scholarly journals Indigenous Processes of Consent: Repoliticizing Water Governance through Legal Pluralism

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 571 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Curran
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Environmental Flows ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Governance Processes

While international instruments and a few state governments endorse the “free, prior and informed consent” of Indigenous peoples in decision-making about the water in their traditional territories, most state water governance regimes do not recognize Indigenous water rights and responsibilities. Applying a political ecology lens to the settler colonialism of water governance exposes the continued depoliticizing personality of natural resources decision-making and reveals water as an abstract, static resource in law and governance processes. Most plainly, these decision-making processes inadequately consider environmental flows or cumulative effects and are at odds with both Indigenous governance and social-ecological approaches to watershed management. Using the example of groundwater licensing in British Columbia, Canada as reinforcing colonialism in water governance, this article examines how First Nations are asserting Indigenous rights in response to natural resource decision-making. Both within and outside of colonial governance processes they are establishing administrative and governance structures that express their water laws and jurisdiction. These structures include the Syilx, Nadleh Wut’en and Stellat’en creating standards for water, the Tsleil-Waututh and Stk’emlúpsemc te Secwépemc community assessments of proposed pipeline and mining facilities, and the First Nations of the Nicola Valley planning process based on their own legal traditions. Where provincial and federal environmental governance has failed, Indigenous communities are repoliticizing colonial decision-making processes to shift jurisdiction towards Indigenous processes that institutionalize responsibilities for and relationships with water.

scholarly journals "Anishinaabe time": temporalities and impact assessment in pipeline reviews

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sakihitowin Awasis
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Kinship Relations ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Temporal Modes ◽  
Indigenous Geographies ◽  
And Function

Indigenous ways of living that embrace multiple temporalities have been largely supplanted by a single, linear colonial temporality. Drawing on theoretical insights from Indigenous geographies and political ecology, this article considers how pipeline reviews come into being through contested temporalities and how dominant modes of time dispossess Indigenous peoples of self-determination in energy decision-making. In particular, Anishinaabe clan governance – a form of kinship that provides both social identity and function based on relations to animal nations – is undermined in colonial decision-making processes. Through analysis of documents from Canada's National Energy Board and interviews with Anishinaabe pipeline opponents, I explore tensions between Anishinaabe and settler temporalities reflected in the 2012-2017 Line 9 pipeline dispute in the Great Lakes region. These include divergent understandings of periodicities, timeframes, kinship relations, and the role of nonhuman temporalities in decision-making. Colonial temporal modes that have been imposed on Indigenous communities foreshorten timescales, depoliticize kinship relations, and discount nonhumans in decision-making – resulting in narrower and more short-sighted project reviews than Anishinaabe temporalities would support. I argue that the rich concepts of kinship, queerness, continuity, and prophecy embedded in Anishinaabe temporalities can inform strategies for decolonizing energy review processes and open possibilities for Indigenous self-determination in energy decision-making.Keywords: Anishinaabe studies, Two-Spirit, Indigenous geographies, temporalities, Indigenous knowledge, energy governance, pipeline, National Energy Board

scholarly journals Towards a Holistic Environmental Flow Regime in Chile: Providing for Ecosystem Health and Indigenous Rights

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 481-519
Author(s):  
Elizabeth J. Macpherson ◽  
Pia Weber Salazar
Keyword(s):  
Flow Regime ◽  
Environmental Flows ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Environmental Flow ◽  
Ecological Condition ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Regulatory Frameworks ◽  
Environmental Interests

AbstractA widespread response to the pressures placed on the ecological condition of rivers is the design and implementation of environmental flow regimes in domestic regulatory frameworks for water. Environmental interests in water are not confined to hydrological functioning but include relationships between water resources and human cultural and economic livelihoods, including those of Indigenous communities. Since the mid-1980s there has been some provision for environmental flows in Chilean law. However, the legal and policy requirements are limited in scope and have been poorly implemented by regulatory institutions. In this article we critically examine the treatment of environmental flows in Chilean legal and policy frameworks. We argue that there is an urgent need for a comprehensive minimum flow regime in Chile to protect the environmental qualities of rivers, which must also reflect and provide for Indigenous water rights and interests. The developing constitutional crisis in Chile, the most significant political crisis since the end of the Pinochet dictatorship (1973–90), highlights the need to revisit the sensitive and unresolved issues of water governance and equity.

scholarly journals “We Don’t Drink the Water Here”: The Reproduction of Undrinkable Water for First Nations in Canada

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1079 ◽  
Author(s):  
Warrick Baijius ◽  
Robert J. Patrick
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
First Nation ◽  
Governance Capacity ◽  
Water Problem ◽  
Source Water Protection ◽  
Current Water

