Sustainable Aboriginal Communities Research Area

 

What is Sustainable Aboriginal Communities research?

• Sustainable Aboriginal communities research focuses on developing and evaluating institutional structures and processes leading to sustainable Aboriginal forest dependent communities.
• It also focuses on developing criteria and indicators for Aboriginal Peoples in the context of sustainable forest management. This includes developing methods for incorporating Aboriginal values, rights, knowledge and management systems into sustainable forest management.

 

What are the objectives of the Sustainable Aboriginal Communities research program?

• To determine methods for integrating Aboriginal institutions, values, knowledge, needs, and rights (including treaty rights) into sustainable forest management.
• To develop criteria and indicators for Aboriginal peoples and their social and economic development.
• To devise and evaluate policy and institutional structures to foster sustainable Aboriginal communities.

 

Who conducts the SFMN's Sustainable Aboriginal Communities research?

The SFMN uses a rigorously competitive annual application process to award funding in support of its research program. All SFMN researchers, including those in the sustainable Aboriginal communities research area, are among Canada's best academic researchers from a wide cross-section of Canada's universities.

Currently, the sustainable Aboriginal communities research area leader is Dr. Ron Trosper of the University of British Columbia. As well, a vital component of SFMN research is graduate students who conduct research in association with these regional teams and SFMN partners from the forest industry, provincial and federal governments, and Aboriginal communities and organizations.

 

What kinds of research are Sustainable Aboriginal Communities researchers doing?

The topics currently being addressd by researchers include: 

• Aboriginal forest tenures;
• The role of traditional knowledge and values in sustainable forest management; 
• Aboriginal forest values and perceptions, and traditional land use and occupancy; and
• The development of criteria and indicators of Aboriginal community sustainability. 

 

Suggested reading

For an overview of First Nations and sustainable forest management in Canada read Just another stakeholder? First Nations and sustainable forest management in Canada's boreal forest by M. Stevenson and J. Webb (Chapter 3 in Towards Sustainable Management of the Boreal Forest, published by the NRC Research Press, 2003).

To review one Aboriginal community's approach to criteria and indicators for sustainability read Putting the Community back into Community-Based Resource Management: A Criteria and Indicators Approach to Sustainability by David Natcher and Cliff Hickey (Human Organization, 2002).

For an overview of the role of indigenous people in forest management read Strengthening the role of indigenous people and their communities in the context of sustainable forest management by Dr. M. Robinson (1999; SFMN research report available on the SFMN website).

 

Which Aboriginal groups are working with the SFM Network at the present time?

SFM Network partners include:

• Heart Lake First Nation
• Treaty 8 First Nations of Alberta
• Moose Cree First Nation
• Kamloops Indian Band
• Kaska Tribal Council
• Metis National Council

In addition, Network research and networking activities have included collaboration with more than 25 other Aboriginal groups across the country.

 

For more information contact:

   Marc Stevenson
   Aboriginal Research and Networking Manager
   marc.stevenson@sfmnetwork.ca
   780-492-2476