LITTORAL CHAIR RESEARCH PROJECT
Sustainable food systems Nunavimmiut
Sustainable and resilient country food systems for future generations of Nunavimmiut – promoting food security while adapting to changing northern environments
Context
Country foods are at the core of Inuit culture and well-being, and anchor Inuit in their traditions and territory. Yet, a recent diet transition from country foods to costly and processed market foods contributed to put Inuit among the most food insecure in Canada.
Environmental changes exacerbate food insecurity by further constraining country food availability and access. This at a time when the Inuit population is growing three times faster than non-Indigenous Canadians. Nunavik communities are therefore wondering whether there will be enough nutritious country food for future Nunavimmiut generations.
To answer this pressing question, we need to better understand the dynamics of Arctic social-ecological systems under environmental change, and how these link to Inuit food security through multidisciplinary collaborations from environmental, socio-economic, human diet, food security, and health disciplines.
Objectives
- Assess the environmental and human-driven mechanisms controlling the availability (how much food?) and quality (how nutritious is it?) of key aquatic species through ecosystem modelling
- Link biophysical and human subsystems with interacting ecological, economic, social, and cultural components of food security (how accessible is the food?)
- Work with community partners to co-construct scenarios of possible impacts of ongoing changes (will there be enough food?), as well as adaptation strategies to foster sustainable harvests of country foods (aquatic and caribou), food security, and health (how can we adapt?)
Team members involved
Financé par
- Sentinel North
Principal investigators
- Tiff-Annie Kenny and Frédéric Maps
Co-investigators
Mélanie Lemire, Pierre Ayotte, Jean-Sébastien Moore, Steeve Côté, and Gérard Duhaime
Other members from team Littoral involved
- Sara Pedro, Marianne Falardeau, Carie Hoover, Chris Furgal, Matthew Little, Jean-Éric Tremblay, Phillipe Archambault, Murray Humphries, William Cheun, et Megan Bailey
Partners
- Nunavik Marine Region Wildlife Board (NMRWB) and Nunavik Research Center (NRC) (collaborations put on hold due to the pandemic)
