By Courtney Mason
The Horn Plateau, with its myriad of lakes, rivers and wetlands, has been a spiritual home for local Dehcho Dene peoples for millennia. In October, the Dehcho First Nations Assembly designated these lands and waters, called Edéhzhíe (eh-day-shae), as an Indigenous protected area (IPA), designed and managed or co-managed by Indigenous communities.
Edéhzhíe is a plateau that rises out of the Mackenzie Valley to the west of Great Slave Lake, in the southwestern part of the Northwest Territories. It covers 14,218 square kilometres.
I have worked in this region for a number of years,
As local communities encounter an ever-growing number of barriers to food security, including climate change and mounting costs of food production and shipping, it is increasingly clear that these lands must be protected from development.
The significance of Edéhzhíe
Edéhzhíe is important to the Dehcho Dene culture, language and ways of life. By forming Edéhzhíe as an IPA, the management board, consisting of representatives from the Dehcho First Nations and Environment and Climate Change Canada, will make its decisions by consensus, and encourage Indigenous harvesting rights.
The Horn Plateau is a unique ecosystem that provides habitat for diverse wildlife, including a number of threatened species such as the boreal woodland caribou and wood bison.
Government of Northwest Territories
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau included a
Canada has 77 different designations for its parks and protected areas. This complexity can lead to
IPAs have been presented as a way forward for communities and conservation, but what are the risks and possibilities?
Lessons from Banff and the Canadian Rockies
A Dene Elder once emphasized to me that before we look forward, we need to understand where we came from.
For many Indigenous communities across the country, the histories of parks and protected areas are filled with experiences of displacement and cultural loss.
(Amos Scott)
Canada’s first protected area, Banff National Park, plays a central role in the Canadian imaginary of what parks should represent: beauty, wilderness and conservation. This romantic view of Banff erases the traumatic legacies around the formation of the park.
Since 2004, I have been working with the Nakoda First Nation in Alberta to understand the impacts of the creation of Banff National Park on their communities. For much of that time, I
This displacement and denied access was facilitated by park management and supported by the police, missionaries, government officials and tourism entrepreneurs. They were
Similar to many Indigenous communities across the nation,
Despite these histories, change is possible, even in Banff.
The Nakoda have slowly, but insistently, increased their presence in the park. They began to return to sacred locations in 2001, gained plant and medicinal harvesting rights in 2004, became involved with elk culls in 2007, and the
Indigenous models of conservation and stewardship
For the Dehcho First Nation, central to establishing Edéhzhíe was the expansion of
European-based conceptualizations of parks do not consider humans to be a fundamental part of a healthy ecosystem. It is time to rethink this approach.
Indigenous communities globally have
In British Columbia, after a
This new designation of park covers 3,120 sq. km. It protects the cultural and ecological values of the Tsilhqot’in as it asserts land rights on the basis of Indigenous law. This provides an alternative model of governance and land management.
Further afield, the Māori, the Indigenous peoples of New Zealand (Aotearoa), also offer leading developments on environmental protection through IPAs.
(David Frampton/AP Photo)
There, the federal government returned
Achieving personhood status has added numerous layers of legislative protection.
What is the future of conservation and IPAs?
Providing personhood status to parks may seem like a stretch, but it’s not. In the United States, corporations are granted personhood status to protect their bottom line. I would suggest that New Zealanders, led by Māori leaders, have their priorities straight. Maybe someday Canadians can learn by these examples and follow suit.
Learning from diverse Indigenous approaches to conservation is valuable, however, taking responsibility for repressive colonial policies is vital.
Histories of displacement in parks are directly linked to the contemporary issues faced by many Indigenous communities across the country, including gross health inequalities and disproportionate levels of food insecurity. There is a need to acknowledge how
IPAs can help Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Canada foster alliances and navigate political corridors together for the betterment of both ecosystems and local peoples. In my mind, IPAs can be a fundamental part of the process to reconcile the past and welcome the next generation of conservation.
Source:
Related to SDG 13: Climate action