Final determination on Peary caribou to be made by federal cabinet

Nunavut residents will be able to comment on the federal government's proposal to list Peary caribou as an endangered species this fall.

John Baird, the environment minister, expressed his intention to list Peary caribou as endangered under the Species At Risk Act in a May 4 letter to the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board.

The decision was quickly denounced by hunters in the High Arctic, who fear the endangered designation will rob Inuit control over wildlife management.

But Michele Brenning with Environment Canada says the minister's declaration is just one step in a long, complicated process.

It begins when Environment Canada publishes a statement sometime this autumn in the Canada Gazette, which will describe the expected consequences of listing Peary caribou as endangered.

Besides containing the conservation arguments in favour of listing Peary caribou as endangered, the statement will also take into account social and economic impacts on Inuit in the High Arctic, Brenning said.

Public comments on the published statement will be accepted for 30 days, and will be taken into consideration before a final document is produced.

"We'll take all factors we know about into consideration," Brenning said.

A final decision will need to be made by the federal cabinet within nine months after this regulatory process is triggered in the autumn, Brenning said.

If a decision isn't made by that time, the species would be automatically listed as endangered.

Even if Peary caribou are added to the endangered species list, this may not prevent Inuit from hunting the animals. But it does mean that a management plan will need to be adopted within one year of Peary caribou being added to the list.

Attempts to negotiate a management plan with the hunter and trapper associations of Grise Fiord and Resolute Bay broke down after several years.

The Nunavut Wildlife Management Board attempted to persuade Baird that the Peary caribou ought to be treated as four different subpopulations, based on reports from hunters that some herds are healthy. But that proposal was rejected by Baird in his letter.

Peary caribou are stocky animals, smaller than barrenground caribou, that roam the islands of the High Arctic. Population estimates conducted during the 1970s pegged Peary caribou numbers at 50,000. Current counts suggest about 8,000 exist today, although Inuit hunters have disputed these numbers as incomplete.

Unlike most species believed to be endangered, the decline in Peary caribou populations isn't being blamed on overhunting or habitat encroachment.

Instead, global warming is the culprit, federal researchers suggest.

Unusually warm weather in recent years has led to an increase in freezing rain, which coats the tundra with a layer of ice. Unable to break through this surface to eat the vegetation beneath, large numbers of Peary caribou have starved.