Using local ecological knowledge as evidence to guide management: A community-led harvest calculator for muskoxen in Greenland

Indigenous peoples manage or have tenure rights on over a quarter of the
world’s land surface. While there is growing interest in “evidence-based”
natural resource management, there are few documented experiences with
“evidence-based” practice in community-managed lands. We explore the
evidence required for decisions about harvesting of a community-managed
muskox herd in Greenland, and the collaboration needed to acquire this
evidence. We present the development, application and outcome of a
user-friendly demographic model - a harvest calculator - and we show how
Local Ecological Knowledge was used throughout the process and combined
with scientific knowledge. The community members identified suitable
harvest scenarios with the use of the calculator. The calculator’s
predictions corresponded with their own perceptions of declining numbers
of muskox bulls and suggested that reversal was possible under an
alternative harvest scenario. As a result, the community members used the
findings to request a revised muskox harvest quota, which gained immediate
approval by the government. We draw on our experience to propose where
community-led harvest calculators can be useful. Community-led harvest
calculators can help Indigenous and local communities develop economically
within environmentally sustainable limits, while at the same time
providing community members a ‘voice’ in natural resource governance. An
effective local management regime will require the sustained application
of this tool.