Aboriginal Rights and Cumulative Effects: Are Woodland Caribou the New Canaries in the Not-so-proverbial Coal Mine?

Resource Type
Authors
Christopher Devlin
Resource Date:
2011

About: 

In October 2010, there was a North American Caribou Workshop held in Winnipeg, at which over 400 people discussed traditional Aboriginal knowledge and perspectives about caribou alongside western-science based research. First Nation representatives made up over half of the participants. The discussions focused on ensuring the long-term persistence of caribou in North America. As Suzuki and Moola noted:

Scientists tell us that protecting large, interconnected expanses of boreal habitat is crucial to preventing further losses and to eventually recovering caribou populations. But we can only develop a plan to solve the caribou crisis with full participation of and collaboration with Aboriginal people and their governments.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the record does not show much collaboration between Aboriginal peoples and governments as each try to come to terms with the decline of caribou in their regions and territories. How First Nations and governments have responded to the decline of the caribou varies considerably. This paper examines litigation that has resulted from such responses in British Columbia, Alberta, and the NWT.