A - C
Short Title: CARMA Project URL:http://yukon.taiga.net/carma/ Proposal URL: http://classic.ipy.org/development/eoi/proposal-details.php?id=162 Presently there are over 4 million wild and 1.8 million domestic reindeer and caribou inhabiting the earth's arctic regions. This keystone species has been an economic and cultural mainstay of nearly every indigenous group in the Arctic. Recent profound changes have been occurring in the North with the potential to jeopardize the relationship forged over countless generations between Rangifer, the land and the people. In late 2004 a concerned circumpolar group of social scientists, biologists, ecologists, abiotic specialists, aboriginal leaders, and resource managers met in Vancouver, Canada to launch an organization to track and assess the impacts of the changes that are occurring. This group, the CARMA Network (CircumArctic Rangifer Monitoring and Assessment network www.taiga.net/CARMA ) defined its mission: To monitor and assess the impacts of global change on the human/Rangifer system across the Arctic through cooperation, both geographically and across disciplines. At present, knowledge of many of the Arctic's significant Rangifer populations is fragmented and the relationship among the peoples dependent upon these populations is largely undocumented. Therefore, the CARMA Network proposes an extensive two-year coordinated program through IPY that will 1) provide a solid baseline of information on representative Rangifer populations and the human communities dependent upon them 2) establish an on-going monitoring and assessment network of these systems To meet these objectives, the following operating principles are proposed: -Keep it simple, relevant to the needs of Arctic residents; keep it transparent -Conduct monitoring and assessment using an interdisciplinary approach -Include and integrate local/traditional knowledge, industry research, field-based biological studies, and remote sensing research Focus initially on wild Rangifer populations and those human communities that use the Rangifer resource -Build on existing monitoring and assessment programs -Serve as a central depository for historical and current information on indicators -Develop and standardized protocols for collecting, documenting, and assembling indicators -Provide annual analysis on indicators by region and value-added indicators that all regions can share -Use a comparative approach to address research questions and advance common understanding of the Arctic System -Serve as a resource for policy makers facing regional decisions related to Human-Rangifer Systems Questions to be addressed include (but are not limited to): -What are the most predictive indicators of change in the resilience of Human-Rangifer Systems? -How will the combined heterogeneity of regional climate forces and ecological conditions affect availability and use of wild Rangifer? -How do we best measure the cumulative effect of landscape-level human activity, climate change, and management policies on the Human-Rangifer Systems? -How may disease and parasites that are affected by climate change potentially affect the health of caribou? -What are the key social-ecological thresholds of critical change in these systems? -How can these systems be managed to enhance sustainability and adaptive capacity? We consider such a project as starting the clock across the North, where information gathering is coordinated and comparable, where protocols are standardized, tested and utilized. At the completion of the IPY period, CARMA will produce a comprehensive comparative analysis of Circumarctic Rangifer populations, which will be the tangible legacy upon which the CARMA Network can proceed into the 21st Century.
CARMA