Bien-être

Beaver Range Expansion in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region: Understanding the Implications for Ecosystems and People

Climatic, environmental and social change are causing shifting species distributions across the Arctic and beyond. These shifts can be disruptive to socio-ecological systems. The northward expansion of beavers into arctic regions is an example of a species distribution change which has been a concern for many northern communities. As ecosystem engineers, beavers fundamentally transform landscapes, impacting landforms, ecosystems and people. Accordingly, a research agenda is developing as a collaboration between Indigenous experts and academic researchers to try to document and understand the changes that are occurring across these complex and interlinked social and ecological systems with a view to adaptation and management. Indigenous knowledge, scientific understanding, tools for adaptive management and research programs tailored to local needs are essential to support decision-making under rapid climatic and environmental change. Our project combines an effort to address fundamental scientific questions about how ecosystems respond to changing wildlife species populations and distributions while creating useful products and tools to monitor environmental change and support transitions to Inuvialuit-led research. We address scientific objectives to understand the social and ecological impacts of species distribution change (using beavers as a case study) which will inform wider questions around climate change impacts and borealisation of the Arctic. We equally look to directly serve Inuvialuit needs: 1) To co-produce information for near-term community decision-making and adaptation to the social and ecological impacts of beavers in the ISR. 2) To co-design toolkits and infrastructure for ongoing long-term research and to support Inuit communities in self-determination in research and decision-making.