Health & Wellbeing
Habitat & Species
Changes in aquatic ecosystem health in the Liard sub-basin are having moderate impacts on the health and wellbeing of Indigenous communities. Health and wellbeing are closely linked to access to traditional foods, and some Indigenous communities report consuming less country foods than in the past. Maintaining access to preferred traditional foods is viewed as essential to many Indigenous communities because of the nutritional, cultural, and spiritual values linked to these resources and the associated benefits they offer for health and wellbeing. Although fishing, hunting and trapping for country foods are still valued as core cultural practices, some Indigenous communities report consuming less country foods and having less confidence in the quality of harvested plants and animals. Access to fishing and trapping areas is also disrupted by lower populations of harvestable species, higher costs of transportation and increased competition for resources. Low availability of scientific data was found for levels of country food consumption in the Liard sub-basin.
The following table summarizes the availability of information for each Health and Wellbeing indicator.
Signs and Signals | Indigenous Knowledge Information and Data | Indigenous Knowledge Availability in Public Sources1 | Science Information and Data | Science Data Availability2 |
Food sources | Decrease in country food consumption (overall or specific species); access or safety considerations | Some observations from few locations. | Statistics on number of people eating wild food versus store food | Low data availability, inconsistent monitoring. |
1 Qualifiers for the availability of local and Indigenous Knowledge observations in publicly available sources: Limited = 1-2 observations; Some = 3-4 observations; Many = 5 or more observations
2 Qualifiers for the availability of science data in publicly available sources: Low = Individual studies or locations; Many = Network of monitoring stations across the basin
Food Sources
Reduced consumption of country foods and access and safety concerns have been reported by Indigenous communities in the Liard sub-basin.
At the time of the FNFNES in 2008/2009, more than half of the participating households indicated that their traditional food supplies ran out and that they would not be able to access more that year, and 27% of FNFN families were rated food insecure,