Wildlife managers need to figure out how to protect declining caribou herds if the proposed Mackenzie Valley gas project goes ahead, the Joint Review Panel was told during a hearing in Inuvik Monday.

The proposed 1,200-kilometre pipeline, which would carry gas from the Beaufort Delta region to northern Alberta, would cut through the middle of the Cape Bathurst caribou herd's range. Its population has dropped from 17,500 in 1992 to 1,800 in 2006.

N.W.T. government biologist John Nagy says the latest information on the herd is not promising.

"The small number of calves in early July indicates that few yearlings will be recruited to the Cape Bathurst herd in 2007," he told the panel. "This suggests that a further decline in the Cape Bathurst [herd] can be anticipated."

Call made for plan to be sensitive

The government recommends Imperial Oil, the lead partner in the pipeline project, monitor the herds and develop a management plan.

The Gwich'in Renewable Resources Board wants the plan to be sensitive to the declining populations, said its biologist, Catherine Lambert Koizumi.

"Could one of the mitigation actions be to make sure that this population doesn't go under specific minimum, viable population size or make sure there's a recovery plan in place before the project starts?" she said.

Territorial government spokesman Ray Case said climate change is probably the cause of the drop in caribou numbers, so any plan should focus on limiting the impact caused by the pipeline project.

Scientists have been looking closely at why caribou numbers have declined in the North. Local hunters have been asked to stop hunting the Cape Bathurst herd until the numbers turn around.

The Joint Review Panel is looking at the social and environmental implications of the multibillion project.