“We monitor by living here”: community-driven actualization of a social-ecological monitoring program based in the knowledge of Indigenous harvesters

Abstract

Researchers and government agencies are increasingly embracing Indigenous knowledge to inform ecological monitoring. However, there are few detailed accounts of designing monitoring methods based in Indigenous knowledge to meet Indigenous objectives. This research details the design of a program initiated by the Gitga’at First Nation to document the knowledge and observations of their harvesters as a contemporary monitoring initiative. We, Gitga’at and academic researchers, first conducted informal interviews with knowledge holders to gauge interest and to establish community objectives. We then convened community meetings and workshops to design methods to document harvesters’ knowledge and observations. We tested and revised these methods (a post-harvest season interview guide, and a logbook to be completed by harvesters) over the course of two harvest seasons. Semi-structured interviews were more successful than the logbooks in meeting multiple community monitoring objectives. However, we were encouraged by younger participants’ suggestions to develop a digital app based on the logbook to encourage future participation. Our work can serve as a guide to other Indigenous peoples and collaborators who wish to leverage the knowledge of their land and (or) sea users, and the methods we develop are available to adapt to other cultural, social-ecological, and political contexts.

Indigenous Systems of Management for Culturally and Ecologically Resilient Pacific Salmon (Oncorhynchusspp.) Fisheries

“…Reconnecting salmon harvesting with stock assessment using terminal and selective in-river fisheries can unify monitoring, management, and harvest under the umbrella of local management, and encourage fisher participation in resource stewardship. This would bolster the legitimacy and resilience of fisheries management by emphasizing the observations and values of local communities, generating much needed biological data, and supporting governance frameworks that empower local decision-making (Moller et al 2004 , Augerot and Smith 2010 , Angel 2017 , Thompson et al 2019 ).…”

Culturally Driven Monitoring: The Importance of Traditional Ecological Knowledge Indicators in Understanding Aquatic Ecosystem Change in the Northwest Territories’ Dehcho Region

“…There is increasing interest in community-based monitoring (CBM) in many parts of the world, including northern communities in Canada [3,38,58]. Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is also increasingly recognized as an important source of knowledge for learning about and understanding complex ecosystem change [14,59].…”

Indigenous food harvesting as social–ecological monitoring: A case study with the Gitga'at First Nation

“…These tools included a harvesters' logbook and a post-harvest season interview guide that would be used to guide semi-structured interviews. For a more detailed discussion of the steps taken to initiate, design, and test the Gitga'at monitoring programme see Thompson et al (2019 Gitga'at harvesters, included questions to prompt participants to speak about harvest intensity, whether their needs for traditional foods were met, changes in the abundance and quality of traditional foods, trading and sharing activities, as well as changes in weather patterns, in the landscape and/or water (Thompson et al, 2019).…”

“…The purpose of this paper is to showcase an example of autonomous Indigenous monitoring in northern British Columbia, Canada. Based on the conversations and interviews conducted as part of developing a monitoring programme based in Indigenous knowledge in collaboration with researchers from the University of Victoria (Thompson et al., 2019), we outline a conceptual framework—a set of interrelated concepts and their relationships (Jabareen, 2009)—which illustrates how Gitga'at people monitor their territory through continued use and occupancy. As with other Indigenous peoples (e.g.…”