Indigenous knowledge in sustainable forest management: Community-based approaches achieve greater success

Abstract

Forests continue to play a critical part in the spiritual and cultural life of Aboriginal people. In turn, Aboriginal people are striving to revitalize their role in maintaining a healthy relationship with these ecosystems. In Canada, the past two centuries have seen Aboriginal people largely excluded from forest management activities. This has begun to gradually change due to ongoing Aboriginal efforts in the courts as well as to national and international recognition of the potential contribution of Indigenous Knowledge to sustainable forest management. Such change is bringing about new opportunities for the meaningful involvement of Aboriginal people and Indigenous Knowledge in sustainable forest management activities. The increasing participation of Aboriginal people in sustainable forest management is both called for and reflected in various forest policies, practices and programs in Canada. While this represents a positive development, the degree and type of Aboriginal involvement called for have thus far generally been unsatisfactory from an Aboriginal perspective. Interviews conducted with both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal participants in Ontario's new forest management planning process indicate that this recently developed process has nonetheless yielded some hopeful results in terms of Aboriginal involvement in certain instances. It was found that both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal interview respondents most often described the Aboriginal consultation process to be a success where control over the nature and methods of sharing of information was relinquished to the participating Aboriginal communities. Contexts and implications of these findings are briefly discussed. Key words: Traditional ecological knowledge, native values mapping, Aboriginal forestry, sustainable communities