Bringing Together Indigenous Knowledge and Simulation Modelling to Assess Cumulative Impacts to Indigenous Land Use...

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Indigenous Studies
• Geospatial Analysis

Background:

• Environmental impact assessment (EIA) in Canada faces challenges in addressing cumulative effects on Indigenous territories.
• Deficiencies include inappropriate baselines, narrow spatial/temporal scopes, and marginalization of Indigenous knowledge.
• This results in EIAs that strain Indigenous communities without resolving their concerns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a more comprehensive cumulative effects assessment for Indigenous land use.
• To integrate Indigenous knowledge with simulation modeling for improved EIA.
• To address the limitations of current EIA processes concerning Indigenous territories.

Main Methods:

• Case study of the Fort McKay Métis Nation (FMMN) in northeastern Alberta.
• Integration of Indigenous knowledge through focus groups and interviews.
• Simulation modeling to reconstruct landscape changes over 120 years (103,000 km² region).

Main Results:

• Significant decline in FMMN members' ability to hunt, fish, trap, and harvest.
• Industrial footprint expanded to over 5000 km², primarily from oil sands and forestry.
• Reduced land use opportunity due to industrial footprint, protected areas, and military sites, despite minor habitat impacts.

Conclusions:

• Current EIA practices are inadequate for assessing cumulative effects on Indigenous land use.
• Combining Indigenous knowledge and simulation modeling provides a more robust assessment.
• A web application was developed to aid FMMN in assessing development impacts against a natural baseline.