Introduction

The circumpolar Arctic is experiencing accelerated environmental changes due to rising air temperatures and increasing human development (ACIA 2004; Chapin et al. 2005; Stefansson Arctic Institute 2004). Recent changes include shifts in the frequency and magnitude of natural disturbances, changes to vegetation structure, permafrost degradation and altered soil chemistry, decreasing land stability, shifts in animal population size and distribution, and changing water levels and quality (Jorgenson et al. 2001; Kokelj et al. 2005, 2013; Lantz et al. 2009; Serreze et al. 2000; Sturm et al. 2005; Tape et al. 2006). These environmental changes immediately impact northern indigenous communities whose well-being and livelihoods are intimately linked to the health of the land (Chapin et al. 2006; Krupnik and Jolly 2002; Loovers 2010; Parlee et al. 2005). Northern land users are faced with climate conditions that are increasingly unpredictable, including new variations in freeze-thaw cycles of sea and inland ice and altered timing and duration of weather events, which have in turn driven unprecedented erosion patterns that can interfere with peoples' mobility and lifestyles (ACIA 2004; Stammler-Gossmann 2010). Concomitant economic, cultural, and technological changes also contribute to shifting social dynamics that influence how communities perceive and interact with their environment, and ultimately how vulnerable they are to climate change (Aporta and Higgs 2005; Ford and Smit 2004). In order for northern communities, researchers, and decision makers to manage and adapt to changing climate and environmental conditions, diverse information about the location, extent, and drivers of regional changes is needed (Berkes and Jolly 2002; Moller et al. 2004). In this paper, we describe a pilot community-based monitoring program designed with the Teetł'it Gwich'in of the lower Peel River watershed, Northwest Territories, Canada and explore its potential contributions as a locally responsive research approach.

Environmental monitoring to assess ecological changes is challenging in northern regions because remote logistics are complex and expensive (Artiola et al. 2004; Lovett et al. 2007; Wiersma 2004). In some areas, changes in land cover are occurring so rapidly that maintaining an accurate inventory represents an ongoing challenge (Kokelj et al. 2012). Monitoring programs can also be constrained in their scope and timeliness by a lack of local expertise, language and cultural barriers, and reliance on externally-based institutions (Berkes et al. 2001; Moller et al. 2004; Usher 2000). Moreover, climate change adaptation projects and environmental comanagement projects intended to help communities adapt and build resilience in the face of change often can be made less effective because of a failure to take into account local conditions and perceptions (Stammler-Gossmann 2010).

Research has shown that indigenous land users who spend significant time on the land are in a unique position to observe and monitor local environmental conditions and detect changes at an early stage (Davidson-Hunt and Berkes 2003; Gearheard et al. 2011; Hinkel et al. 2007; Hinzman et al. 2005; King et al. 2008; Kokelj et al. 2012; Krupnik and Jolly 2002; Moller et al. 2004). Local observations of the environment made by indigenous land users can be especially insightful when integrated with conventional approaches to environmental science because such observations are rooted in traditional ecological knowledge (TEK): “a cumulative body of knowledge, practice, and belief, evolving by adaptive processes and handed down through generations by cultural transmission, about the relationship of living beings with one another and with the environment” (Berkes 2000:7). Traditional ecological knowledge is embedded in the places and cultures from which it develops, and includes an intimate understanding of local ecological processes (Basso 1996; Berkes 2000). Consequently, environmental monitoring that is rooted in TEK can provide insight about subtle patterns and changes, and over longer time periods than many scientifically-based studies of environmental change (Riedlinger and Berkes 2001).

