The Yukon North Slope (YNS) is a vast coastal plain that supports several species of arctic wildlife, including migratory birds, polar bear, grizzly bear, caribou, muskoxen, Dall’s sheep and moose. Since the signing of the Inuvialuit Final Agreement, in 1984, the YNS was managed as “a special conservation management regime whose dominant purpose is the conservation of wildlife, habitat and traditional native use.” In 2014, Round River began supporting the North Slope Wildlife Management Advisory Council in developing an updated YNS Wildlife Conservation and Management Plan for the area. We conducted extensive community workshops and interviews in the Inuvialuit community of Aklavik, working with land-users to characterize the habitat of the YNS and the wildlife it supports. This information was used to develop a series of technical models and reports on Inuvialuit Traditional Knowledge of Wildlife Habitat and Use. Additionally, all data collected and produced was represented spatially within a digital atlas that serves as the foundation for guiding continued stewardship of the YNS and the traditional land use of the Inuvialuit. These combined efforts helped lead to the signing in 2024 of the Aullaviat/Anguniarvik Traditional Conservation Area Agreement, placing the area under formal protection with Indigenous-led management.
We developed a series of technical models and Indigenous Knowledge reports to inform the establishment and continued stewardship of the Aullaviat/Anguniarvik Traditional Conservation Area Agreement, protecting an ecologically and culturally significant landscape on the Yukon North Slope.
We worked with Inuvialuit citizens in the community of Aklavik, Northwest Territories- the closest year-round settlement to the Aullaviat/Anguniarvik Traditional Conservation Area.
The Yukon North Slope (YNS) is a vast coastal plain that supports several species of arctic wildlife, including migratory birds, polar bear, grizzly bear, caribou, muskoxen, Dall’s sheep and moose. Since the signing of the Inuvialuit Final Agreement, in 1984, the YNS was managed as “a special conservation management regime whose dominant purpose is the conservation of wildlife, habitat and traditional native use.” In 2014, Round River began supporting the North Slope Wildlife Management Advisory Council in developing an updated YNS Wildlife Conservation and Management Plan for the area. We conducted extensive community workshops and interviews in the Inuvialuit community of Aklavik, working with land-users to characterize the habitat of the YNS and the wildlife it supports. This information was used to develop a series of technical models and reports on Inuvialuit Traditional Knowledge of Wildlife Habitat and Use. Additionally, all data collected and produced was represented spatially within a digital atlas that serves as the foundation for guiding continued stewardship of the YNS and the traditional land use of the Inuvialuit. These combined efforts helped lead to the signing in 2024 of the Aullaviat/Anguniarvik Traditional Conservation Area Agreement, placing the area under formal protection with Indigenous-led management.
We conducted extensive workshops and interviews in the Inuvialuit community of Aklavik, working with land-users to characterize the habitat of the YNS and the wildlife that it supports. The result was a detailed report that links specific ecological characteristics of the YNS with species such as polar bear, grizzly bear, moose, caribou, and migratory birds and fish across multiple life history stages. This report also includes mapped occurrences of wildlife or known wildlife habitat and demonstrates the range of values that the YNS supports across multiple seasons.
Will Tyson
Community Programs Director
Email: will@roundriver.org
Maggie Triska
Conservation Director
Email: maggie@roundriver.org
info@roundriver.org
Phone: 801-359-4250