This Knowledge Hub brings together Indigenous communities, co-management boards, academic researchers, and government partners to understand ecological change in the Porcupine Caribou Herd summer range, an area of profound ecological and cultural importance to the Gwich’in and Inuvialuit peoples.
The Hub operates through three active steering committees focused on Indigenous Knowledge, Vegetation, and Wildlife. These committees govern the Hub’s collaborative activities, which include ecological research, Indigenous knowledge documentation, and decision-making processes aimed at sustaining caribou populations and community livelihoods. Research projects are co-designed and led by different organizations depending on the context, ensuring diverse leadership and equitable partnerships.
In response to calls from community members to strengthen youth engagement, the Hub is launching new initiatives to involve youth from Old Crow, Fort McPherson, and Aklavik.
The Hub is a key contributor to conservation planning in the region. It is directly supporting the development of a new conservation plan for the Porcupine Caribou Herd, rooted in both archival research and community verification. It also supports implementation of the Wildlife Management Advisory Council’s recently released Wildlife Conservation Management Plan for the Yukon North Slope, including proposals for a new Conservation Area (Aullaviat/Angunarviak) and Indigenous Guardian programs.
The strength of the Hub lies in its governance model, which ensures direct information flow to regional organizations responsible for land and wildlife management. It creates space for co-learning and co-governance, connecting individual knowledge holders, Indigenous governments, and territorial agencies. This approach ensures that both Indigenous knowledge and scientific research actively inform real-time conservation and policy decisions in a landscape undergoing unprecedented ecological change.
Location: Northern Yukon and the Northwest Territories (Porcupine Caribou Herd summer range)
Partners and Funders:
