Resource Type
Abstract
- Indigenous Peoples in northern Alberta, including Dené and Cree of the Athabasca Chipewyan and Mikisew Cree First Nations (ACFN and MCFN), have been using Indigenous laws and stewardship principles to care for their homelands for thousands of years.
- Since ACFN and MCFN signed Treaty 8 with Canada in 1899, Alberta's land management policies and practices have resulted in the erosion of values that support their ways of life.
- Boreal caribou (tâdzié in Dené; sagow atihk in Cree; Rangifer tarandus) are a keystone species for the two Nations, but their habitat has been degraded by industrial development over several decades. Alberta's existing policy to protect and recover boreal caribou has not been followed, leading to precipitous population declines.
- The Tâdzié-Sagow Atihk Stewardship Plan re-establishes ACFN and MCFN ways of looking after tâdzié/sagow atihk by centring Dené and Cree laws and stewardship principles. It begins with an Elders Declaration, a legal document that asserts the rights and responsibilities of the Nations to make decisions for their homelands. An Elders Advisory Group supported the interpretation of knowledge shared by more than 200 Elders and Knowledge Holders into goals, principles and stewardship protocols. Our team verified the spatially explicit plan with Elders and Knowledge Holders, using consensus-based approaches adhering to Dené and Cree decision-making protocols.
- Here, we compare the Stewardship Plan and Alberta's current approaches to boreal caribou recovery against seven tenets of an Indigenous-centred, place-based approach to stewardship and identify ways in which Alberta's caribou recovery initiatives can learn from Dené and Cree laws and stewardship principles through centring relationships, Indigenous Rights and reciprocal responsibilities.
- Canada has made several relevant commitments that are aligned with supporting the implementation of the Tâdzié-Sagow Atihk Stewardship Plan. Given the important role that provincial and territorial governments in Canada play in land and resource management, and the ongoing failure to meaningfully protect and recover tâdzié/sagow atihk habitat in some of these jurisdictions, we discuss actions that Canada's federal government must take to enable the implementation of place-based, Indigenous-led stewardship plans across jurisdictions.
- Policy implications. Articulating Indigenous laws and stewardship practices through Indigenous stewardship plans, like the Tâdzié-Sagow Atihk Stewardship Plan, is an important step towards reconciliation and addressing cumulative effects. To fully realize the potential of these plans, we must shift the paradigm towards Indigenous stewardship and collectively achieve co-governance through shared decision-making and exercising self-determination.