Subsistence hunting and wildlife management in the central Canadian Arctic

During the winter of 1992/93, a perceived caribou decline in the vicinity of Holman, NWT, Canada, led a government wildlife manager to suggest that a ban on caribou hunting was the only reasonable solution to managing the caribou population. This paper focuses on the resulting interaction between wildlife managers and Inuit. On the surface, the process appeared to be an adequate exercise in co-management, as the community was involved in all phases of addressing the problem. However, further examination suggests that some local Inuit were unhappy with both the process and the solution. It is also suggested that a ban on caribou hunting was unnecessary because Inuit recognized that continued hunting was economically unproductive.