Many TEK systems incorporate explicit environmental monitoring activities (Berkes 2000). These include qualitative indicators of climate and environmental variation based on sight, sound, feel, smell, and taste (Moller et al. 2004; Turner and Berkes 2006) that often focus on unusual patterns and occurrences, rather than averages, and rely on the experience, understanding, and memory of the observer (Berkes and Folke 2002; Moller et al. 2004). In short, because TEK provides a different kind of environmental monitoring at local scales associated with traditions and memories that add time depth, ethnobiologists—and, increasingly, ecologists—recognize that local observations and TEK provide information that can increase the resilience of communities facing both social and ecological changes (Berkes and Jolly 2002; Chapin et al. 2004). In the Arctic, TEK has accordingly been the basis of both community-based and scientific investigations of environmental change (Kokelj et al. 2012; Luzar et al. 2011; Pulsifer et al. 2012; Riedlinger and Berkes 2001). While many elders and TEK holders are eager to share their insights and concerns with researchers and members of younger generations, recording TEK effectively and appropriately is a complex undertaking. It can be especially challenging to record and share information in a way that is respectful of knowledge holders and consistent with the holistic, place-specific nature of TEK (Chambers 2006; Gilmore and Eshbaugh 2011; Hardison and Bannister 2011; Moller et al. 2004; Stringer et al. 2006). Interactive multimedia web-based maps and databases are becoming popular ways to organize and share local and traditional ecological knowledge, and their flexibility allows for less structured and more collaborative data management (Aporta et al. 2014; Gilmore and Eshbaugh 2011; McLain et al. 2013; Pulsifer et al. 2012).

Study Area

In northwestern Canada, the Peel River flows northeast into the Mackenzie River, passing through tundra and taiga in the Yukon Territory and taiga and tundra in the Northwest Territories (Figure 1). Climate change and shifting environmental conditions in the lower Peel River watershed (including the terminal 75 km of the Peel River and its tributaries) are of concern to the Teetł'it Gwich'in community of Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories (Scott 2011). This is an area of continuous permafrost, except under lakes and rivers, where the active layer is rarely deeper than 1 m (Hughes et al. 1981). The climate is subarctic and is influenced by weather patterns from the Arctic Ocean (Hughes et al. 1981). Climate change and human activities are influencing water quantity and quality, wildlife and fish populations, disturbance regimes (e.g., landslides, river bank erosion, and fires), transportation and municipal infrastructure, and heritage sites (Kokelj et al. 2013; Scott 2011).

Figure 1.

Distribution of 101 Gwich'in observations of environmental conditions and changes along the Dempster Highway and the lower Peel River and its tributaries in the Northwest Territories and Yukon recorded from May to September 2012. The Gwich'in Settlement Area (GSA) is framed by the solid black line. The inset map at the bottom right shows the location of the GSA in northwestern Canada.

Methods

Participatory Multimedia Mapping

PMM was conducted by pairs of Gwich'in youth (under age 30) and experienced land users including elders. Potential participants were identified and contacted by the GSCI and Teetł'it Gwich'in Renewable Resource Council (Table 1). Land users were selected based on three criteria: 1) their extensive experience traveling and living on the land; 2) their thorough knowledge of environmental conditions and changes; and 3) their ability to comment on changes over time. Youth were selected based on their awareness of the environment, a desire to be on the land, and an interest in photography (Table 1). In a few cases participants decided to include extra people on the trip who were not directly involved in the research (e.g., hunting partners, family members). These latter individuals did not participate in trip planning, digital-tool training, or interviews. Some youth participated in more than one trip, and some trips included one youth paired with two land users, according to participants' preferences.

Table 1.

Teetł'it Gwich'in elders, land users and youth (N = 12) who participated in participatory multimedia monitoring from May to September 2012.

Land users decided where and what to observe, planned trip logistics, and shared their personal knowledge, experiences and observations. Youth participants documented land-based observations using photos, videos and GPS, and contributed to semi-structured interviews. As facilitator, Gill provided digital tools training, helped with trip logistics, took back-up photos and videos, conducted the follow-up interviews, and maintained the web-based map. Participants were compensated for their time through the Teetł'it Gwich'in Renewable Resource Council at local rates, and provided prior informed consent to participate and be acknowledged in the research results. A Traditional Knowledge Research Agreement was also signed between University of Victoria researchers and the GSCI. Although several land users were bilingual in Gwich'in and English, research was conducted in English because Gwich'in was not spoken fluently by youth participants. Land users provided Gwich'in translation and place names when they felt they were appropriate.

On the Land Media Capture

In addition to pre-planned observations chosen by the land user during the trip planning meeting, each trip typically included impromptu stops. At each location, the youth and the facilitator took photographs and sometimes recorded videos, while the group chatted informally about what was being encountered (Figure 2). To avoid interrupting or inhibiting the discussion and photography by requiring participants to be stationary and “on the record,” these conversations were not recorded. However, field notes were made to use as prompts during follow-up interviews. A GPS unit was used to record a tracklog of the trip, which allowed each observation to be georeferenced by matching the media time codes to the tracklog timecode using geolocation software (RoboGeo).

