Community-based monitoring pilot project to monitor health of the marine ecosystem around the community of Pond Inlet, Nunavut (NGMP ID 16EC51)

The overall purpose is to set up and run a year-long pilot monitoring program to monitor the health of the marine ecosystem around the community of Pond Inlet, as it relates to Inuit activities. This will incorporate local knowledge and the daily activities of community hunters to produce an overview of Inuit harvesting or land use patterns, marine species activities, and areas of ecological or traditional importance. In addition to establishing specific ecological or social baselines, another key aim is to optimize the methodology of the project template itself, creating a template that can be readily transposed to other Arctic communities to produce a regional monitoring network. The project will marry together Inuit Qaujimatuqangit (IQ), harvest information, and scientific data, and emphasize the continuing importance of including Inuit traditional knowledge with ecological studies to produce an accurate and reliable assessment model. It will further engage and empower local Inuit and communities in monitoring and safeguarding their local environment and the environmental network on which they rely in the face of future development.