On COP15, halting biodiversity loss and Indigenous-led conservation and stewardship

We’re going to be there with bells on. It’s a chance for the world to really hone in on biodiversity. It happens once every ten years and it’s in Canada. It’s important that we highlight not only the most important effective actions in terms of conserving biodiversity, but also addressing the issues of climate change through Indigenous-led conservation and stewardship. Our Prime Minister and his cabinet have recognized that time and again. And the [Indigenous] Nations in Canada, we’ve been conservationists ever since we’ve existed. We understand that our relationship with our landscapes is what ensures our survivals. And we also know that gives us responsibilities to that relationship. That’s what is really driving this conservation movement. The International Boreal Conservation Campaign, which the Indigenous Leadership Initiative is a member of, has been supporting and working with First Nations across Canada for about 20 years now. In that time, we funded a lot of the land use planning efforts. And what we’ve seen is that the vast majority, in fact, over 90 per cent of new protected areas that have been established in that time have been either led or co-led by Indigenous peoples. We’re also seeing the impacts of the work of Guardians. In the last five years alone, that movement has more than quadrupled in First Nation communities. We’ve gone from about 30 to 120 programs now.

On Canada’s responsibility to the boreal forest and Indigenous Peoples

Canada has a big part of that boreal forest that circles the globe — we’re a very large country and we have the benefit of much of it still being intact. It holds a quarter of the world’s wetlands. It is therefore a climate regulator. It absorbs and stores twice as much carbon as the world’s tropical forests per hectare. If we’re thinking about the capacity of the planet to help in engaging and creating those nature-based climate solutions, or this ability for the planet itself to help store and capture some of that carbon, the boreal forest is the best example of that. That to me means that as a country, we have a particular responsibility to show leadership. If Canada can get it right, by truly empowering Indigenous nations to take on that role, which in itself will be an incredible act of reconciliation, then Canada can show the way on what it looks like to to value the communities within its borders, to value the knowledge systems and sciences that contribute overall to everybody’s prosperity. To show a way that that doesn’t necessarily break down the social fabric that has been built up, but on the contrary, actually bonafides it and injects all of the values that come from the diversity in our people. Hopefully this is something that other countries will look to. The COP really is a good opportunity for Canada to showcase that.

On COP15 aspirations

We’re looking for a couple of things out of COP. One is we’re interested in the targets — every ten years, new biodiversity conservation targets are put in place and the post 2020 framework that is being negotiated is looking at the possibility of protecting 30 per cent of lands and waters by 2030. We think that’s an important target, not because we think it’s ambitious enough. In fact, on average, when First Nations are holding the pen on land-use plans, they tend to protect much more than half of their landscapes — in many ways the globe is catching up to Indigenous ambitions with respect to conservation. But the target does offer a lot of space to advance and and demonstrate those models — and show how that return on investment really goes beyond just halting and reversing biodiversity loss.

We’re also looking for the recognition of Indigenous rights and titles and the role of Indigenous Peoples and our knowledge systems in the management of biodiversity within those targets. We’re hopeful — right now, the draft does include much of that. We’re hoping that through the negotiations, those things stay. We’re also looking for the global community to think about the financing of these efforts. Indigenous Peoples globally are not a big part of the population — a few million compared to 9 billion now globally — but 80 per cent of the world’s remaining biodiversity are on lands that we manage and love. So it’s necessary to see some of that recognition and some of the financial power of the globe turn towards enabling that Indigenous-led conservation and stewardship. Because what we’re seeing is that when that happens, everybody benefits. We’re at critical points… if we’re on track to losing a million species, that’s not just going to be terrible for the environment. It’s going to be terrible for our societies and terrible for our economies and terrible for our food security and all of the other things. So that’s what we’re looking for out of COP — to save the world.

On conservation and economic development

There’s still a perception that somehow conservation displaces economic opportunities, which I don’t believe for a second. What I’ve seen is that conservation could become a keystone of a new type of economy in many of these regions. That’s why I think it’s really important that the government supports those ambitions of Indigenous peoples and invests in these areas.

I’m a forester and I’ve been responsible for my share of trees being cut down in my career. And I think that’s a good thing. Forests do have that capacity, but I think in many ways, the premise of forest planning has been flawed from the beginning. When you’re a forest company or you’re the Department of Forestry of a province, your mandate is to look at the forest and maximize the economic return that you get from that forest. But as an Innu forester, my first question when I look at the forest is what needs to stay for that forest to be able to make sure that I can continue to be Innu and the things that I depend on can continue to be who they are and what they are. Then what’s left over, then let’s figure out how to do that with the best standards globally. We’re Canada — we can choose the cadillac option of all of the options in forest management. So I do think that there is a need for the sector to rethink what has been essentially a luxury that it’s had because it’s operated in the world’s largest intact forest. When you do that, you have a sense of abundance and therefore, you’re not as worried about risk to those areas.

But, as an Indigenous person, I think about risk all the time. When we talk about the sacred gift or the sacred responsibility we receive from the creator, that’s the crux of it. We cannot affect our environment to a point where we’re hindering the opportunity for future generations. That’s why we have that instinct of saying what needs to stay as opposed to what can go in those forests. I do think that the forest sector needs to look at that. I do think that when it comes to species like caribou, we’re going to have to start to look at those choices. Let’s pick on the province of Quebec (my community that I’m a member of is in Quebec) — the premier says things like “we won’t sacrifice a job for a caribou.” I think that’s incredibly shortsighted and the wrong way of presenting the issue.

I’ve known so many people who work in the forest industry at all levels, and all of them love the bush. That’s part of who people are when you work in that industry. I don’t believe for a second that people are like these cartoon versions of humans that are just chomping away at the bush happily laughing as they’re chewing through. I think people want to do well by their environment. They want to do well by the forest. They trust professionals who are telling them that things are okay. But those professionals probably could do a little bit better about looking at the impact of the work over the long term — how these landscapes are truly managed and what the mosaic of the forest really looks like.

On what gives her hope

Oh, Guardians give me hope every day. It gives me hope when I hear mothers say “I hope my son or daughter will be a guardian when they grow up.” It gives me hope to know that there are people every day who are working hard to learn their language. There are more language speakers today than there were five years ago, than there were ten years ago. That’s exciting. The explosion of Indigenous crafting online — there’s like beaded earrings on every website and there’s moose hide camps… all of this is possible because people are returning to the land and able to source those materials and have the space and time to develop them. That artistic boom is incredibly hopeful to me. The fact that we’ve got more people going through post-secondary university, building and growing and asserting their leadership in the Indigenous community is exciting. We’ve had more women as Grand Chiefs than ever — let’s take my friend Mandy Gull-Masty of the Cree Nation of Quebec, she’s doing great work in that leadership. Also, seeing how young people are experiencing what the Elders have told us about, which is that when you go to the bush, you feel love. That’s when you think about the dark colonial period that we’ve just gone through in the 150 odd years — these kind of things are certainly what motivates me. And I hope that other Canadians also see hope in that. It’s not easy in these times when you turn on the news — you know, Ukraine and droughts and all of the things happening globally are kind of bombarded at you. But right here in Canada, that bright light of Indigenous assertion and power and, and care for our lands, I think is something that certainly gets me out of bed in the morning.

Listen to the full podcast here.