User:Oceanflynn/sandbox/Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (Canada)

Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs), known as Indigenous Protected Areas or Tribal Parks "are lands and waters where Indigenous governments have the primary role in protecting and conserving ecosystems through Indigenous laws, governance and knowledge systems." IPCA's are "closed to development and managed with the participation of local Indigenous people."

Background
Support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) was a key recommendation of the 112-page Indigenous Circle of Experts(ICE) March 2018 report entitled "We Rise Together" The report was released at the Northern Regional Gathering on Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) was held on March 22, 2018 Aurora Village, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

Canada made an international commitment to "preserving 17 per cent of all lands and inland waters by 2020".

In the FY2018 budget, the federal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau included $1.3-billion under "Nature Legacy" for conservation. According to the federal government, this represented "an important step toward reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples".

Edéhzhíe Indigenous Protected Area
The Edéhzhíe Indigenous Protected Area in Fort Providence, Northwest Territories, was declared as an IPCA by leaders of the Dehcho First Nations and the Federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna. The protected area encompasses a 14,250 km2 plateau west of Great Slave Lake.

Background
As a result of negotiations that the Dehcho had begun in 1998 towards the designation of the area as protected, the federal government under then Prime Minister, xxx, "agreed to prohibit development" until 2010. In 2010, The Canadian federal government under then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper, paid for a "an assessment of below-ground resources and opened it up to mineral exploration." "The Dehcho took the government to court." "In 2012, a judge ruled that the government should not have allowed subsurface exploration without consultation, and Ottawa returned to the talks."

Dehcho K'ehodi Stewardship and Guardians Program
In 2014 three workshops were held in the region to initiate the the Dehcho K'éhodi program. By 2016 the communities employed several guardians. According to Dahti Tsetso, director of the Dehcho K'ehodi Stewardship and Guardians Program and "resource management co-ordinator for the Dehcho First Nations", they "monitor the land, mentor younger generations about how to use it wisely, record observations, and could eventually help with enforcement. Ms. Tsetso said there was "consensus around the current boundary", which is reduced from the original area that would have protected 25,000 km2. Tsetso told Globe and Mail's Gloria Galloway that, the newly designated area, will give the communities "some capacity to start addressing the goals of our communities and approaching protection in ways that make sense to them, that helps our communities approach stewardship in a meaningful way."

IPCA Management
Under a partnership between a coalition of Dene and Métis people and the federal government, a board of directors which includes a "local Indigenous conservation group known as the Dehcho K’ehodi guardians, and the Canadian Wildlife Service, will manage the newly-established IPCA.

Responses
Valerie Courtois, director of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative, said that while the Northwest Territories needs development, the creation of the Edéhzhíe IPCA is "development of another kind. [It] is ...the expression of some important values that could become opportunities such as ecotourism or guardian jobs...As Indigenous peoples...we tend to approach land in a way that we ask the question 'what is going to allow us to continue to be who we are?' rather than looking at the resources and saying 'Well, we’re got to leave ourselves open.'""