Feds consider listing Labrador caribou herds as at-risk species

Conservation officials are trying to figure out how to reverse dwindling caribou numbers in Labrador without impeding Indigenous food supplies, and say the next step could be listing the species on the federal Species at Risk Act.

In recent years, the George River and Torngat herds have shrunk to alarming levels, and five years ago the province brought in a ban on hunting the animals in Labrador.

But that hasn't stopped people from harvesting the animals anyway.

The Innu Nation continuesto hunt, and took about 100 animals last year.

In the early 1990s there were an estimated 800,000 caribou in the George River herd. In 2018,that number has plummeted to below 5,500.

Federal, provincial, and Indigenous governmentsare grappling with the decline and want a solution, but have disagreed on what that solution entails.

Last year, a federal advisory group the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada recommended the animals be declared endangered.

The Newfoundland and Labrador government refused, saying instead it would work with Indigenous groups to come up with a joint management approach to keep the numbers of the two herds from shrinkingever further.

Now, federal officials are visitingnorthern communities to discuss next steps.

One of those possibilities, says conservation plannerAndrewBoyneof the Canadian Wildlife Services, is labelling the caribou "at-risk."

The umbrella term would trigger more protections for the caribou, and includes the designation "endangered," as well as"threatened" and "special concern."

Those protections includea report on critical habitats and a detailed recovery strategy, plus funding for conservation groups.

It may also impose limits onharvesting on federal lands, but Boynesays that doesn't necessarily mean an across-the-board hunting ban.

"We want to ensure that harvest doesn't impact the recovery or survival of the species," he said. "There may be ways harvest can continue."

Boyne said the public consultations have been ongoing since January.

"The general overall theme is, people are worried," he said.

"Caribou go through boom and bust cycles. Now the population is going through one of its natural declines, but we're not seeing that decline start to slow."

With files from Labrador Morning

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