Building Ethical Space for Global Conservation Governance: Sharing the Story of Pathway to Canada
About the Project
Over the past decade, Canada's Federal Government has worked to meet its international commitments to the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, as established by the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Most prominently, they focused on meeting Aichi Target 11, which committed Canada to have 17% of its terrestrial area and 10% of its coastal and marine area conserved in protected areas by December 2020. As part of the planning process, titled Pathway to Canada Target 1, the Indigenous Circle of Experts (ICE) and the National Advisory Panel (NAP) were assembled to provide advice and recommendations on meeting this target. Each group delivered a report, highlighting the role of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas in helping Canada to meet its targets (ICE) and the need to embrace Indigenous worldviews and integrate Indigenous knowledge and governance (NAP). Both reports emphasized the need to work together in ethical space, bringing together Indigenous knowledge systems and Western scientific approaches. The Conservation Through Reconciliation Partnership (CRP), hosted at the University of Guelph, was formed to support Indigenous leadership in implementing the recommendations of the ICE report. All co-applicants are core members of the CRP.
The purpose of this project to share the story of Pathway to Canada Target 1 with an international audience, focusing on the CBD. The Pathway process represents a groundbreaking example, both within Canada and internationally, of a settler colonial government working together with Indigenous peoples in ethical space to achieve conservation goals. Sharing this story serves two purposes: (1) it celebrates the achievement of the Pathway process and provides accountability to ensure the commitment to work in ethical space is upheld; and (2) it provides an example for other countries, Indigenous peoples, and conservation organizations for how decisions of the CBD, especially related to protected area targets, can be implemented in ethical space.
Despite the recognition of Indigenous peoples within the CBD, including the need to ensure their effective participation (Aichi Target 18) and to respect, preserve and maintain Indigenous knowledge and practices (Article 8j), the CBD largely reproduces colonial power relations that undermine and sideline Indigenous peoples and their knowledge. As the Parties to the CBD finalize negotiations for their post-2020 framework, which will guide international and domestic conservation policies for the next decade, it is essential that this example is shared and used to inform the ongoing transformation of conservation practice.
Accordingly, this project brings together several members of the CRP, including faculty and Indigenous leaders, in order to facilitate a side event at the next Conference of the Parties to the CBD, to be held in Kunming, China in October 2021. The side event will be co-developed by all applicants and will feature the co-chairs of both ICE and NAP. The audience will feature conservation practitioners from around the world (including representatives of government agencies, non-governmental organizations, scientific organizations, and Indigenous organizations, among others). A pamphlet explaining the Pathway process and its significance will be provided to audience members and the panelists will facilitate a discussion of the opportunities and challenges for translating this story into other contexts. A videographer will record the side event, as well as interviews with panelists, and produce a five-minute video that will be shared on the CRP website. Together, the side event and knowledge mobilization products (pamphlet and video) will provide a model for how to pursue conservation in ethical space.