The Northwest Territories may consider banning non-aboriginal people from hunting barren-ground caribou to help save the declining herds.
The proposed ban was among a dozen recommendations resulting from a three-day caribou summit in Inuvik last week.
Non-aboriginal hunters kill about five per cent of the 11,000 barren-ground caribou taken in the Northwest Territories each year.
NWT Wildlife Federation president Lorne Schollar objected to the proposed ban, saying it would be unfair to non-aboriginal hunters.
"We're all people, we all enjoy hunting, the majority of people who are long-term residents, just as much as the aboriginal people do, " he said.
Banning commercial hunting by outfitting companies was also recommended as a way to help the herds.
However, Yellowknife outfitter Jim Peterson said that would destroy businesses that are good for the economy.
"It brings in brand new money into the N.W.T. and I figured, out of the past five years, we contributed something like $35 million to the economy of the N.W.T.," he said.
The recommendations to ban resident and commercial hunting of barren-ground caribou first came from the Gwich'in and Sahtu Renewable Resource Boards last fall.
The government said it will consider all the recommendations and try to work out an agreement with the stakeholders.
The Inuvialuit banned non-native and commercial hunting of barrenground caribou on their land last fall.
Copyright © 2007 CBC
The proposed ban was among a dozen recommendations resulting from a three-day caribou summit in Inuvik last week.
Non-aboriginal hunters kill about five per cent of the 11,000 barren-ground caribou taken in the Northwest Territories each year.
NWT Wildlife Federation president Lorne Schollar objected to the proposed ban, saying it would be unfair to non-aboriginal hunters.
"We're all people, we all enjoy hunting, the majority of people who are long-term residents, just as much as the aboriginal people do, " he said.
Banning commercial hunting by outfitting companies was also recommended as a way to help the herds.
However, Yellowknife outfitter Jim Peterson said that would destroy businesses that are good for the economy.
"It brings in brand new money into the N.W.T. and I figured, out of the past five years, we contributed something like $35 million to the economy of the N.W.T.," he said.
The recommendations to ban resident and commercial hunting of barren-ground caribou first came from the Gwich'in and Sahtu Renewable Resource Boards last fall.
The government said it will consider all the recommendations and try to work out an agreement with the stakeholders.
The Inuvialuit banned non-native and commercial hunting of barrenground caribou on their land last fall.
Copyright © 2007 CBC
