Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G2H1, Canada.
Department of History, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland A1C 5S7, Canada.
Sci Adv. 2018 Feb 28;4(2):e1701611. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1701611. eCollection 2018 Feb.
Sustaining arctic/subarctic ecosystems and the livelihoods of northern Indigenous peoples is an immense challenge amid increasing resource development. The paper describes a "tragedy of open access" occurring in Canada's north as governments open up new areas of sensitive barren-ground caribou habitat to mineral resource development. Once numbering in the millions, barren-ground caribou populations () have declined over 70% in northern Canada over the last two decades in a cycle well understood by northern Indigenous peoples and scientists. However, as some herds reach critically low population levels, the impacts of human disturbance have become a major focus of debate in the north and elsewhere. A growing body of science and traditional knowledge research points to the adverse impacts of resource development; however, management efforts have been almost exclusively focused on controlling the subsistence harvest of northern Indigenous peoples. These efforts to control Indigenous harvesting parallel management practices during previous periods of caribou population decline (for example, 1950s) during which time governments also lacked evidence and appeared motivated by other values and interests in northern lands and resources. As mineral resource development advances in northern Canada and elsewhere, addressing this "science-policy gap" problem is critical to the sustainability of both caribou and people.
在资源开发不断增加的情况下，维持北极/亚北极生态系统和北方原住民的生计是一个巨大的挑战。本文描述了加拿大北部正在发生的“公地悲剧”，政府正在将新的敏感荒地驯鹿栖息地开放给矿产资源开发。曾经数量达到数百万的驯鹿种群在过去的二十年中在加拿大北部减少了 70%以上，这是北方原住民和科学家都非常了解的一个循环。然而，随着一些畜群达到临界低人口水平，人类干扰的影响已成为北部和其他地区争论的主要焦点。越来越多的科学和传统知识研究表明资源开发的不利影响；然而，管理工作几乎完全集中在控制北方原住民的生计收获上。这些控制原住民收获的努力与过去驯鹿种群减少时期（例如 20 世纪 50 年代）的管理实践相似，当时政府也缺乏证据，并且似乎受到了对北方土地和资源的其他价值观和利益的驱动。随着加拿大北部和其他地区的矿产资源开发的推进，解决这一“科学政策差距”问题对于驯鹿和人类的可持续性都至关重要。
