Pilot Project on the Sustainable Use of Plants and Animals and the Protection of Associated Traditional Knowledge (Environment Canada Biodiversity Convention Office)
This project seeks to identify linkages and engage Aboriginal communities to build capacity for participation in the Access and Benefit-Sharing initiative of Canada under the Convention on Biological Diversity. Two communities have been chosen as pilots, the Blood Tribe/Kainawa and the Mushkegowuk Environmental Research Centre. The Biodiversity Convention Office will provide support over one-year terms such as facilitating meetings among communities, international exchanges, and modest project funding such as protocol development and other initiatives.
As a joint management institution with equal number of Cree and provincial seats, the Cree-Québec Forestry Board is currently testing methods for involvement of Cree trappers in advance of forest planning. Participants in this project include representatives of the Forest and Wildlife sections of the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Wildlife, Cree trappers, the Waswanipi Model Forest, and forest companies. Through local Joint Working Groups, the Cree tallymen participate directly in designating special management areas and conditions. In early 2006, the Board submitted advice to the Québec Minister of Wildlife and Natural Resources, based on the findings of a pilot project to protect wildlife habitat.
The intent of the Soaring Eagle pilot project was to design and deliver a ten-week community based environmental education program – on a year-to-year basis – for Aboriginal youth (ages 18-30) in eastern Manitoba, by combining a sound understanding of the underlying principles behind Western Science and those of Traditional Ecological Knowledge.
This is a case of the First Nations building considerable technical capacity for managing data (both ecological and cultural) and building industry partnerships for using that data to shape forest management plans. Unfortunately, at present there seems to be no good synopsis of the specifics about how TK is used in the planning process.
"The purpose of the Tl’azt’en Nation-UNBC CURA project is to enhance the capacity of Tl’azt’en Nation to effectively engage in culturally and ecologically sustainable natural resource management, and to enhance the capacity of UNBC researchers and their students to effectively contribute to First Nation community needs through collaborative research."
The CURAs are a program of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The Tl'azt'en First Nation and the John Prince Research Forest of the University of Northern B.C. successfully applied for this funding to begin in 2003, with funding of approximately $900,000 over 5 years.