Figure 2.

Photographs taken during participatory multimedia mapping of environmental conditions in the lower Peel River watershed, Northwest Territories: (A) Herbie Snowshoe using video to document ice conditions on the Peel River (May 2012, photo by Christine Firth); (B) Wanda Pascal and Emma Kay observing and collecting Labrador tea near the Yukon-Northwest Territories border (September 2012, photo by Herbie Snowshoe); (C) erosion of the Dempster Highway associated with retrogressive thaw slump activity (September 2012, photo by Wade Vaneltsi); (D) a retrogressive thaw slump in the Peel Plateau (August 2012, photo by Ashley Kay); (E) riverbank erosion affecting a fish camp on Husky Channel (June 2012, photo by Angela Alexie); (F) reviewing the use of a GPS-equipped camera with youth Anthony Wilson before a trip down the Peel River with Abe Wilson (August 2013, photo by James Wilson); (G) Emma Kay observing and collecting mushrooms for tinder at Nitainlaii Territorial Park (September 2012, photo by Harneet Gill); and (H) Herbie Snowshoe photographing berry conditions at the Yukon-Northwest Territories border (August 2012, photo by Harneet Gill).

Data Organization and Analysis

To facilitate online mapping of observations, interviews were coded to identify individual observations, and each observation was labelled with a primary theme and a sub-theme (Table 2). Each observation consists of a photo and/or video, an interview audio and transcript clip, and a map location. Themes were used to organize information into broad categories such as vegetation or development, whereas sub-themes generally reflected the reason why the site was visited, such as an incidence of shrub increase or a specific gravel quarry. Each observation was also given a brief description, name and site code. To summarize the nature of environmental changes and explore the types of knowledge and insights generated by the PMM approach, Gill identified all types of information and emergent themes in interviews by coding them using NVivo. Gill and Lantz used both NVivo and MS Excel to explore the relationships between categories of knowledge and meaning from the perspective of Gwich'in participants, with consultation with Snowshoe and Kritsch.

Table 2.

Themes and sub-themes for Gwich'in observations of environmental conditions and changes, indicating the primary reason an observation was made.

Results

In the pilot year of this project, eight land users and four youth recorded their observations of environmental conditions and changes (Table 1). A total of eight trips were made out of Fort McPherson, and 101 observations were recorded (Figure 1). Trips were limited to areas that could be accessed by boat on the Peel River and its tributaries, or by truck on the Dempster Highway. The majority of sites selected by participants were chosen to exemplify environmental conditions and traditional and cultural use sites (Table 2). The most common environmental observation was of erosion and melting permafrost driven by recent changes in climate (Table 2). Retrogressive thaw slumping has become more common in the upland area southwest of Fort McPherson in recent decades (Kokelj et al. 2013). These dramatic changes, often involving large sections of earth caving in or rows of trees falling into lakes and streams, were noted by many observers (Figure 2). Observations of culturally important places included both man-made (e.g., a fish camp) and natural (e.g., a red ochre deposit) landscape features (Figure 2).

In follow-up interviews, land users provided detailed information about the physical nature of each environmental observation, including temporal and spatial dimensions, magnitude of change, and physical characteristics. Phenomena that occur over time, such as erosion, plant growth, and weather events, were described in terms of initiation time, duration, rate, seasonal timing, and frequency, and were often compared to what land users conceive of as normal or unusual patterns. Time was expressed using specific dates and durations (days, weeks, etc.) or in reference to other events. The physical dimensions and locations of events, phenomena, and landscape features were often described subjectively and involved analogies and personal references. For example, to describe how much larger willows have become around the Peel River ferry crossing, Emma Kay remembered, “in the [19]70s they were small little willows. If somebody set tent right in the middle you just could see them walking around. From their waist up, or even half the legs, that's how small they were in the '70s, '80s, like that.”

