Inuit push for land protection with focus on social economy

After navigating the icy terrain with Ullikatalik, it’s easy to understand why hunters here have spent over a decade trying to have the land designated an Inuit Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA), which they say would safeguard its beauty, cultural significance and pave the way for a thriving new social economy.

Now all they have to do is convince the rest of the country it’s worth it.

Aqviqtuuq is the Natsilingmiutut-language name of the Boothia Peninsula in Nunavut, Canada.

Located on the Northwest Passage, the peninsula is located just south of Somerset Island, and framed by Larsen Sound to the west, and the Gulf of Boothia to the east.

The area is rich in wildlife including caribou, muskox and polar bears on the land, whales and seals in the surrounding waters, and fish like Arctic char, cod and trout in the rivers and lakes.

And for the 934 residents of Taloyoak, an Inuit community nestled in the southwest of the peninsula along Spence Bay, the wildlife found in Aqviqtuuq’s lands and waters is essential.

We’re a fly-in community so can’t get fresh produce unless it’s flown in from Winnipeg, Edmonton or Yellowknife and even then, the prices are crazy. That’s why it’s really important for us as a community to be able to access our traditional country food, not only for our diet and for cultural reasons, but also because the cost of living up here is super expensive.Peter Aqqaq, the assistant manager at the hunters and trappers organization.

Subsistence harvesting is also the backbone of the community’s traditional food sharing network. In this system, hunters provide food to individuals who lack harvesters in their families or who don’t have the financial means to afford equipment such as the snowmobiles, ATVs, gas, and guns needed to go out on the land.

Just this weekend I was out and able to get a muskox”, Aqqaq said. “Just the meat itself was 250 pounds. I was able to share it with community members, and still have a good two weeks of meat for me and my family.Peter Aqqaq, the assistant manager at the hunters and trappers organization.

Near-miss from 1970s echoes in community

The pipeline project was abandoned by the 1980s due to political and regulatory hurdles, energy market fluctuations, and the technical challenges of the era. But Taloyoak’s residents saw it as a near miss, and a reminder of the community’s vulnerability in the face of external economic interests.

Since 2016, Canada has had a moratorium on commercial oil and gas exploration in the Arctic, with a review of the policy to take place every five years.

Despite this, hunters in Taloyoak are wary about potential future policy changes. They’re also concerned that the international community's increasing interest in the minerals needed for green technologies could again turn their region into a target for commercial exploration.

"We’re not against mining, we’re not against development, we’re just against it here", Ullikatalik said, saying elders have long warned that the narrowness of the peninsula would make it especially sensitive to industrialization.

We can’t eat gold, and we can’t eat rare earth minerals, we eat things like fish and caribou and that’s what we want to protect. Jimmy Ullikatalik, manager of the Taloyoak Umarulirijigut Association

Young hunters in the community say they’re worried about future industrial development in their region and that they wouldn’t be able to rely on the land the way their parents did.

"I’ve grown up hunting and camping all my life", Tad Tulurialik, 24, said, before going on to describe the importance of the peninsula for animals during calving and mating season.

"That’s why I think it’s a good thing to have our land protected from mining and explorations, and keep our food free of contaminants."

In 2015, the Taloyoak hunters and trappers approached the World Wildlife Fund about supporting the community’s plan.

Since then, the WWF has provided things like technical expertise and funding, saying it was an easy decision for them given the project’s significance and potential impact.

"What’s important about this project is that it remains totally locally led, and the benefits from such a project stay in the community", Brandon Laforest, WWF-Canada's Arctic conservation specialist, said.

"We need sustainable development in the North. But it's also important for communities to lead on where that development should happen, and I think it's very understandable that there are certain areas that communities will say are no-go zones."

Crafting a social economy via land protection

For those involved in the Aqviqtuuq project, the establishment of a protected area would offer more than just conservation; it would generate employment centered around sustainable hunting and fishing.

The jobs created would span everything from ecotourism, to the addition of land guardian jobs, to the operation of a cut and wrap facility that would process and package country food, making sure it's accessible at prices people can afford.

The Aqviqtuuq team says doing this would allow the community to steer clear of the mining and resource-based employment often touted for the North. These opportunities often require specialized skills that are not readily available, or easily obtainable, in remote communities, excluding much of the local population, they say.

Instead, IPCA jobs are already rooted in Inuit cultural skills and practices that the majority of residents in the hamlet already possess.

Taloyaok’s mayor, Lenny Panigayak, said this is one of the reasons the community at large is behind the initiative.

"We’re a very strong community, but unemployment is a big challenge", he said. "Mines do create jobs, but those are short-term — 10, maybe 20 years. But once all the minerals are out, there’s nothing left for the community."

The Aqviqtuuq IPCA] would help us to raise ourselves up, doing what we’ve been taught to do and been doing for generations: sustainable hunting and fishing, and protecting the land.Lenny Panigayak, Taloyaok mayor

In 2023, the Smart Prosperity Institute, a research network and policy think tank at the University of Ottawa, issued a report on the conservation economy in Nunavut, along with a case study on the Aqviqtuuq project.

Michael Twigg, the Institute’s program director of land-use, nature and agriculture, suggests that although it may not seem apparent initially, conserving the land can serve as a crucial foundation for economic growth in small northern communities like Taloyoak.

"Could something like the cut-and-wrap facility be set up without a conservation area? It probably could", Twigg said. "But with regulatory protection of the area, you have that stability of supply for the facility, knowing it won’t be disrupted. That allows the creation of a wholesale economic structure where people would be able to invest in their harvesting capacity as a result of that certainty."

Ullikatalik and the rest of the Taloyoak Umarulirijigut Association are optimistic they’re getting closer and closer to their goal.

Some aspects of their Aqviqtuuq plan have already gained momentum.

Taloyoak's Niqihaqut food sovereignty project plan, which includes the future cut-and-wrap facility and the sustainable harvest that would support it, received a $451,000 Arctic Inspiration Prize in 2021 to aid in the facility construction. This annual prize acknowledges innovative projects in the North by providing seed money to help the winning teams realize their plans.

The facility is planned to open in fall 2025.

Currently, there’s no legislation in Canada for establishing Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs). Because of this, the process of establishing these types of conservation areas is complex, involving discussions and agreements among Indigenous or Inuit communities, regional Indigenous or land claims associations (such as the Kitikmeot Inuit Association in the case of Aqviqtuuq), as well as provincial or territorial governments, and ultimately, Ottawa.

The hunters and trappers association is currently engaged in this process but Jimmy Ullikatalik says he and the other Taloyoak hunters are committed to seeing the project through no matter the timeline or how complex the process might be.

"[Inuit] just want to be out on the land, enjoy our hunting cabin, do things like make dry fish for winter", he said. "So to protect our land and create a social economy, that's how we dream".