Fall, James A.

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espoused by astrem and  Brugman are used the world over; this book is sure to be an invaluable reference. Erik W Blake Icefeld Instruments  Inc. P.O. Box 5567 Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada YlA 5H4 WILDLIFE  MANAGEMENT AND SUBSISTENCE HUNTING IN ALASKA. By HENRY P. HUNTINGTON. London:  Belhaven Press, in  association  with  the  Scott  Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge; and  Seattle:. University of Washington Press, 1992. xvii + 177 p., 19 figs., 3 tables, index, bib. Hardbound. f32.50; US$50.00. Henry  P.  Huntington’s Whfliye Management and Subsistence Hunting in Alaska examines “currently active management and  regulatory regimes . . . to discover what characteristics are shared  by  effective  regimes. ” Huntington  defines  effective management as that which 1) protects wildlife populations and 2) “allows  local  people  to  provide  for  their ne ds,” where a need is “a nutritional, cultural, or spiritual requirement that cannot be readily or adequately replaced. ” He deliber- ately focuses only on the interactions between wildlife management  regimes  and  local  subsistence hunters. Another delimitation is that  most  of  the  management  regimes  discussed pertain to “northern Alaska,” defined as the North Slope Borough. The book’s conclusions are intended to have broader applicability, however. The first three of the  book’s  eight  chapters are introductory. The first chapter illustrates Huntington’s multidisciplinary approach, which incorporates elements of wildlife manage- ment, anthropology, political science, and polar studies. The second is a short but informative history,of wildlife manage- ment in Great  Britain  and the United  States,  which  concludes with issues in contemporary Alaska. The third chapter is a brief overview of the history, culture, and  economy  of the Inupiat of the  North  Slope. The continuing  nutritional, social, and cultural importance of subsistence hunting despite economic development is emphasized. The next four chapters describe and evaluate various federal, state, local, and cooperative wildlife management regimes. Chapter four begins with a discussion of inter- national treaties governing migratory waterfowl, whales, polar bears, and caribou. It then describes the two federal laws that most affect subsistence hunting in Alaska, the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). Finally, the chapter reviews the roles of the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the National Park Service, the Bureau  of  Land Management (BLM), and the Minerals Management Service in  land  and subsistence management. Several examples of the activities of each federal agency are evaluated. One case is the National Park Service’s implementation of ANILCA’s provision requiring that sub- sistence resource commissions, consisting largely of local REVIEWS / 285 hunters, develop  subsistence  hunting  plans for national  parks in Alaska, Another example is BLM’s reintroduction of muskoxen to several areas of the North Slope Borough. Huntington  views the latter as a  successful program because it  effectively  involved local hunters, while the establishment of park subsistence resource commissions is a program that was intended to provide meaningful local involvement but has so far not done so. The reasons for this failure are not fully  analyzed,  however,  pointing to a  limitation  in  the  book’s evaluative method. While Huntington acknowledges that factors such as  an agency’s responsibilities to other interest groups or its professional culture may affect its interaction with subsistence hunters, he places these factors outside the scope of  his analysis. Consideration of such factors would have assisted the reader in understanding why effective involvement of subsistence hunters in management systems often does not occur. Chapter five examines the state’s regulatory process, including the local advisory committee system, the Alaska Board of Game, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. As Huntington  acknowledges, this chapter  was  written before an Alaska Supreme Court decision (in the McDowell case) fundamentally changed the way in which the state of Alaska  could  implement  the  subsistence  provisions  of  federal law (ANILCA) and Alaska’s own subsistence statute. Nevertheless, the chapter contains several important observations about the state system, such as some of the difficulties encountered by Alaska Native people when  they participate in a formal regulatory process that  itself  attempts to respond to competing, statewide interests. The chapter also gives examples of state subsistence regulations that reflect a  view  of  hunting “as a recreational pursuit, not the economic basis of a  way  of life. ” Examples include individual bag limits for caribou and other ‘game, which may inhibit sharing, and requirements that hunters obtain tags before hunting brown bears. The latter require- ment  contradicts  cultural  prohibitions  against  speaking  openly about  hunting bears out  of  respect for the animals. Huntington contends that such regulations serve no conservation goals. Further, because  they  have  been  adopted  with  little  local  input and have no local relevance, they are largely ignored and result in disinterest or hostility towards resource manage- ment in general. According to Huntington, adopting more culturally appropriate regulations in consultation with local hunters should result in better compliance with conservation efforts and better information for resource managers. Chapter six reviews efforts by the North Slope Borough to  develop  its  own resource programs. Although the borough lacks regulatory authority, it has formed a Department of Wildlife Management, a Fish and Game Management Committee, and  a Science Advisory Committee to conduct research  and  promote  local  involvement  in  state,  federal,  and international  management  systems.  