Carma Session
Thursday, August 25
The CARMA (Circum Arctic Monitoring and Assessment) network was started in 2001 to assess the vulnerability of Rangifer herds across the north to global changes. Further goals were to promote consistent ways of monitoring these caribou and reindeer, to work cooperatively with the people and communities who depend on these herds, and to promote information-sharing across the jurisdictions that have the world’s migratory caribou and reindeer. CARMA has developed tools and products, including manuals for assessing body condition and demography, a Voices of the Caribou People video record from many aboriginal communities across the north, herd maps, animations showing seasonal movements of many herds, studies of health and disease, an anatomy project that shows the various organs and organ systems of reindeer and common diseases and parasites and analyses of climate across herd ranges. Many of these tools and products can be accessed via the CARMA web-site (http://www.carmanetwork.com/display/public/home).
The CARMA steering group are working on a synthesis volume that will address six key questions about the herds and the factors that affect them, and about the ways in which global change is affecting communities that have depended on caribou and reindeer for many generations. At the AUC, members of the steering group will highlight the network’s accomplishments to date and consider possible next steps for CARMA.