In addition to describing environmental conditions and changes, participants shared their knowledge of the social and ecological causes of, and interactions among, the phenomena observed. For example, when asked why more sandbars have been forming in the Peel River, Abe Peterson gave an explanation based on his knowledge of environmental processes: “see, what is happening, the current is so low, there's hardly any current. Dead water. And that's when the sand don't move, it just stays there.” Conversely, Emma Kay explained changes in weather by referring to cultural teachings, explaining that “Elders from way back, they tell us everything (on the land) is going to change.”

Climate change was referenced as an example of how environmental conditions have changed and was cited to explain why other environmental changes had occurred—all four elders recounted how much colder average and minimum temperatures used to be when they were growing up. These comments were made while discussing changing environmental conditions in general and how they affect individuals. As Emma Kay recounted, “We're not used to heat. Cause we were brought up, when we were kids, we were brought up 60, 70 below. Now today we sit in the shade” because temperatures are warmer year-round.

Climate change was often cited indirectly (i.e., referring to more or too much heat or warmth) or directly as a driver of observed environmental changes. The combination of warmer air temperatures and heavy rainfall events was highlighted as a cause of permafrost melting and resultant riverbank erosion and lake drainage: Robert Alexie explained that mud slides occur when there is “too much rain, and [when it is] too hot.”

Participants' observations also focused on the social and ecological implications of environmental changes, and frequently included predictions about future conditions. Land users provided insights into the significance of these changes for individuals and the community, including both negative and positive outcomes. Consequences associated with environmental changes ranged from practical considerations to community-wide repercussions, as Billy Wilson explained, “you don't travel one year, and [willows are] already growing too fast. Some people just leave it; they can't even see their portage trails. So it kind of discourages people from basically going back to their camp, lot of deserted camps up here. People don't go out anymore.”

Land users also expressed concerns about the effects of environmental change and development on human health and safety, and suggested questions that should be investigated. For example, observing a stream that had changed from clear to muddy brown, elder Dorothy Alexie recommended, “It would be really good to find out, you know. What's in that water. It's got to be something very powerful in it.”

While Gwich'in land users expressed apprehension and uncertainty about environmental challenges, their ideas and efforts also reflected the community's capacity for adaptation and flexibility. Novel ways to accomplish tasks and interact with the land emerged during our trips, and participants learned from each other throughout the process. For example, when the Peel River jammed up with ice, Christine Firth exclaimed after watching Abe Peterson navigate his boat through the ice, “it was good to know that we could get out of there, like I've never in my life did this, but now I know I could get out of ice jams as long as it's high water.”

Interviews also revealed how knowledge about the environment is learned and passed on within and between generations. Participants explained that common sources of knowledge included direct observations and experiences on the land with more experienced people, as well as stories and conversations with other community members, especially elders. Wanda Pascal recalled, for example, that she knew of a good berry patch because “last year, I seen Sarah Jerome and her sisters picking there for about four days […] so I scanned around there, and now I know how much berries is there.”

Gwich'in ways of expression were also preserved through the use of original transcripts, audio recordings and videos for each observation. Gwich'in speakers often made their points in a non-linear fashion and left key pieces of information unsaid, which might be found several minutes earlier in the conversation, or might rely on a presupposed knowledge of the community and territory. Consequently, the complete transcript, the details of the overall trip, and other observation topics, which are available from the trip page on the website, are needed to contextualize observations. Gwich'in words and place names were also important components of TEK shared through the observations of some land users, who frequently provided place names and provided translations and background information.

Places where observations were made often had special significance or value because of personal or shared history there. Participants often shared details about their own lives and families, exhibiting how culture and knowledge are tied to place (Basso 1996). These observations also provide considerable insight into Gwich'in history, land use, and how changing environmental conditions impact their daily life:

Overall, the diversity of knowledge elicited through the PMM process during travels and interviews provides a rich and nuanced description of the processes that have shaped current environmental conditions, which can help understand and predict the social and ecological effects of climate and environmental changes.

Discussion

The knowledge and perspectives documented in this project highlight the vital role of TEK in efforts to understand and respond to environmental change in the Arctic, including the impacts of climate change on regional landscapes. By recording the specific impacts climate change has had on local ecosystems and communities, the map of environmental observations produced through PMM will be useful to communities and researchers seeking to monitor and respond to changing conditions. The combination of precise locations, photos, videos, and interviews provides qualitative and quantitative information about the nature, causes, and consequences of environmental changes and conditions associated with climate change.

