Decolonial conservation: establishing Indigenous Protected Areas for future generations in the face of extractive capitalism

Abstract

Extractive capitalism has long been the driving force of settler colonialism in Canada, and continues to threaten the sovereignty, lands and waters of Indigenous nations across the country. While ostensibly counterposed to extractivism, state-led conservation has similarly served to alienate Indigenous peoples from their territories, often for capitalist gain. Recognizing the inadequacy of the colonial-capitalist conservation paradigm to redress the biodiversity crisis, scholars in political ecology increasingly call for radical, convivial alternatives rooted in equity and justice. Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) are one such alternative, representing a paradigm shift from colonial to Indigenous-led conservation that reinvigorates Indigenous knowledge and governance systems. Since the Indigenous Circle of Experts finalized a report in 2018 on how IPCAs could contribute to Canada's conservation targets and reconciliation efforts, an increasing number of Indigenous stewardship initiatives across the country have been declared as IPCAs. These initiatives are assertions of Indigenous sovereignty, inherent rights, and responsibilities to their territories, as well as movements to rejuvenate biocultural conservation. Although Canada is supporting IPCAs through certain initiatives, the country's extractivist development model along with jurisdictional inconsistencies are undermining the establishment and long-term viability of many IPCAs. This paper explores two instances where Indigenous governments have established, or are establishing, IPCAs as novel strategies for land and water protection within long histories of resistance to colonial-capitalist exploitation. We argue that there is a paradoxical tension in Canadian conservation whereby Indigenous-led conservation is promoted in theory, while being undermined in practice. IPCAs offer glimpses of productive, alternative sustainabilities that move away from the colonial-capitalist paradigm, but are being challenged by governments and industries that still fail to respect Indigenous jurisdiction.

The potential for Indigenous-led conservation in urbanized landscapes in Canada

“…Canada struggles with a particularly difficult history of colonial conservation as many parks and protected areas, including in urban regions, were established against the wishes of local Indigenous Peoples, leading to the forced removal of communities in some cases and alienation from important food sources, cultural sites, and livelihood activities (Dominguez and Luoma, 2020;Youdelis et al, 2021). In this paper, we have argued that Indigenous-led conservation, including urban IPCAs, overcomes many of the institutional problems of colonial models of conventional park planning and provides opportunities for Indigenous leadership in urban conservation grounded in rights and responsibilities and reflective of traditional knowledge systems and biocultural priorities.…”

“…Other studies have argued that urban parks are often not culturally representative or safe spaces for Indigenous Peoples and other marginalized communities, particularly inner-city youth, furthering the process of erasure and dispossession with settler colonialism (Hatala et al, 2020;Hernandez and Vogt, 2022;Mullenbach et al, 2022). Canadian parks, including in urban centers, most often fail to acknowledge Indigenous Peoples' ongoing custodianship of the land, necessitating structural changes to ensure the inclusivity of Indigenous rights, knowledge, customary use, governance and environmental stewardship systems (Youdelis et al, 2021;Mansuy et al, 2023;Townsend and Roth, 2023).…”

The violence of disavowing Indigenous governance: exposing the colonial politics of "development" and FPIC in the Caribbean

“…corporations) and a process that is applicable to a wide array of development agendas that purport to promote economic growth. This includes activities related to resource extraction, transportation networks, renewable energy infrastructure, conservation efforts, and ecotourism, amongst others (Youdelis et al, 2021). While FPIC has gained a tremendous amount of international traction with respect to securing rights, mitigating environmental damage, and attenuating deforestation, numerous critical voices contend that the protocol might be best thought of as an imperfect tool or even trap that, at times, can be used to shield Indigenous groups and peasant communities from development aggression and the driving forces of capital accumulation (Dunlap, 2018;Schilling-Vacaflor & Flemmer, 2020).…”

Indigenous and decolonial futures: Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas as potential pathways of reconciliation

“…While this study pays attention to reconciliation in an environmental context, some of the findings may be generalizable to reconciliation in other sectors and to other Commonwealth or settler colonial states where reconciliation discourse is mobilized. Drawing on a political ecological approach, this article contributes to the growing bodies of literature on IPCAs in North America (Murray and King, 2012;Carroll, 2014;Murray and Burrows, 2017;Tran et al, 2020a;Youdelis et al, 2021;Mansuy et al, 2023) and reconciliation in the context of conservation (Curran, 2017;Finegan, 2018;Moola and Roth, 2019;Zurba et al, 2019;Artelle et al, 2021;Littlechild et al, 2021;M's1t No'kmaq et al, 2021;Vogel et al, 2022).…”