A Canadian Indigenous organization is launching a new campaign to raise awareness and funds for the expansion of programs designed to grow and deepen Indigenous-led nature conservancy and stewardship initiatives across the country.
The Lands Needs Guardians campaign launched Wednesday aims to attract long-term investments in Indigenous Guardians and other Indigenous environmental stewardship programs, said Valérie Courtois, director of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative which has spearheaded the campaign.
“There is a lot more happening on the ground, the Indigenous Guardians programs have doubled in the last few years and there are more and more communities that are asking for it, planning for it and creating various programs,” Courtois told Radio Canada International in a phone interview.
‘Eyes on the ground’
About 60 Indigenous Guardians programs care for traditional territories across the country, Courtois said.
Guardians are employed as the “eyes on the ground” in Indigenous territories monitoring ecological health, maintaining cultural sites and protecting sensitive areas and species, Courtois said.
Indigenous Guardians programs also help manage and steward Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs), Courtois said.
These programs, which include the Edéhzhíe Dehcho Protected Area/National Wildlife Area and Thaidene Nëné, contain large intact landscapes of boreal forest and are making a significant contribution to meeting Canada’s international biodiversity commitments, she said.
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Expanding and supporting these stewardship programs will make Canada a global leader in conservation, Courtois said.
“If Canada is going to achieve its targets and its commitments, it has to recognize that the real leadership in this country for the last 20 years has come from Indigenous Peoples,” Courtois said. “And if you look at the protected areas that have been created in that time, the vast majority of them have either been led or co-led by Indigenous people.”
Major investment needed
But expanding the network of Indigenous protected areas to reach the Liberal government’s goal of protecting a quarter of Canada’s land and oceans by 2025 would require a “significant” investment by the federal government, she said.
The movement to create a National Indigenous Guardians Network gained ground following an initial investment of $25 million over five years in the 2017-2018 federal budget.
But the Australian government, for example, spends about $90 million a year on its Working on Country Indigenous rangers initiative that inspired the Canadian program, Courtois said.
“We’re talking at least, if not more, on that scale,” Courtois said.
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