cessé d'être utilisés pour le transport. Si l'on tient compte de la part de nourriture traditionnelle qui était probablement consommée par les chiens, la quantité d'aliments traditionnels prélevés par personne pour la consommation humaine pourrait ne pas avoir changé de façon notable d'une décennie à l'autre. Ce qui est différent, en revanche, c'est la composition de la récolte: le rapport (pondéral) entre les aliments traditionnels provenant de sources marines et ceux de sources terrestres était de 75 pour 25 dans les années 1960, mais de 45 pour 55 dans les années 1990. La nourriture traditionnelle disponible se montait à 115,2 kg/personne/an dans les années 1990, ce qui représentait un apport majeur à l'économie domestique. Ainsi, contrairement à de nombreuses prédictions faites dans les années 60, la récolte de subsistance reste une préoccupation économique et culturelle capitale dans la vie contemporaine des Inuvialuit. Les résultats de cette étude suggèrent que la mesure des prélèvements de subsistance et commerciaux en termes de lieu, de participation, d'intrants et extrants continue d'avoir de l'importance pour la gestion de la faune aquatique et terrestre et pour la planification économique

The Use of Snowmobiles for Trapping on Banks Island

The village of Sachs Harbour on Banks Island, Northwest Territories, has been the outstanding example of a successful trapping community in northern North America for a generation .... Trapping is still the full-time occupation of virtually every active male, and per capita income from trapping is higher than in any other settlement in the Arctic or Subarctic. Eighty-seven per cent of cash income at Sachs Harbour was derived from trapping during the years 1963 to 1967, and the average income of full-time trappers from furs was $6,296. The sole basis of the fur harvest is the arctic or white fox, although the people also rely on 3 other major resources for their livelihood: caribou, seal, and polar bears. In recent years, the fewer than 20 trappers on Banks Island have accounted for as much as one-third of Canadian arctic fox production, indicating not only their own productivity but also the decline of trapping in other areas of the North. ... The explanation for such high productivity lies not in ecology, or even primarily in economics, but rather in the unique history of the Canadian Western Arctic coast, and the resulting social and economic orientations of its people .... The Bankslanders, as they call themselves, are acquisitive and proud. They are strongly motivated towards trapping as the most appropriate means of achieving both economic success and the prestige traditionally brought by conspicuous consumption. ... The Bankslanders have a tradition of innovation. They are quick to test new means of production, and to invest money in high quality capital goods which have proven their worth. ... The trapping and hunting system on Banks Island is probably the most modern of its type in the world, relying on the best available technology, and the most productive systems of organization and marketing. ... The snowmobile has been gradually integrated into the Banks Island trapping system over a decade. Caution and astuteness have marked its acceptance. It would appear that it will not have any profound effects on the system. Temporarily the snowmobile constitutes a considerable extra economic burden, and although this will very likely diminish, it cannot but increase production costs. Although it will probably not increase trapline productivity significantly, it will provide more leisure time during the trapping season, and more free time for the assumption of temporary wage positions during the summer months. As a result, total net income will probably increase, and with reduced reliance on fox pelts as the sole source of cash, the cyclic pattern of income from year to year should be reduced. Harvests of all species should remain within sustainable limits, and some species will be harvested at lower levels than at present. There do not appear to be any serious effects on animal behaviour. The snowmobile is only one of many forces that will change the social system at Sachs Harbour. The encroachment of government administration and private resource development, both of which accelerated greatly in the summer of 1970, will be of far more profound consequence than the snowmobile. Data on trapping effort and productivity from 1970 onwards will therefore have to be interpreted in the light of these events as well as of the transition to snowmobiles, which is now, in 1972, virtually complete

Evaluating Country Food in the Northern Native Economy

A means is sought of estimating the value of domestically-produced country food, which is of considerable importance in the northern native economy. The problems involved include the determination of the actual volume of production as well as the uses made of it, the evaluation of income in kind, particularly through the imputation of cash values, and the assessment of the intangibles involved in any direct comparison between the modern and traditional sectors of the northern economy. It is concluded that substitution costs provide the most appropriate measure of value and their use is, therefore, recommended, but with the caution that they cannot serve to measure the value of the activity or environment which produces the country food

Semantic similarity dissociates shortfrom long-term recency effects: testing a neurocomputational model of list memory

The finding that recency effects can occur not only in immediate free recall (i.e., short-term recency) but also in the continuous-distractor task (i.e., long-term recency) has led many theorists to reject the distinction between short- and long-term memory stores. Recently, we have argued that long-term recency effects do not undermine the concept of a short-term store, and we have presented a neurocomputational model that accounts for both short- and long-term recency and for a series of dissociations between these two effects. Here, we present a new dissociation between short- and long-term recency based on semantic similarity, which is predicted by our model. This dissociation is due to the mutual support between associated items in the short-term store, which takes place in immediate free recall and delayed free recall but not in continuous-distractor free recall

Functional genomic characterization of metallothioneins in brown trout (Salmo trutta L.). using synthetic genetic analysis

This is the final version. Available on open access from Nature Research via the DOI in this recordData Availability: The authors state that all data necessary for confirming the conclusions presented in the article are represented fully within the article.The publisher correction to this article is available in ORE at http://hdl.handle.net/10871/40821Metal pollution has made a significant impact on the earth’s ecosystems and tolerance to metals in a wide variety of species has evolved. Metallothioneins, a group of cysteine-rich metal-ion binding proteins, are known to be a key physiological mechanism in regulating protection against metal toxicity. Many rivers across the southwest of England are detrimentally affected by metal pollution, but brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) populations are known to reside within them. In this body of work, two isoforms of metallothionein (MetA and MetB) isolated from trout occupying a polluted and a control river are examined. Using synthetic genetic array (SGA) analyses in the model yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, functional genomics is used to explore the role of metallothionein isoforms in driving metal tolerance. By harnessing this experimental system, S. cerevisiae is used to (i) determine the genetic interaction maps of MetA and MetB isoforms; (ii) identify differences between the genetic interactions in both isoforms and (iii) demonstrate that pre-exposure to metals in metal-tolerant trout influences these interactions. By using a functional genomics approach leveraged from the model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we demonstrate how such approaches could be used in understanding the ecology and evolution of a non-model species

Quantum Hall induced currents and the magnetoresistance of a quantum point contact

We report an investigation of quantum Hall induced currents by simultaneous measurements of their magnetic moment and their effect on the conductance of a quantum point contact (QPC). Features in the magnetic moment and QPC resistance are correlated at Landau-level filling factors nu=1, 2 and 4, which demonstrates the common origin of the effects. Temperature and non-linear sweep rate dependences are observed to be similar for the two effects. Furthermore, features in the noise of the induced currents, caused by breakdown of the quantum Hall effect, are observed to have clear correlations between the two measurements. In contrast, there is a distinct difference in the way that the induced currents decay with time when the sweeping field halts at integer filling factor. We attribute this difference to the fact that, while both effects are sensitive to the magnitude of the induced current, the QPC resistance is also sensitive to the proximity of the current to the QPC split-gate. Although it is clearly demonstrated that induced currents affect the electrostatics of a QPC, the reverse effect, the QPC influencing the induced current, was not observed