This information is useful to the Teetł'it Gwich'in community because it will allow people to compare and confirm their knowledge about specific places, and gain new knowledge of changes, practices, and perspectives from different people. This may be especially useful for people who are not able to be on the land frequently, because it can allow them to learn from more experienced members of the community. For example, map viewers can see a video of Abe Peterson navigating his boat through willows during an ice jam, and learn how to overcome travel barriers from his experience. By searching topics such as dangers and infrastructure damage, map users can also identify areas that might require additional vigilance, investigation, or intervention. Because many of the changes observed in the lower Peel River watershed are likely related to global climate change, they will also be relevant to other communities throughout the Arctic.

Our experiences in this project show that an experiential and inclusive approach to community-based environmental monitoring can also unlock other aspects of TEK. These include social processes such as knowledge transmission, personal histories, and local understandings and expressions of knowledge. Attributing observations to specific participants respects the highly contextual and individual nature of TEK, while presenting all observations in the same map reflects the extent to which TEK is shared by a cultural group (Wenzel 1999).

A participatory approach to multimedia mapping is able to capture both the ecological and social impacts of climate change and environmental disturbances; participant descriptions of environmental changes were always a blend of environmental and social considerations, reflecting the inextricable connections between Gwich'in identity and the land (Loovers 2010; Parlee et al. 2005). Map viewers, whether they are Gwich'in or are unfamiliar with Gwich'in culture, can learn not only about how the environment is changing, but also about Gwich'in identity, history, language and activities. The primacy of Gwich'in voices in the map makes it easier to understand by members of the same culture, and is instructive for members of other cultures who are working in Gwich'in territory and want to improve their understanding of the social-ecological system in which environmental changes are occurring.

A holistic presentation of TEK from the perspective of the cultural insider preserves links between environmental knowledge and its cultural context, which facilitates interpretation (Berkes 2000). A more nuanced understanding of Gwich'in perspectives of the changing environment will encourage researchers and regional decision makers to be sensitive to local community concerns and interests. For researchers and decision makers inside and outside the community, the data contained in this project map can be used to develop hypotheses about how people will react to ecological variability, highlight areas of traditional use, and identify areas of special concern in reference to environmental conditions that require action (examples in McLain et al. 2013). The outcomes of this project, as well as feedback from participants and community partners, indicate that digital multimedia can be used to effectively record traditional ecological knowledge in a way that is consistent with Gwich'in culture and contemporary life. The insights documented will also be useful in regional climate change adaptation strategies, where large-scale climate change impacts must be understood and responded to in terms of local consequences and local capacity for adaptation (ACIA 2004; Scott 2011).

Involving and empowering youth was a key project goal identified by the community. Additionally, a lack of opportunities for youth and young adults to be on the land was identified by several land users as a problem that the project helped address. Monitoring trips provided opportunities for youth to participate in both traditional land-based activities and research. Our trips were not highly structured, and land users often included breaks to warm up by a fire, have a snack or meal, or harvest traditional foods. Youth volunteered or were encouraged to pick berries, shoot ducks, build fires, chop wood, and camp on the land with the guidance of more experienced land users. Abe Peterson explained that “there's a lot of boys want to go out in the bush you know, they got no kicker [motor], no boat, no skidoo you know they just can't get out.”

In the course of each research trip, youth spent several hours with experienced land users, learning through observation, conversation, and practice. Although youth were not able to provide expertise, they contributed to the results of the study by asking questions on trips and in interviews and by sharing their own perspectives and stories about the places they visited:

In addition to being a monitoring platform in its own right, the map of environmental changes produced through PMM can contribute to other environmental and climate monitoring initiatives. Qualitative data, particularly visual data, captured on the land by indigenous land users provide context-rich information about local environmental changes that can inform the interpretation of quantitative data (Bonny and Berkes 2008; Comiso et al. 1991). The participant-driven nature of the PMM approach also ensures that alternative perspectives and knowledge that may not seem directly related to environmental change are included in research. This allows communities to identify research parameters, often social, which would not likely be included in scientific research (Riedlinger and Berkes 2001). For example, Billy Wilson's observation that fewer people are going to their camps reveals an indicator that can be used to monitor land use and accessibility. Because the TEK presented is location-specific and integrates both social and ecological perspectives, it is likely to be useful in environmental management and planning (McLain et al. 2013).

