Caribou hunting ban raises Dene health concerns

Some northern residents are becoming worried about the impact of a caribou meat shortage on their health.

Caribou meat has long been a primary source of protein and iron for most aboriginal people in the North, so some Dene have been struggling with a recent government ban on hunting from the Bathurst caribou herd.

The N.W.T. government introduced the temporary ban on Jan. 1, covering a no-hunting zone from the shore of Great Slave Lake to the Nunavut border, over concerns that the Bathurst caribou herd is in decline.

The hunting ban affects all hunters, including aboriginal subsistence hunters and non-aboriginal hunters.

An estimated 6,000 caribou are harvested in theterritory each year to feed aboriginal families.

Freezers empty

Hunters say in some traditional Dene communities especially in remote areas, where one beef steak can cost up to $10 an average family of five can consume upwards of 25 caribou a year.

"This is the first time in my life that my freezers are empty," said Muriel Betsina, a Dene elder from N'dilo, N.W.T., one of the communities within the no-hunting zone.

Betsina, who has diabetes, said she is worried about the impact less caribou meat will have on her health.

"I just can't go to the store and buy [a] pork chop and eat all that fat, because I know it's not good for my health," she said.

According to N.W.T. government surveys, the Bathurst caribou herd has shrunk dramatically from about 128,000 in 2006 to 31,900 last year.

The Bathurst caribou hunting ban is in place until a long-term management plan for the herd is finalized.

But even then, hunting restrictions will likely continue, as it is expected to take years for the herd's population to be stablized.

Dr. Harriet Kuhnlein, founding director of the Centre for Indigenous Peoples Nutrition and Environment at McGill University in Montreal, said less caribou meat could excacerbate high rates of obesity and diabetes in Dene communities, where people are already eating too much processed food.

"The quality of the food is limited," she said. "To buy good-quality food in the North, the price of that food is prohibitive."

Other meat options available

N.W.T. Health and Social Services Minister Sandy Lee declined an interview, but a government spokesman told CBC News that people won't get government funding to buy meat from stores.

The spokesman said the government will provide assistance to affected hunters so they can hunt caribou outside the no-hunting zone.

As well, people can eat other traditional game meat, such as goose, if they do not have caribou, said territorial government nutritionist Elsie DeRoose.

"There's such a variety of foods with protien and iron in them that there should be the ability to choose a variety of foods." DeRoose said.

But Betsina said nothing compares to caribou meat when it comes to feeding a whole family.

"Ducks, rabbit and muskrat and beaver they're all good, but I really find that the caribou stretch out a long ways," she said.

Kuhnlein said the N.W.T. government needs to do more to anticipate the health consequences Dene may face because of reducedaccess to caribou.

"We can measure food prices, and access to traditional food, and the availablility of the meat, but it's really a matter of political priorities," she said.

The territorial government is working on a nutrition strategy, but it does not include specific plans to deal with the long-term impacts of Dene a diet without caribou.