BEHCHOKO/RAE-EDZO - When it comes to caribou, no one really knows what will happen next.

Nine months after the territorial government announced an interim ban on caribou hunting, representatives from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) and the Tlicho Government presented a joint proposal on how to deal with the Bathurst caribou herd to the Wek'eezhii Renewable Resources Board and intervenors in Behchoko on Aug. 5 and 6.

Wildlife Director Susan Fleck outlined the goals of the joint-management plan: to only harvest 300 caribou, the majority of them bulls, to continue to monitor herd numbers and "at least double the wolf harvest" in the next two years.

At that point, herd numbers would be re-assessed and the board would change its management plan as needed.

Tlicho Grand Chief Joe Rabesca said he was aware many people wouldn't be happy with whatever decision the board made, but said something needed to be done to protect the caribou.

After the presentation, Rabesca told News/North many elders in his communities still didn't understand the conservation issue they were facing and lumped herds together.

"The more information given out to people, especially our people, the better," he said.

And after the board makes its decision in a month's time, he wants to see people from the Tlicho region get more involved in surveying so people have a better sense of what's happening and trust the outcome of future population surveys.

Several intervenors and board members scrutinized a limited hunt of 300, questioning how it could be enforced and how the harvest would be divided among the four Tlicho communities and other aboriginal groups who hunt in the region.

Arthur Pape, legal counsel for the Tlicho government, said because it's difficult to tally a precise number of Bathurst caribou, a target number of 300 animals would be more effective.

"It's not meant to be a way to avoid effective actions to stabilize the herd, it's meant to facilitate and promote effective management," he said. "There is no long-form census form that caribou can fill out voluntarily or otherwise ... it's a much more complex undertaking."

Fleck said they're still in discussions for how to share 300 caribou within and outside of the Wek'eezhii region, and how to monitor the other herds who also pass through the same area.

Rabesca said he still wasn't sure how the 300 caribou should be divided but said animals from the Bluenose East herd could complement the limited hunt for his communities - though he didn't how.

He said he thought the Yellowknives Dene, who don't have a settled land claim and aren't a part of the Wek'eezhii region, would be negotiating its own limited hunt, but he couldn't say what potion of the 300 the Yellowknives might get.

Jan Adamczewski, a wildlife biologist with ENR, admitted the different caribou herds are "almost indistinguishable" from a roadside and said even with a scaled-back harvest there are no guarantees the Bathurst herd would increase, because of other factors like weather and a bad calving year.

A 2009 population survey identified only 32,000 animals in the Bathurst herd, down from 120,000 just three years earlier. The decline prompted ENR Minister Michael Miltenberger to cancel the hunt last December, an interim measure until the Wek'eezhii board came up with a management plan.

Given the drastic decline, John Donihee, legal counsel for the Wek'eezhii board, asked, "Why there should be any harvest at all?"

A limited hunt offered the best compromise, a number so low that it wouldn't further reduce the population, but offered aboriginal hunters the ongoing ability to exercise their right to hunt, said Pape.

Former territorial biologist Ann Gunn, speaking as an independent intervenor, called the co-management proposal "long on text and short on details."

She said the joint proposal didn't give any guidelines for how the board should proceed with short-term monitoring or how the board would initiate long-term planning.

Gunn said the report buried the fact that even with a limited hunt, "The likelihood of recovery (would be) the same as the likelihood of further decline."

Outfitter Barry Taylor, owner and operator of Arctic Safaris, said both the joint proposal and the discussions he heard Thursday offered him no assurances.

"We haven't got any management plans, we haven't got any strategies. That's not going to work. We haven't determined the cause, the government can't give us the cause."

One of two outfitters who attended, Taylor said the interim ban had already destroyed his business and he couldn't put booking on hold for several years to wait and see if the herd recovered.

"If they gave us tags tomorrow, it would take us at least 10 to 12 years to recover. What do we do now?" he asked. "Are the outfitters going to survive? No."

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