The use of TEK in long-term, community-based monitoring is compatible with scientific monitoring and can lead to a more nuanced and thorough understanding of the drivers and consequences of changing environments (Riedlinger and Berkes 2001). As a result, the map produced in this project may also provide a useful platform for direct collaboration between community-based monitoring and scientific monitoring initiatives. Participatory multimedia mapping makes TEK-based monitoring data accessible to both communities and scientists. By preserving the scale and place-based nature of TEK, specific comparisons with scientific observations are possible (Gagnon and Berteaux 2009), yet TEK-holders involved in research are unconstrained by scientific research agendas since monitoring parameters are community-driven. The spatial and visual representation of TEK lends itself to being presented alongside scientific information with equal weight, and framing individual studies and observations as part of a wider data management system helps emphasize the parallels between traditional resource management systems and Western science-based management systems (Berkes 2009; Lertzman 2009).

A number of recent collaborations between TEK holders and researchers in Arctic indigenous communities have involved web-mapping. Participatory multimedia mapping has been used and evaluated favorably in Inuvialuit communities (Bennett and Lantz 2014). Customized GPS technology has also been used by Inuit hunters to record their observations while traveling on the land by snowmobile (Gearheard et al. 2011). A key strength of PMM is that it allows participants to take ownership over the process and results, which, in turn, empowers communities and builds local capacity by providing opportunities for research training and experience (Gilmore and Young 2012).

Data management is a critical issue for GPS-based research, and can represent a critical obstacle for community ownership of the research process and the data because of the expertise required. In this project, long-term data stewardship will require the ability to use the website interface, word processing software, data management software, photo and video editing software, transcription software, and GIS software. Other challenges include obtaining funding for training and job creation, creating a data backup strategy, and integrating the program with existing initiatives and community priorities. We anticipate that the partnerships that have already been established between the GSCI, University of Victoria and NWT CIMP will continue to play a role in building capacity and furthering community-based monitoring. Because PMM has the potential to elicit sensitive information and put it in the public domain, the management and access to data will also be a key issue to negotiate before the protocol becomes more widely used. Although any member of the public is able to access the website, doing so requires a username and password issued by the administrator (currently the University of Victoria Ethnoecology Lab). To control information sharing in the future, website settings can be customized for specific user groups.

This project is part of a partnership between academic (University of Victoria), community (GSCI), and government (AANDC) organizations, and ongoing collaboration will help ensure continuity of the project and applications for the outcomes of research. Follow-up research and local capacity-building and engagement by future researchers, graduate students, and research assistants affiliated with project partners will contribute to the long-term sustainability of this project. To facilitate community monitoring of environmental changes as a community-driven effort that does not depend on the facilitation of externally-based researchers, Gill and Lantz developed a protocol that will continue to operate out of the TGRRC office in Fort McPherson. As of September 2013, two GPS-equipped digital cameras were available for sign-out, along with travel compensation to overcome financial barriers to participation. The easy-to-use cameras and protocol instruction sheet ensure that land users will integrate monitoring with their regular travels on the land. As the cameras are returned, the geotagged photos and videos will be sent to the Ethnoecology Lab at University of Victoria, where they will be added to the web-based map that documents ongoing environmental monitoring.

Bringing together community members and researchers as equal participants in research builds familiarity and trust between facilitators and participants. More importantly, placing decisions about how research is conducted and communicated in the community's hands helps avoid replicating power imbalances that tend to exist between Western knowledge and TEK (Nadasdy 1999). Presenting knowledge collected in the images and words of knowledge holders in an accessible website also ensures results are returned to the community in an appropriate way (Chambers 2006; Gilmore and Eshbaugh 2011). The participatory research approach is inclusive and places the focus on local research priorities and perspectives (Wiber et al. 2004). Multimedia mapping also produces information about environmental conditions and changes that is highly descriptive, context-rich, and culturally rooted. This approach to research is culturally coherent as it relies on land-based activities that are integrated with community members' everyday lives (Bennett and Lantz 2014; Chambers 2006; Gearheard et al. 2011; McLain et al. 2013).