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October 27, 2003
Seattle, Washington, USA

Detecting Change through Community-Based Ecological Monitoring: Successful Examples of Systematic Local Knowledge Observation Systems

Gary P. Kofinas¹, Joan Eamer^2
1Institute of ARctic Biology, Univerity of Alska Fairbanks, Po Box 757000, Fairbanks, AK, 99709, USA, Phone 907-474-7078, Fax 907-474-6967, ffgpk@uaf.edu
²Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada, Mile 91782 Alaska Highway, Whitehorse, YT, Y1A 5B7, Canada, Phone 867-667-3949, Fax 867-667-7962, joan.eamer@ec.gc.ca

Local knowledge, documented through the systematic and ongoing contributions of community-based ecological monitoring, has enormous potential to contribute to the goals of SEARCH, and in particular, its Detecting Change component. As well, it offers a workable approach for involving local communities in this area of study.

This paper explores the potential contributions of local knowledge to SEARCH by presenting examples of several established and on-going community-based observation systems of Alaska and the Canadian Arctic. Highlighted here is the Arctic Borderlands Ecological Knowledge Co-op, a low-cost collaborative alliance of indigenous communities, government agencies, co-management boards, and university researchers, asking the question “What is changing and why?”

Since its creation in 1996 as a part of Canada’s EMAN program and expanding to include Alaska in 1998, the “Knowledge Co-op” has developed a new model for documenting local knowledge on change and effectively integrating it with the work of research science. Indicators are identified through a regional meeting involving players of a region. A instrument (questionnaire) is administered by locally hired residents of communities across a region. Qualitative, quantitative, and spatial data about weather conditions, berries, fish species, caribou, other animals, and changing community social and cultural conditions are documented annually through interviews with active subsistence harvesters. Data are compiled in a database that provides easy reporting of findings to communities and other interested parties. The Knowledge Co-op facilitates communication through use of the WWW for data access (www.taiga.net/coop), annual gathering for face-to-face discussions, and regularly published reports for review by the greater public. Community monitoring of this program complements other monitoring efforts of the region by addressing changes in the abundance and movement of animals, unusual sightings, short-term trends, societal responses and long-term changes at the local scale. Also part of the community monitoring program are explanations of change and traditional rules of thumb.

The Knowledge Co-op approach and other models of community monitoring have been highly successful in fascinating a conversation among community residents, resource managers, and researchers about change, in identifying data gaps and research questions, and in building trust among parties of a region. While various approaches to community based monitoring differ, all come with interesting challenges and opportunities for the SEARCH program.

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