Professor Ian Baird recently announced a new research initiative, Tracking Change, which received CAN$2.5 million in support from the government of Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

The project will fund local and traditional knowledge research activities in the Mackenzie River basin and sister projects in the Lower Amazon and Lower Mekong River Basins, with the long term goal of strengthening the voices of subsistence fishers and Indigenous communities in the governance of major fresh water ecosystems.

Baird traveled to Whitehorse, Canada earlier this month for the opening workshop of the 6 year project (2015-2022) which includes over 20 Canadian First Nations partners, as well as people working in the Mekong and Amazon basins. He is in charge of the Mekong River Basin part of the project and will be work in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, looking at how knowledge about Mekong fish and fisheries is transferred through social networks, including across national borders.