Species at Risk – Leave no Footprint

25 June 2010. Ikanawtiket, with the guidance and help from many aboriginal community members have compiled and produced a book titled “Kespiatuksitew Wsitqamuey – Muk Nqatmu Wetaptu’tip” (Species at Risk – Leave no Footprint).

The book is intended to be a warning to others about the very real biodiversity loss happening in the Atlantic region of Canada. Through the harrowing stories of twenty local species, Ikanawtiket exposes the sometimes overt, sometimes unintentional, but always destructive human activities which threaten local species. 

Poisoning, overharvesting, destroying habitat, trashing, spreading of invasive alien species and diseases are all brought to light in the book. Even the proposed “green” industries, such as hydroelectric and wind power have an impact, and the insatiable demand for energy has proven to pose serious threats to surrounding natural life – the author claims. Through the journey from the deepest parts of the seas to the interior of the lands, the reader learns that there is no one smoking gun. Species extinction is an accumulation of many human caused impacts. 

What is the cure? The book gives its solution: a powerful groundswell of human efforts to reduce impacts, conserve what is left, restore what is almost lost, and through that connection learn that everybody is interconnected, everybody is interdependent, and everybody must learn a new ethic of respect for Mother Earth. 

• Look inside the book (Chapter on American Eal/Ga’tev, pages 53-56)