Newly designated Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas in Canada’s North : another label for inequitable co-management agreements or an honest attempt to walk the road of reconciliation?
2022
Seiferth, Carolin
Inclusion of Indigenous communities and Traditional Ecological Knowledges (TEK) alongside reconciliation efforts feature in numerous plans and policies for nature and biodiversity conservation. But to what extent do these agreements present an honest attempt to equally share power and responsibility between Indigenous peoples and governance agencies in protected area management? In this thesis, I trace how including Indigenous communities and their TEK entered Canada’s policy discourse on nature conservation. I focus on the designation of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs), which presents Canada’s latest approach towards including Indigenous peoples in protected area management. Through a study of policy documents, I compare changes in Canadian governance agencies’ proposal of and motivations behind Indigenous peoples’ inclusion with insights from Indigenous communities’ documents related to Edéhzíe Protected Area and Thaidene Nëné Indigenous Protected Area. These documents offer insights into Indigenous stewardship practices, emphasize Indigenous self-governance as well as the role of TEK, Western science, and Indigenous languages in IPCA management. Although I conclude that Edéhzíe Protected Area and Thaidene Nëné Indigenous Protected Area present an honest attempt to equally share power and responsibility in IPCA management, I call on governance agencies to further centre Indigenous peoples’ ideas on stewarding biodiversity-rich places, grant rights to self-determination and self-governance, and restore justice.
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