Setting tiered management triggers using a values-based approach in an Indigenous-led cumulative effects management system

Abstract

Indigenous-led cumulative effects assessment and management (CEM) has emerged in recent years as a proactive and strategic approach for addressing the cumulative impacts of industrial development and other activities. CEM identifies and monitors high-priority values and stressors and develops management strategies to restore and improve the condition of those values. As Indigenous-led CEM evolves, it faces a major challenge in linking cumulative effects assessment and monitoring information to effective management actions. One promising approach to address this challenge is the use of tiered management triggers, which are a series of progressive markers associated with specified degrees of change in the condition of a value, designed to reflect increasing levels of concern about the value. These types of limits or thresholds inform decision-makers that they need to act, or act more intensively, to restore values to an acceptable state. In this paper, we present a novel method for setting tiered management triggers that was developed in an Indigenous-led CEM program. We co-developed this six-step method with the Metlakatla First Nation (located on the northwest coast of British Columbia, Canada) and applied it in a series of community workshops to select triggers for three values in the Metlakatla CEM Program: butter clams, housing, and food, social, and ceremonial activity. The method draws from participatory frameworks including structured decision-making and collaborative planning. The workshop results show that management triggers can successfully be established through a values-focused process of social choice, involving community engagement and informed by relevant scientific research and other knowledge.