The BQCMB helps to manage two caribou herds whose migratory routes straddle two territories, two provinces, and four different native cultures.  The Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board (BQCMB) broke new ground when it became Canada’s first co-management board for a major game species in 1982. It brought together aboriginal people and government wildlife managers from four different political jurisdictions – the governments of Canada, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories – to work toward the common goal of conserving two quite distinct caribou herds in northern Canada, the Beverly caribou herd and the Qamanirjuaq caribou herd.
It was also the first game management body to bring traditional knowledge to the table, to help guide conservation principles. The BQCMB developed action plans to make increased use of traditional knowledge with scientific knowledge in caribou management.
Born from a perceived caribou crisis, the BQCMB has, in the years since its inception, fostered multi-jurisdictional and multi-cultural co-operation as a result of greater understanding and respect for diverse values and points of view.
This co-operation has had a positive impact that stretches beyond caribou management issues. In the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, communities and wildlife managers dealing with other caribou herds are pursuing co-management boards similar to the BQCMB. Such respect underscores the findings of a 1996 report on co-management in Canada by the parliamentary Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. That report called the BQCMB “a co-management model to emulate.”

The BQCMB is an advisory board, with a responsibility to make recommendations to governments. But it also conducts projects for the conservation and management of the migratory Beverly and Qamanirjuaq barren-ground caribou herds and their habitat. The caribou are hunted by Dene, Inuit, Métis, Cree and non-aboriginal people in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Over decades, herd size may increase and decrease, and may also undergo small or largescale shifts in distribution. Such changes can result from natural events and human activities. Caribou habitat is especially vulnerable to the changes that accompany development and human access – a critical issue today given the fast-paced mining and road developments that are altering northern Canada.
Governments have generally followed the BQCMB’s advice on overall herd management, and view the board as a convenient forum for the resolution of caribou issues. As it has turned out, board decisions are generally based on consensus. A few issues, such as the commercial use of caribou, have split members into groups with different opinions, but never into government/community factions. Aboriginal people and government representatives alike have become full partners in managing the caribou resource.