Community-Based Documentation of Ice Seals and Walrus in the Bering Strait Region

白令海的海豹和海象种群，以及利用它们的自给用户，目前面临许多挑战。其中包括海冰的丧失和发展的扩大，渔业活动，以及在北方白令海的海上运输。人们对这些物种的未来越来越担忧，但现有的科学无法最终预测这些因素将如何影响冰海豹和海象或依赖它们的社区。当地对这些物种的生态学和地理学的了解，以及当地的使用模式，可能有助于社区和决策者了解这些环境和人为变化对当前和未来的影响。 这是一个基于社区的研究项目，通过Kawerak公司，阿拉斯加原住民地区非营利组织 作为该项目的一部分，Kawerak的研究人员将与当地社区成员合作，实施人种学和地理信息系统空间制图方法，以增加我们对白令海峡地区Iñupiat、中央Yupik和圣劳伦斯岛Yupik与两种重要生存资源-冰海豹和海象-的关系的了解，它们的栖息地正受到环境变化的影响。 该项目通过绘制有关冰海豹和海象生境和生态以及生计用途地区的时空知识图，记录狩猎冰海豹和海象的文化重要性以及狩猎冰海豹和海象的生计所面临的挑战（如猎人所见），将有助于加深对北极社会环境动态复杂性的了解。 该项目将为当地对这些问题的分析和解决方案提供声音，从而为野生动物管理者和政策制定者提供信息。 此外，该项目还将为国际保护组织Oceana正在编制的北极重要生态区地图集作出贡献，该地图集将成为该区域社区的一个工具。

The ice seal and walrus populations of the Bering Sea, as well as the subsistence users who utilize them, currently face many challenges. These include loss of sea ice and the expansion of development, fisheries activities, and marine shipping in the northern Bering Sea. Concern over the future of these species is growing, but existing science cannot conclusively predict how these factors will affect ice seals and walrus or the communities that depend on them. Local knowledge of the ecology and biogeography of these species, in addition to local use patterns, may help communities and policy makers understand current and future impacts of these environmental and anthropogenic changes. This is a community based research project through Kawerak Inc., the Alaska Native regional non-profit corporation. As part of this project, Kawerak researchers will be working with local community members to implement ethnographic and GIS spatial mapping methods in order to increase our understanding of Bering Strait region Iñupiat, Central Yup'ik, and St. Lawrence Island Yupik relationships with two important subsistence resources, ice seals and walrus whose habitat is being affected by environmental change. Through mapping spatial and temporal knowledge of ice seal and walrus habitat and ecology and subsistence use area, documenting the cultural importance of hunting ice seals and walrus, as well as the challenges to subsistence ice seal and walrus hunting (as seen by hunters), the project will contribute to an increased understanding of the complexity of social-environmental dynamics in the Arctic. The project will give a voice to local analyses and solutions of these problems which will in turn inform wildlife managers and policy makers. In addition, the project will contribute to an Arctic Atlas of Important Ecological Areas (IEAs) being developed by the international conservation group Oceana, which will in turn be a tool for the region's communities.