Our 2025 Living Planet Report Canada (LPRC) used 5,099 population records for 910 species to track wildlife loss over time. But ecosystem health can’t be fully captured by a single knowledge system alone, so LPRC 2025 includes Indigenous perspectives from across the country.

Annie Buckle of the Gwich’in Tribal Council.

*Annie Buckle, of the Gwich’in Tribal Council, *has spent most of her life calling what we now know as the Northwest Territories home. The Gwich’in Elder was taught to live culturally and traditionally — being on the land is in her blood. Spending time at various family members’ cabins growing up, she now lives just outside of Aklavik in a cabin of her own.

*A Gwich’in Elder, Buckle’s knowledge of the land and species that occupy it is vast. She’s spent her life accumulating knowledge and beliefs about the relationships between the species in her region and how to respectfully coexist. This knowledge she’s inherited has been passed down from generation to generation and is built on thousands of people’s direct contact with the environment. *

***Here’s what Buckle told us about the changes she’s noticing in Gwich’in Territory, the impact of climate change and the importance of spending time at camp: ***

I was brought up living a cultural and traditional life in my territory and going on the land was always in my blood. Over the years I’ve noticed a lot of change; what I’m seeing most right now is the char not running like it used to. It used to run at a certain time, but nowadays we don’t know when it’s coming and so people get nets out, but they’re just getting bits.

I’ve also noticed an increase in beavers; there are too many making dams all over that are impacting the water levels. Plus, there’s a bunch more wolf packs and animals coming close to town. Two or three years ago there was 11 bears at the garbage, but this year, they said there’s only two. So, something’s happening.

The fires and climate change are affecting our way of life

Climate change is an issue with harvesting by the seasons here, the changes make animals confused. They’re coming closer to town and farther north.

I’m also noticing more impact from the fires down south; we’re having to breathe in the smoke and the heat is hard to tolerate. What we need to do is protect, protest and start growing our own veggies, harvest more fish and meat to get people and the planet healthy again. I think the land is the key to a better, longer life.

Illustrated by Shawna Kiesman

Everything we need is on the land

For us up north, spending time on the land at camp is really important. My fish camp was passed on to my mom and dad from one of their friends, and as they got older and hardly came up, they told us, “Never leave that camp abandoned.”

So, my nephew got a house, and I got my own house and we built everything up. Now my family all come and enjoy each other’s company when we can – there’s about 10 of us up at camp.

We have everything we need here: fish and berries; the cranberries I need are right in my backyard. I’m one of those people that dream up all this deadly stuff with cranberries. I make trifle sauces for desserts, I try spices with different fruits, a bit of everything — all my nieces and nephews love my food!

Monitoring for us is just people talking to each other

In the past, leadership had people that would watch to know what’s going on around the lands. But as leadership changes, things change, and now they have no one. So, the community talks, and we share what’s happening over Facebook.

I got a really genius nephew, Dwayne, and on a recent trip to Aklavik he was telling me that he saw this orange stuff along the river, that it seems like rust or iron coming out of the creeks. Then some young people were driving around after hearing about what Dwayne found and they’re looking for a reason why it’s there. So, we don’t have people formally investigating but at least there’s interest and some people are looking into it.

Really what we need is unity, for people to go into environmental work and for opportunities to be created for them. We need more people to get involved, to care and the world to be serious about tomorrow.

Our Living Planet Report Canada 2025 reveals the most severe average wildlife population declines to date. Explore what’s happening in habitats across the country — and how we can halt and reverse wildlife loss before it’s too late.