First Nation communities in Canada are disproportionately plagued by undrinkable water and insufficient household sanitation. In addition, water resource management in First Nation communities has long been a technocratic and scientific mission controlled by state-led authorities. There has been limited engagement of First Nations in decision-making around water management and water governance. As such, problems associated with access to drinkable water and household sanitation are commonly positioned as hydrological or environmental problems (flood or drought) to be fixed by technical and engineering solutions. This apolitical reading has been criticized for not addressing the root cause of the First Nation water problem, but instead, of reproducing it. In this paper, an approach using political ecology will tease out key factors contributing to the current water problem in many First Nation communities. Using case study research set in source water protection planning, this paper explains how persistent colonial practices of the state continue to reproduce undrinkable water and insufficient household sanitation. Solutions to this ‘water problem’ require greater attention to First Nations water governance capacity and structures.

scholarly journals Traditional Knowledge: Considerations for Protecting Water in Ontario

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah McGregor
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Traditional Knowledge ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Regulatory Documents ◽  
Nations People ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
First Nations People ◽  
Ways Of Life

In Canada, the water crisis increasingly felt around the world is being experienced primarily in small, usually Indigenous, communities. At the heart of this issue lies an ongoing struggle to have Indigenous voices heard in the decision-making processes that affect their lives, lands, and waters. As part of ancient systems of Traditional Knowledge (TK), Indigenous people bear the knowledge and the responsibility to care for the waters upon which they depend for survival. A series of internationally developed documents has supported Indigenous peoples’ calls for increased recognition of the importance of TK in resolving environmental crises, including those involving water. Ontario provincial and Canadian federal governments have been developing legislative and regulatory documents to help fend off further water-related catastrophes within their jurisdictions. Despite such efforts, a number of barriers to the successful and appropriate involvement of TK in water management remain. Based on years of community-based and policy-related research with First Nations people involved in water-related undertakings, this article highlights progress made to date, and provides Indigenous viewpoints on what further steps need to be taken. Key among these steps are the need to restore and maintain Indigenous access to traditional territories and ways of life, and the requirement for mutually respectful collaboration between TK and Western science.

scholarly journals Improving water governance in New Zealand: stakeholder views of catchment management processes and plans

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Fenemor ◽  
Diarmuid Neilan ◽  
Will Allen ◽  
Shona Russell
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Scientific Understanding ◽  
Catchment Management ◽  
Stakeholder Views ◽  
Management Processes ◽  
Decision Making Processes

Water governance refers to the institutions, legislation and decision-making processes applied to develop and manage water resources. As pressures on water resources increase there has been a realisation that technocratically-driven water management has not achieved desired sustainability outcomes. Attention must be focused not only on better scientific understanding of water and its values and uses, but also on what constitutes good water governance.

scholarly journals Indigenous Influence and Engagement in Mining Permitting in British Columbia, Canada: Lessons for Sweden and Norway?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Allard ◽  
Deborah Curran
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
British Columbia ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Collaborative Decision Making ◽  
Indigenous Territories ◽  
Legislative Reforms ◽  
United Nations Declaration ◽  
Collaborative Decision

AbstractMine developments in Indigenous territories risk disrupting Indigenous cultures and their economies, including spiraling already high levels of conflict. This is the situation in Canada, Sweden, and Norway, as elsewhere, and is fostered by current state legal framework that reflect historical trajectories, although circumstances are gradually changing. Promising institutional changes have taken place in British Columbia (BC), Canada, with respect to new legislative reforms. Notably, new legislation from 2019 intends to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in the province, by promoting consent-based and collaborative decision-making mechanisms. New environmental assessment legislation is another example; this legislation includes early engagement, collaborative decision-making, and Indigenous-led assessments. The article’s aim is, first, to analyze how Indigenous communities can influence and engage in the mining permitting system of BC, and, secondly, to highlight the positive features of the BC system using a comparative lens to identify opportunities for Sweden and Norway regarding mining permitting and Indigenous rights. Applying a legal-scientific and comparative analysis, the article analyzes traditional legal sources. The article concludes that the strong points that the BC regime could offer the two Nordic countries are: the concept of reconciliation, incorporation of UNDRIP, the spectrum of consultation and engagement approaches, and the structure of environmental assessments. All three jurisdictions, however, struggle with balancing mine developments and securing Indigenous authority and influence over land uses in their traditional territories.

scholarly journals Water Ethics for First Nations and Biodiversity in Western Canada

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenichi Matsui
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Western Canada ◽  
Ethical Frameworks ◽  
Water Ethics

The increasing division of academic disciplines and bureaucracy has led to the compartmentalization of knowledge on water security, biodiversity, Indigenous rights, and traditional ecological knowledge policy. The attempt to re-establish links among these issues in academic studies can shed light on integrated water governance and the establishment of water ethics. In order to facilitate this effort, this paper discusses three propositions: (1) the establishment of strong legal and ethical frameworks is needed; (2) policymakers and scientists alike need to recognize links between biodiversity and water security; and (3) they need to improve cross-cultural understanding and communication in using the traditional knowledge of Indigenous peoples and local people. This article examines these issues in Western Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba) because this region has invited cross-cultural and inter-jurisdictional conflicts since the twentieth century.

