Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas
As the world grapples with climate change mitigation and species bio-diversity loss, a new approach has emerged to help deal with these environmental challenges: Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs). IPCAs have gained prominence in Canada and around the world in places like USA, Australia, New Zealand, Costa Rica, and Brazil. They are Indigenous-managed or co-managed, elevate Indigenous rights and responsibilities, and represent a long-term commitment to conservation. IPCAs are not just about applying practical conservation practice through an Indigenous lens, they are also about reconciliation, Indigenous self-determination, and a fundamental shift to how all people can change their relationship to the natural world.
IPCAs were recognized in 2017 by the Government of Canada as a means of reaching Canada’s Aichi Targets under the International Convention on Biological Diversity, and endorsed by the 2018 Indigenous Circle of Experts in their publication, We Rise Together – Achieving Pathway to Canada Target 1 through the creation of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas in the spirit and practice of reconciliation. This publication, and its resulting recommendations, have steadily been adopted across the country, with large IPCAs being declared in British Columbia on Tla-o-qui-aht territories, Thaidene Nëné in Denedeh, and on Tłı˛cho˛ lands in the Northwest Territories. Hybrid governance models are being pursued by Indigenous Nations in partnership with government and non-governmental organizations, such as the Gwaii Haanas Land-SeaPeople Management Plan and Kluskap Wilderness Area in Unama’ki, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
There is a lot to learn about IPCAs and what it could mean for advancing environmental, social, economic, and cultural goals of our shared future with Indigenous communities. You are invited to learn more at a featured presentation on IPCAs by Jessica Hum, an Indigenous land-relationship planner with Talking Circle Consultants, to be held at St Mary of the Incarnation Church on July 26. This event is hosted by the Metchosin Learning Group and Habitat Acquisition Trust.
Co-authored by Jessica Hum, Peter Ord, and Morgan Yates, published in the Metchosin Muse, Summer 2023.