Inuit hunters and trappers in Nunavut say they fear losing control over wildlife management and conservation if Ottawa lists northern species including the Peary caribou under the federal Species at Risk Act.

Environment Minister John Baird recently announced he wants the High Arctic caribou classified as endangered species, despite objections from the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board.

The government is also considering including the walrus, beluga whale and grizzly bear in the act.

"Our greatest concern is that we will moving back to … when the federal government [has] total authority of our hunting and the total animals that we can harvest," Jaypeetee Akeeagok, chairman of the Iviq Hunters and Trappers Association in Grise Fiord, said.

He added that such a move would also undermine the intent of Nunavut's land claims agreement.

"Any time the federal government puts something into law, they seem to ignore the management and the process that the Inuit have used through millennia of conserving wildlife. Part of conserving wildlife is harvesting them."

Such disagreements could lead to court disputes similar to those in the United States — a possibility that concerns Marco Festa-Bianchet, a biology professor at the University of Sherbrooke and the former chair of the committee that advises Ottawa on the listing of species.

"It's really a very, very negative outcome because it means that people's money, people's efforts end up fighting in the court, and the main benefit is to lawyers, not biodiversity," Festa-Bianchet said.

He added that there is a lot of information about what a listing under the Species at Risk Act implies, saying that everyone will lose out if all parties cannot work together to guard the health of wildlife populations.

Last fall, the Nunavut government said it had spent $2.5 million on consultations, studies and the preparation of a management plan for the Peary caribou.

It says the population has dropped by more than 72 per cent across much of its range, and up to 98 per cent in some areas. Nunavut cites changing weather and icing conditions, which prevent the caribou from reaching its food sources.