Peary caribou, muskoxen and their predators: the value of Indigenous Knowledge in informing species recovery

气候变化是生物多样性丧失和人类健康和福祉下降的最大全球威胁之一。气候变化的不利影响在北极特别明显，那里气候状况的变化速度是地球仪其他地区的两倍，对雪、海冰和支持北极野生动物及其居民的植被产生了巨大影响。我们的研究汇集了各种土著群体（10个HTC/O，WMAC）领土和联邦政府和机构，以及来自4所大学的学术专家，以找到创新的解决方案，解决气候变化对野生动物和人类使用加拿大北极生物群落带来的多方面问题。我们的目标和项目里程碑是围绕着承认土著价值观，通过共同发展知识，这是由一个培训计划，重点是多学科研究，以提高能力和北极社区内外的合作培育安排。我们将使用新兴的技术和方法共同开发和共同应用土著知识北极生态系统与西方科学量化气候变化如何影响北极景观（雪和植被）以及这些景观变化如何影响顶级捕食者（狼和北极熊和灰熊）的分布和丰度及其主要猎物（麝牛和皮里驯鹿）。然后，我们将测试不同的气候变化适应战略的有效性，即通过保护网络的不同配置的应用，在防止濒危物种和生物多样性的损失，因为生态系统健康是土著文化和社区福祉的基石。我们的包容性计划旨在通过提供将气候变化直接纳入保护规划和循证决策的工具，提供包容性，整体性和持久的气候变化解决方案，以解决加拿大背景下的和解和生物多样性丧失问题。

Climate change represents one of the largest global threats to the loss of biodiversity and declines in human health and well-being. The adverse effects of climate change are particularly pronounced in the Arctic, where changes in climate regimes are occurring at twice the rate compared to other areas around the globe, and are having dramatic effects on the snow, sea ice, and vegetation that support Arctic wildlife and its human inhabitants. Our research brings together various Indigenous groups (10 HTC/Os, WMAC) territorial and federal governments and agencies, as well as academic experts from 4 Universities to find innovative solutions to the multi-faceted problems posed by climate change to wildlife and human use of the Canadian Arctic biome. Our objectives and project milestones are arranged around acknowledging Indigenous values through the co-development of knowledge that is fostered by a training program with an emphasis on multi-disciplinary research to enhance capacity and collaboration within and outside Arctic communities. We will use emerging technologies and methods to co-develop and co-apply Indigenous knowledge on the Arctic ecosystem with that of western science to quantify how climate change is impacting the Arctic landscape (snow and vegetation) and how those landscape changes are influencing the distribution and abundance of apex predators (wolves and polar bears and grizzly bears) and their primary prey (muskoxen and Peary caribou). We will then test the efficacy of different climate change adaptation strategies, namely through the application of different configuration of conservation networks, in preventing the loss of species at risks and biodiversity given that ecosystem health is the corner stone for Indigenous culture and community well being. Our inclusive program is directed at addressing reconciliation and biodiversity loss in a Canadian context by providing inclusive, holistic and durable climate change solutions by providing tools for incorporating climate change directly into conservation planning and evidence-based policy decision making.