Implications of Tenure Insecurity for Aboriginal Land Use in Canada

Natcher, David; Hickey, Clifford G.; Nelson, Mark A.; Davis, Susan Schaefer

doi:10.17730/humo.68.3.60pp7583m183t1t1

Cited by 14 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Booth and Skelton (2011) documented the tensions existing in a British Columbian community that sought to reconcile traditional values with roles in commercial forest harvesting. Natcher and Hickey (2009) examined two cases in northern Canada, finding that although rights were recognized by a recent treaty, community members felt that their access to land was being overshadowed by the interests of others. Kant and Brubacher (2008) evaluated the relative importance of expectations about forestry in five First Nations communities in Ontario, finding that rights issues were most important, followed by environmental values, participation in decision-making, and economic benefits, in that order.…”

Section: Forest Rights Forest Governance and Forest Benefitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Indigenous Peoples' Expectations for Forestry in New Brunswick: Are Rights Enough?

Wyatt

Kessels

Laerhoven

2015

Society & Natural Resources

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This article considers how competing interpretations of rights upon forestland affect indigenous peoples' ability to derive benefits from forests, using interviews and an evaluation exercise in 13 First Nations communities in New Brunswick, Canada.We asked first what First Nations expect from provincial forest governance arrangements, and second, what is preventing them from attaining their expectations? Informants attached greatest importance to rights and environmental protection, but tangible outcomes fall far short of expectations. Economic benefits are promoted by the government, but are least important for informants and results are mediocre. Undertaking an access analysis, we observe that governance arrangements do not deliver the benefits sought by First Nations, that control mechanisms provide limited participation in governance, and that power remains firmly with government and private industry. We conclude that rights alone do not enable First Nations to access benefits and that governance arrangements do not provide certainty for sustainable management.

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Section: Forest Rights Forest Governance and Forest Benefitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Indigenous Peoples' Expectations for Forestry in New Brunswick: Are Rights Enough?

Wyatt

Kessels

Laerhoven

2015

Society & Natural Resources

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“…Commercial interests, including multinational corporations, promoting fossil fuel and biofuel development often have pushed aside local indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities reliant on land resources but lacking tenure security (Survival International 2008, Natcher et al 2009. However, what if the commercial interest is a rooted, indigenous corporation with its own forest capital?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Biomass Energy and Indigenous Cultural Models of Well-being in an Alaska Forest Ecosystem

Sikka¹,

Thornton²,

Worl³

2013

E&S

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ABSTRACT. Oil-dependent indigenous communities in remote regions of Alaska and elsewhere are facing an unprecedented crisis. With the cost of fuel and transport skyrocketing, energy costs are crippling local economies, leading to increasing outmigration and concern for their very existence in the future. What can be done to address this energy crisis, and promote energy security, sustainability and resilience in rural forest communities? We examine the potential of developing a sustainable biomass-energy industry in Southeast Alaska, home to nearly 16,000 Alaska Natives in a dozen rural and two urban communities within the United States' largest national forest: The Tongass. Although the potential for biomass energy has long been touted, realization of the opportunity has been catalyzed only recently as part of a model of sustainable development being enacted by the region's largest Native corporation, Sealaska, and its subsidiary, Haa Aaní ("Our Land") L.L.C. In this paper we examine the unique nature of Alaska Native corporations and their potential as engines of sustainable development, particularly through Sealaska's emerging cultural model of sustainability in relation to social-ecological well-being. We assess the economic, ecological, and atmospheric emissions parameters of a wood-biomass energy industry at various scales according to the "triple bottom line" of sustainability. Finally, we address what additional policy and support measures may be necessary to nurture the successful transition to biomass energy at a sustainable scale to support rural indigenous communities, a more resilient, renewable energy system, and a lower carbon footprint.

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“…Consequences of ongoing land dispossession were strongly emphasised in the tenure insecurity literature. This literature highlighted the problems many Indigenous people faced in the context of uncertain land rights, and therefore, access to and use of, ancestral lands [ 75 ]. It found that if Indigenous people are not secure in access to and use of their lands, then resource competition can result in both conflict and indiscriminate use of resources [ 76 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is Hunting Still Healthy? Understanding the Interrelationships between Indigenous Participation in Land-Based Practices and Human-Environmental Health

King

Furgal

2014

IJERPH

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Indigenous participation in land-based practices such as hunting, fishing, ceremony, and land care has a long history. In recent years, researchers and policy makers have advocated the benefits of these practices for both Indigenous people and the places they live. However, there have also been documented risks associated with participation in these activities. Environmental change brought about by shifts in land use, climate changes, and the accumulation of contaminants in the food chain sit alongside equally rapid shifts in social, economic and cultural circumstances, preferences and practices. To date, the literature has not offered a wide-ranging review of the available cross-disciplinary or cross-ecozone evidence for these intersecting benefits and risks, for both human and environmental health and wellbeing. By utilising hunting as a case study, this paper seeks to fill part of that gap through a transdisciplinary meta-analysis of the international literature exploring the ways in which Indigenous participation in land-based practices and human-environmental health have been studied, where the current gaps are, and how these findings could be used to inform research and policy. The result is an intriguing summary of disparate research that highlights the patchwork of contradictory understandings, and uneven regional emphasis, that have been documented. A new model was subsequently developed that facilitates a more in-depth consideration of these complex issues within local-global scale considerations. These findings challenge the bounded disciplinary and geographic spaces in which much of this work has occurred to date, and opens a dialogue to consider the importance of approaching these issues holistically.

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Implications of Tenure Insecurity for Aboriginal Land Use in Canada

Cited by 14 publications

References 16 publications

Indigenous Peoples' Expectations for Forestry in New Brunswick: Are Rights Enough?

Indigenous Peoples' Expectations for Forestry in New Brunswick: Are Rights Enough?

Sustainable Biomass Energy and Indigenous Cultural Models of Well-being in an Alaska Forest Ecosystem

Is Hunting Still Healthy? Understanding the Interrelationships between Indigenous Participation in Land-Based Practices and Human-Environmental Health

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