George River and Leaf River herds continue dramatic declines

By Sarah Rogers

Makivik Corp. is asking Nunavik harvesters to do their part in protecting the region’s vulnerable caribou population.

The Inuit birthright organization issued a Dec. 6 news release calling on both hunters and governments to “help preserve the future of caribou herds in the Inuit territory.”

“Makivik will continue to monitor the situation, but in the meantime, we ask everyone to do their part to protect the population levels of our caribou,” said Makivik President Charlie Watt, following meetings with chiefs of the neighbouring Cree and Naskapi nations.

Over the last few decades, the populations of the George River and Leaf River herds have declined dramatically, with the latter dropping from about 600,000 caribou in the 2000s to an estimated 187,000 animals this year.

The Quebec government finally responded to calls from Indigenous groups in Northern Quebec and closed the sport hunt of Leaf River caribou, effective February 2018.

In Nunavik, measures have already been put in place to prohibit the harvest of any female caribou during the calving period, which includes the months of March, April, May and June.

Makivik’s board of directors also voted in favour of a resolution asking harvesters to voluntarily refrain from harvesting caribou from the George River herd until that population recovers.

That herd, which once numbered more than 760,000 caribou, has shrunk to fewer than 9,000.

The decline of Northern Quebec’s caribou herds prompted the 2013 creation of the Ungava Peninsula Caribou Aboriginal Roundtable, or UPCART, made up of seven Indigenous groups that inhabit the region, with Makivik designated as a representative of Nunavik Inuit.

That group signed its own co-operative wildlife management agreement in 2017.

“Our caribou has sustained us for thousands of years and Inuit will continue to pressure governments and other interested parties to respect our preservation plan for the caribou,” said Adamie Delisle Alaku, Makivik’s vice-president of environment, wildlife and research, who sits on the roundtable.