Constraints to wildlife harvesting among aboriginal communities in Alaska and Canada

• Main Authors: David Natcher, Shea Shirley, Thierry Rodon, Chris Southcott
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Subjects: Arctic; Canada; Nunavik; Gwich’in; inuit; Alaska
• Online Access: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12571-016-0619-1

Abstract A large body of research confirms that access to wildlife resources can reduce conditions of food insecurity and health related illness among Aboriginal peoples in Canada and Alaska. Yet the procurement of wildfoods depends on the ability of Aboriginal households to overcome a range of obstacles that impede such access. Utilizing a data set collected between 2007 and 2013, this paper identifies a range of barriers that Aboriginal households in Alaska (Gwich’in), Alberta (Cree), Nunavik (Inuit), and Nunatsiavut (Inuit) encounter in accessing wildfoods. The results demonstrate that the constraints experienced by Aboriginal peoples in Canada and Alaska in accessing wildfoods are experienced differently depending on region, community, age, gender, and the political environment in which wildlife harvesting occurs. These findings underscore the diversity of factors that can influence one’s access to wildlife resources, and one’s chance of being food insecure. It is hoped that the results of this research will lead to a more informed understanding of Aboriginal food security in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic Regions of North America, and can contribute to more flexible policies that can account for the social, economic and political diversity in which Aboriginal food insecurity is experienced. Food security, Indigenous, Wildlife harvesting, Gender, North America