INUVIK - Wildlife officer Danny Beaulieu began the NWT's Barren-Ground Caribou Summit began with a personal plea.

A 10-foot photo of his grandson towering over him on a projection screen, he addressed the crowd.

Tuktoyaktuk elder Fred Wolki recalled hunting caribou as a young man. He was one of three elders who gave their traditional perspective to the Caribou Summit, as part of a special panel. - Philippe Morin/NNSL photo

"I ask all of you, for the sake of my grandson and all our children, I hope we can put our heads together and find a solution," he said.

The second speaker then declared the whole summit ill-advised.

"This is working backwards," said Dene Nation Chief Fred Sangris, who claimed the caribou summit shouldn't seek territory-wide solutions and bypass the authority of regional renewable resource boards.

"It's not going to work, I can tell you that right now."

As the conference progressed, this conflict - between those advocating territory-wide restrictions and those saying communities should monitor themselves - became the central issue.

Grand Chief George Mackenzie of the Tlicho quoted the Tlicho agreement, which says the group has "the power to enact laws in relation to management and harvesting rates," of renewable resources, which Mackenzie said includes caribou.

"Our governments - federal, territorial - have to take our government seriously," he declared.

Speaking on behalf of GNWT Aboriginal Affairs, Steven Voytilla replied the government still retained the power to overrule renewable resource boards' decisions.

This might be done in case of an emergency, he said.

Attending the summit were 140 delegates of traditional hunters, biologists, ministers, government officials, renewable resource board representatives, outfitters and more than 40 speakers.

Former NWT premier Stephen Kakfwi represented the Canadian Boreal Initiative.

He said Canada should protect caribou calving grounds, so the animals' breeding cycles are not affected by industrial development.

Currently, he said, only one of Canada's eight herds - the Bluenose-West - is protected because calves are born in Tuktuk Nogait National Park.

Dr. Ray Case, with the wildlife division of Environment and Natural Resources said it's important to study the North's nine caribou herds as separate populations,

Don Russell of the Canadian Wildlife Service said there might be important lessons to be learned from other countries such as Russia.

Russia has more than one million reindeer which seem to be faring well and might provide insight into Canada's problem.

"It looks like doom and gloom in the barrens, but this is not what we've found across the circumpolar North," he said.

While all agreed the caribou is declining in the NWT, the validity of exact counts was often questioned by delegates.

Roy Ellis, who represented a group of 10 outfitting companies, said there were serious flaws in official figures, due to travelling herds and delays between aerial surveys.

"Should we question ENR's numbers? You're damn right we should," he said to the audience.

"Mistakes have been made in the past and we do not think there is sufficient certainty to introduce measures to kill the NWT outfitting industry."

Bruno Croft, with the North Slave region of Environment and Natural Resources, said outfitters register most reliably, and that reporting of aboriginal and resident non-commercial hunts needs improvement.

"We'd like to get better with our reporting system," he said,

"We know the harvest is not sustainable, and the more information we get, the more our managers will be able to make better decisions."

As the conference came to its end, a special panel of elders addressed the crowd. Hunter Fred Wolki from Tuktoyaktuk told of hunting caribou as a youth.

"With better management, I hope we can make sure they come back to a healthy population," he said.

Chief Sangris spoke afterwards, and repeated his claim that only regional renewable resource boards should enforce local solutions.

"I think we're going to change our way of harvesting, because numbers are going way down," he said. "And it's not easy. It's a decision we'll have to make to restrict ourselves."

This echoed words spoken by Joe Tetlichi, chair of the Porcupine Caribou Management Board, who called for personal sacrifice among delegates.

"We need more education. Put it in schools, and within 10 years you will see a change in the way aboriginal people hunt," he said.

Thebacha MLA Michael Miltenberger said the results of the summit would be taken seriously.

He said the NWT government would arrange a meeting with Nunavut, partly to discuss the protection of calving grounds, and also look at issues of public education demanded by delegates.