According  to  Huntington, these  organizations  provide  local  involvement  where  the state and federal systems fail to do so. He notes, however, that the cost of these programs will place them out of  reach of most local governments. Of particular interest is the discussion in chapter seven of several examples of cooperative management regimes in 286 / REVIEWS northern Alaska. Discussed are the Alaska  Eskimo  Whaling Commission, the Eskimo Walrus Commission, the Yukon- Kuskokwim Delta Goose Management Plan, and several others. Huntington  concludes  that cooperative systems have good  potential  to  provide  effective  management  because  they can focus on particular issues, have specific gods, and can adapt to the needs of subsistence hunters. In the final chapter, Huntington suggests a set of criteria, based  upon the findings in the previous four chapters, by which ten management regimes are qualitatively evaluated. The  criteria  concern  such  characteristics as legality,  ecological relevance, cultural appropriateness, flexibility, and local involvement. Those regimes  found to be  most effective have clearly defined roles, are flexible, and  have  a  high degree of  local involvement, while  those  with  low overall effective- ness lack cultural relevance, are difficult to implement, or fail to include local hunters in the management process. According to Huntington’s analysis, examples of effective resource management regimes include the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Goose  Management Plan. In contrast, migratory  bird  treaties have poor overall effectiveness because they are “rigid, culturally inappropriate, and  difficult  to change. ” Following this, the same criteria are applied to the management of walrus, caribou, geese, polar bears, and  bowhead whales. Huntington concludes that walrus management  is  only moderately effective; although subsistence hunters can provide for their needs, there is no mechanism to adopt conservation measures until the population is declared depleted. Huntington views the effectiveness of bowhead whale  management as “good,” primarily  because of the  active role of the  Alaska  Eskimo  Whaling  Commission  in  managing the hunting. Throughout the book, the dominant  theme  is  that  effective resource management systems require “intensive local involvement. ” Huntington  views the interests of  professional resource managers  and  local  subsistence  hunters a mutually supportive. Local hunters possess a great deal of detailed knowledge about game populations that is of value to managers. Also, without the cooperation of local hunters, conservation measures may be ignored and hence be ineffective. Therefore, according to Huntington, the best examples of effective  management  regimes are those  that are “cooperative,” where there is “a shared commitment to the ideas of local use  and  of resource conservation. ” This book fills an important gap in that there are few overviews of the complex state of subsistence resource management in Alaska available to a general readership. Overall, the book is accurate, clear, and reasonably up to date. The reader should be cautioned, however, that subsis- tence  management  in  Alaska is a  rapidly  changing  issue. The book’s strength is its dual focus on the needs  of  both the wildlife resources and the communities that depend upon those resources, as well as its clear acknowledgement that developing  solutions to problems in subsistence  management requires contributions by several disciplines, including biology, anthropology, and political science. The book is recommended for several audiences. It will be particularly  useful for those  with  little  previous  knowledge about current subsistence issues in Alaska. The book could be  effectively  incorporated  into  university courses in  anthro- pology and northern studies. Especially, because of its multidisciplinary approach, it is appropriate for use in courses in  wildlife  management  and contemporary resource issues. Also, specialists may appreciate the overview of recent efforts to develop cooperative approaches to subsis- tence resource management  and the update on the complex resource  management  situation  that  presently  exists  in  Alaska. . James A. Fall Division of Subsistence Alaska Department of Fish and  Game 333 Raspberry Road Anchorage, Alaska 9951 8 U. S. A. LORE:  CAPTURING  TRADITIONAL  ENVIRONMENTAL WOWLEDGE. Edited by MARTHA  JOHNSON. Ottawa: International Development  Research Centre and the Dene Cultural Institute, 1992. x + 190 p., maps, appendix. Softbound. Cdn$l4.95. Traditional or indigenous  knowledge is a  rapidly growing focus of interest for Native  and  non-Native  people  in  govern- ment, academia, and private organizations in Canada and throughout the world. Canadian Native people, of course, have  historically  had  more  than  a  passing  interest  in  traditional knowledge. It has for countless generations been  a  way  of life and understanding it intimately has been a prerequisite for a  successful  and  fruitful  existence. However, the ravages of a colonial history and social policies geared towards assimilation have distanced many Native peoples from their history  and from an understanding of traditional knowledge. The recovery of traditional knowledge has been identified by  many Native organizations as an integral tool for cultural repatriation and political empowerment. In recent years interest in this area has also burgeoned among non-Native groups who are realizing that  a wealth of knowledge is at risk of  being lost. In Canada, examples of this increased  interest  and  recognition  include th creation of an interdisciplinary committee of academics to study indigenous knowledge at the University of Alberta, govern- ment utilization of traditional knowledge in studies such as the current Northern River Basin Study, the formation of five Canadian  wildlife  co-management  regimes,  and  the  rapid proliferation of projects  documenting  traditional  knowledge. Lore: Capturing  Traditional  Environmental Knowledge, edited  by  Martha  Johnson, is a  timely  and  strong  contribution to  a  topic on which there has been little existing information and few descriptive books. Although Lore focuses on the environmental components of traditional knowledge, this book  does  not  attempt an exhaustive  examination  of  traditional environmental  knowledge (TEK). Instead, the intent of Lore is  to  provide  a  comprehensive  introduction t  the  subject  and to summarize the results of  a workshop on TEK  held near Fort Good Hope in the summer of 1990. The objectives of  this  book appear to be threefold. First, Lore seeks to broaden the reader’s understanding of the 

Wildlife Management and Subsistence Hunting in Alaska, by Henry P. Huntington

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Wildlife Management and Subsistence Hunting in Alaska, by Henry P. Huntington

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