Essential components and pathways for developing Indigenous community‐based monitoring: Examples from the Canadian oil sands region

Abstract

Monitoring in the Oil Sands Region of Alberta, Canada". The series documents the history of monitoring in the region and critically reviews a synthesis of monitoring results published within key environmental theme areas to identify patterns of consistent responses or effects, significant gaps in knowledge and recommendations for improved monitoring, assessment and management of the region Acknowledgements: This work was funded under the Oil Sands Monitoring Program (OSM) but does not necessarily reflect the position of the OSM. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Remote Sensing of Wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region of North America

“…Furthermore, wetlands directly influence wet area and riparian vegetation zone extents [8], hydrological regimes [9], and biodiversity [10]. In addition, wetlands often provide locations for human recreation and incubate socio-cultural values through hunting and gathering activities within native communities [11]. Wetlands have also been found to play a significant role in climate change mitigation [12][13][14][15].…”

An integrated knowledge synthesis of regional ambient monitoring in Canada's oil sands

“…Since 2010, the intensity of interest has increased across multiple stakeholders, particularly as multiple program reviews criticized the then-existing monitoring approach, highlighting the need for greater attention from industry and the federal and provincial governments (e.g., AEMP, 2011;Gosselin et al, 2010). Soon after, several large-scale monitoring initiatives were launched, including the joint Canada and Alberta Governments' Oil Sands Monitoring Program (OSM;Dubé et al, 2021;Environment Canada, 2011), efforts by OS companies to collaboratively address collective issues (COSIA, 2012), government policy development and implementation such as the Lower Athabasca Regional Plan (LARP; Government of Alberta, 2012), the raising of concerns and sponsoring of research by neighboring Indigenous communities (e.g., Candler et al, 2010;Davidson & Spink, 2018), the development of Indigenous communitybased monitoring (ICBM) programs (Beausoleil et al, 2021), as well as focused research that has been both industryfunded (e.g., Hall et al, 2012;Shotyk et al, 2014) and independently funded (e.g., Kelly et al, 2009;Timoney & Lee, 2009). The result of this investment has been hundreds of published papers, datasets, reports, and other media-much from the past decade-examining potential environmental impacts of the OS industry, but few consolidated outputs.…”

“…Individual publications may be counted in multiple boxes. References associated with each box are listed in Supporting Information Appendix S1 models, such as air and water quality analyses (Beausoleil et al, 2021). Indigenous communities have monitored their lands through their oral histories for centuries.…”

“…We have reported on this review in this special series by organizing the material into overlapping environmental themes of atmospheric emissions and atmospheric deposition (Horb et al, 2021), surface water and aquatics , and terrestrial biology (Roberts et al, 2021b). We have also presented an introduction to environmental monitoring in the OSR (Dubé et al, 2021) and a critical review of ICBM programs (Beausoleil et al, 2021). Considered together, these documents report on the breadth and depth of knowledge of environmental condition in the OSR, identify both accumulations and gaps in knowledge, and provide guidance where efforts should align to increase knowledge acquisition within the region's ambient monitoring programs.…”

“…In this special series, we have expanded this model within several monitoring foci, including air (Horb et al, 2021), water , land (Roberts et al, 2021b), and ICBM (Beausoleil et al, 2021), prior to recombining these media-specific models into a programscale model that we also use to summarize monitoring effort. Note that the valued components identified in this program-scale conceptual model are an interpretation of community and ecosystem values, and are still being validated through ongoing dialog with Indigenous communities and other stakeholders in the OSR (Dubé et al, 2018).…”