Conservation and Indigenous Subsistence Hunting in the Peace River Region of Canada

Abstract

A factor that has long complicated the enactment of conservation policies in Canada is that First Nations harvesting data are often missing or incomplete. Consequently conservation policies are based on population estimates that First Nations often regard as excessively precautionary and economically, politically, and racially motivated. We present the results of a regional study documenting the extent to which First Nations households from 13 First Nations communities in the Peace River region of British Columbia and Alberta participate in subsistence moose (Alces alces) hunting. Since the 1990s, the moose population in the Peace River region has exhibited episodic decline. This is a particular concern to First Nations who depend on moose as their primary source of wild food and a critical component of their culture and identity. First Nations leaders are now calling upon provincial governments to engage with them directly in a form of collaborative conservation that can build trust, cross-cultural competencies, and the co-production of new knowledge that can inform conservation policies that protect rather than restrict First Nation subsistence rights.