Western Arctic Caribou Herd Cooperative Management Plan: A Critical Evaluation

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Western Arctic Caribou Herd Cooperative
Management PlanA Critical Evaluation

• Matthew Couture
• Audrey Fisher
• Luke Moro
• Jason Stolarski

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Summary of Management Plan

• Project Description
• Introduction
• Historical Context
• Project Area
• Goals and
• Objectives
• Management Plan

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Introduction

• Western Arctic Caribou Herd Working Group
• 20 voting chairs represent stakeholder groups
  dependent on the herd
• Planning committee
• Developed the plan
• Cooperate with Working Group for policy direction
  and final approval
• Management authority held by resource agencies
• Agencies involved
• Alaska Department of Fish and Game
• US Bureau of Land Management
• US Fish and Wildlife Service
• US National Park Service

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Introduction (cont.)

• Purpose of the plan
• To work together to ensure the long-term
  conservation of the Western Arctic caribou herd
  and the ecosystem on which it depends to maintain
  traditional and other uses for the benefit of all
  people, now and in the future
• Emphasized the coordinating role of the Working
  Group among
• State and federal regulatory systems
• Subsistence hunters, sport hunters, and guides
• Conservationists
• Resource management agencies

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Historical Context

• The new millennium brings new challenges
• Current concerns
• Industrial development
• Contamination
• Increased potential for over hunting
• Recreational exploitation
• Differing visions of herd management
• Joseph Ballot, chair of the Working Group said
• We can no longer take for granted that these
  caribou will always come through our
  communities!

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Project Area and Description

• Western Arctic Caribou
• Herd is the largest caribou
• population in Alaska
• Occupies 140,000 mi2
• Supplies 40 subsistence- based communities
• During migrations, herd moves hundreds of miles

• 1970 Herd numbered 243,000
• 1976 Declined to 75,000
• 1996 Peaked at 463,000

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Objectives and Goals

• Plan composed of seven elements
• Objective Cooperation
• Goal Encourage cooperative management of the
  herd and its habitats among state, federal and
  local entities and all users of the herd
• Objective Population Management
• Goal Recognizing that caribou herds naturally
  fluctuate in numbers, manage for a healthy
  population using strategies adapted to population
  levels and trends
• Objective Habitat
• Goal Assess and protect important habitats of
  the Western Arctic Herd

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Objectives and Goals (cont.)

• Objective Regulations
• Goal Promote consistent, understandable and
  effective state and federal regulations for the
  conservation of the Western Arctic Herd
• Objective Reindeer
• Goal Seek to minimize conflict between reindeer
  herders and the Western Arctic Herd
• Objective Knowledge
• Goal Integrate scientific information,
  traditional ecological knowledge of Alaska Native
  users, and knowledge of all users into management
  of the Western Arctic Herd
• Objective Education
• Goal Increase understanding and appreciation of
  the Western Arctic Herd Through use of scientific
  information, traditional ecological knowledge of
  Alaska Native users, and knowledge of all other
  users

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Management Plan - Summary

• Recognizes that the caribou herd normally
  fluctuates in numbers through time
• Relies on Working Group to make specific
  recommendations and present detailed documents to
  planning committee
• Strategy is to maintain a healthy ecosystem on
  which the herd depends and be responsive to
  specific population conditions
• Direct communication among stakeholders and
  resource management officials within the Working
  Group allows for well developed plans to be
  constructed
• Working group meets twice annually to Id policy
  concerns and recommend action to resource
  agencies.
• Resource agency staff will meet annually to
  review information and coordinate management
  activity

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Ecosystem Management? Evaluation Criteria

• Systems Perspective
• Ecological Viability
• Health
• Sustainability
• Integrity
• Human Values
• Management
• Structural
• Philosophy
• Adaptability

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Systems Perspective

• Criteria
• Management across spatial and temporal
• scales
• Not a single-species approach

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Systems Perspective

• Management at many scales
• Landscape
• -entire caribou range
• Critical habitat
• -calving grounds, insect relief areas, migratory
  corridors
• Population
• -caribou and their predators
• Individual

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Systems Perspective (cont.)

• Most intensive management at population level
• Active management only for habitat and species
  relevant to caribou
• Recognizes need for more ecological data
• Caribou have significant ecological role

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Ecological Viability

• Criteria
• Health
• Complex structural composition providing
  resistance to anthropogenic stress
• Integrity
• Maintenance of ecological patterns and processes
• Sustainability
• Prevent loss of productive capacity and genetic
  diversity

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Ecological Viability

• Health
• Minimize anthropogenic disturbances
• Recommendations
• Assess/monitor impacts from resource extraction,
  development, and pollution on the herd and
  habitat
• Monitor incidences of disease
• Develop GIS databases for further knowledge of
  impacts on herd

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Ecological Viability (cont.)

• Integrity
• Role of fire in important habitats
• Predator-Prey interactions
• Other essential ecological processes not
  addressed
• Sustainability
• Management of herd more intensive as populations
  decline
• Monitoring of predator and lichen populations
• Does not address sustainability of whole
  ecosystem

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Human Values

• Criteria
• Values play dominant role
• in planning process
• Recognize humans are not
• separate from nature
• Human social and economic needs brought into
  closer agreement with ecological capabilities of
  the land

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Human Values

• Western Arctic Caribou Herd Working Group
  consists of
• Sport hunters
• The experience, food, and nature
• Subsistence hunters
• Subsistence and tradition
• Conservationists
• Aesthetics and intrinsic value
• Hunting guides and hunter transporters
• Income for families, a way of life, and
• indulge in nature
• Reindeer herders
• Economic stability and tradition

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Human Values (cont.)

• Stakeholder values incorporated in plan
• Prioritizes subsistence use over recreation
• Prioritizes health of caribou herd over
  consumption
• Incorporates traditional knowledge
• Promotes consistent, understandable regulations
• Education essential for successful program
• Purpose of plan for the benefit of all people

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Management

• Criteria
• Structure
• Interagency/stakeholder cooperation
• Organizational flexibility
• Philosophy
• Work across political/ecological boundaries
• Viability over multiple-use
• Not based on bioconservative or biotechnologist
  views
• Adaptability
• Data collection
• Evaluation/revision

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Management

• Structure
• Emphasis on common interests among stakeholders
• Working Group seeks to minimize conflict between
  stakeholders
• Interagency cooperation Planning Committee
• Agency/stakeholder cooperation Working Group
• Plan is comprehensive but general - allows room
  for flexibility in execution

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Management (cont.)

• Philosophy
• Caribou managed across administrative/political
  boundaries
• Ecological scale encompasses herd range
• Plan manages primarily for herd health, not human
  uses
• Working Group attempting to sustain resource for
  continued use

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Management (cont.)

• Adaptability
• Data collection emphasized
• Herd monitored using satellite and radiocollars
• Blood samples and individuals health
• Local knowledge of herd conditions
• Working Group considers population status
  annually and gives recommendations
• Plan revised every five years or as needed

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Conclusion

• 1984 management plan written by biologists
• Little to no public participation
• Single species focus
• New WACH plan (2003)
• Weaknesses
• Still largely species specific approach
• Limited emphasis on ecosystem elements not
  related to caribou
• No comprehensive ecosystem assessment
• Focused on narrow spatial and temporal scale

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Conclusion (cont.)

• Strengths
• Incorporates human values and participation
• Very adaptable
• Works across administrative boundaries
• Appropriate to current situation
• Intensively manages habitat, caribou, and some
  associated species
• 2003 plan represents evolution towards ecosystem
  management approach