NNSL (Jan 11/99) - Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development estimates the economic value of caribou at about $28 million.

Though there is no market price for caribou, there are methods for estimating its value.

Most often, the value is estimated as the total harvested edible food weight multiplied by the cost of an appropriate store-bought food substitute.

Put another way, it would take about $28 million worth of beef to replace the amount of caribou consumed in the NWT each year.

The $28-million figure is about nine years old but RWED intends to prepare updated estimates on the value of country food in the NWT using current harvest data as it becomes available through harvest studies and current community food prices from the NWT Bureau of Statistics 1998 Food Price Survey.

RWED wildlife economist Bruce Ashley says another way of putting the food value of caribou at the community level in context is to compare caribou food value as a per cent of caribou food value and income.

In 1990, Rae Lakes, the estimated food value of caribou was $4.2 million. Total income was $8.9 million. Caribou food value as a per cent of caribou food value and aboriginal income was 58 per cent. Comparable percentages for Umingmaktok, Baker Lake and Igloolik were 54, 31 and 18 respectively.

Although these figures are from 1990, they illustrate the huge significance of caribou as a component of diet.

Ashley notes that if the value of other country foods like muskox, moose, marine mammals, fish and waterfowl were to be factored in with caribou, the value of country food indictors would be much higher.