scholarly journals Reconciling social justice and ecosystem-based management in the wake of a successful predator reintroduction

2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (6) ◽  
pp. 1031-1039
Author(s):  
Evelyn Pinkerton ◽  
Anne K. Salomon ◽  
Frank Dragon
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Northwest Coast ◽  
Sea Otter ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Reintroduced Species ◽  
Ecosystem Based Management ◽  
Species At Risk Act

The reintroduction of a previously extirpated predator can engender conflict when the reintroduced species depletes customary fisheries to which indigenous communities have constitutionally protected rights. In the case of sea otter (Enhydra lutris) recovery on the west coast of North America, not only is Canada’s Species at Risk Act in conflict with Indigenous rights, but it also illuminates gaps in the principles of ecosystem-based management (EBM), such as equity and social justice. Broadly, we ask in this paper how EBM might be advanced if Indigenous communities were viewed as components of ecosystems having rights to a sustainable future equal to other components. Specifically, we explore evidence of sea otter management among precontact Northwest Coast societies and a contemporary co-managed system proposed by the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations that would combine research with refinement of traditional hunting practices. We show that barriers persist through lack of knowledge of past controlled hunts, ignorance of recent experiences of successful community-based clam management, distrust of Indigenous capacity to self-manage or co-manage a hunt, and divergent values among actors.

scholarly journals Political ecology of movement: trekking and territoriality among the Kayapó

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 108
Author(s):  
Laura Zanotti
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
General Pattern ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Brazilian Amazon ◽  
Space And Place ◽  
Spatial Practices ◽  
The Past ◽  
Territorial Control

One key strand of political ecology inquiry draws attention to different scalar aspects of territorial control and environmental governance, especially as they relate to inequity, power, and marginality in the rural South. Simultaneously, in the past several decades scholars have argued for a more meaningful engagement with space and place, as global forces of capitalism and geographies of difference make and unmake places in surprising and often violent ways. In this article, I interweave political ecology and anthropology of space and place approaches to territorial practices in the Brazilian Amazon to demonstrate how multiscalar politics of territorial retention and use are layered alongside local, spatial practices. In the Brazilian Amazon, indigenous rights are closely linked to the territorial demarcation and protection of federally defined Indigenous Lands. To that end, a general pattern has been observed across Amazonia that colonization and state-making agendas regarding territorial control have coincided to an increased sedentism of indigenous peoples. This narrative elides the present and ongoing importance local ideas about territories and place have for indigenous communities. Ethnographic data from research with the Kayapó, an indigenous group in Brazil, is presented to draw attention to the complexities of the local responses to the past several decades of change that have resulted in a federally defined territorial homeland and shifting spatial practices within those lands. The Kayapó response is a particularly well-suited case study for this type of analysis, as the tribe is known ethnographically for their fissioning and trekking patterns. I show that movement, mobility, and travel still figure into everyday practices in meaningful ways. While far from homogenous, movement through the landscape is part of responding to current demands to their ways of life. I also argue that travel also affirms the Kayapó notions of knowing (kukradjà), beauty (mê), and strength (tycht).Keywords: political ecology, Amazonia, travel, territoriality, space and place

scholarly journals Water Insecurity in Ontario First Nations: An Exploratory Study on Past Interventions and the Need for Indigenous Water Governance

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 717
Author(s):  
Rachel Arsenault
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
First Nation ◽  
Indigenous Research ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Indigenous Perspectives

In 2018, I began an exploratory study involving fourteen Ontario First Nation participants that examined some First Nation water security challenges and opportunities. In acknowledgment that many of the government assessments, reports, and investments to date have failed, this study aims to determine the causes of the water crisis as well as potential solutions by sharing Indigenous perspectives and recommendations on water governance and security. During the study, Indigenous participants were asked interview questions regarding their water and wastewater systems, their historical and current water security conditions, and if they had recommendations for achieving water security in First Nations. The analysis from these interviews demonstrated that there were ten different themes for water security and insecurity in First Nation communities as well as a set of four recommendations shared by the fourteen participants. The participant recommendations are: (1) that Traditional Knowledge (TK) and Indigenous laws be included in water security initiatives and water governance; (2) that provincial and federal governments work with Indigenous communities on their water security challenges and opportunities; (3) that First Nation leadership develops and implements community water protection plans; (4) that Indigenous communities establish an oversight committee or body for monitoring tourist ventures and extractive development projects such as mining on their territories. This paper will also discuss how an Indigenous research paradigm can be applied during the research process to ensure that the information is captured from the Indigenous perspectives of the participants.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document