Traditional ecological knowledge in environmental assessment and management

Key words: traditional ecological knowledge, environmental assessment, co-management, research methods, public policy, Canada

(Received 2 November 1999; accepted in revised from 24 January 2000)

THE POLICY ENVIRONMENT

The Policy Requirements

It has become a policy requirement in Canada, and especially in northern Canada, that "traditional knowledge" (TK) or "traditional ecological knowledge" (TEK) be considered and incorporated into environmental assessment and resource management. All comprehensive claim agreements in Canada's territorial North call for aboriginal beneficiaries to be involved directly in wildlife management. For example, the Inuvialuit Final Agreement (IFA) of 1984 states as a principle that "the relevant knowledge and experience of both the Inuvialuit and the scientific communities should be employed in order to achieve conservation" (Canada, 1984: article 14.5). In 1993, the Government of the Northwest Territories adopted a Traditional Knowledge Policy, which recognized that "aboriginal traditional knowledge is a valid and essential source of information about the natural environment and its resources, the use of natural resources, and the relationship of people to the land" and undertook to "incorporate traditional knowledge into Government decisions and actions where appropriate" (GNWT, 1993:11). Two recent federal environmental assessment panels (for the BHP diamond mining project in the Northwest Territories and the Voisey's Bay nickel mining project in Labrador) were instructed to give, respectively, "full and equal consideration to traditional knowledge" (MacLachlan et al., 1996:74), and "full consideration to traditional ecological knowledge whether presented orally or in writing" (Griffiths et al., 1999:203).

Forthcoming federal legislation on species at risk is expected to include explicit requirements to take account of TEK, and the draft terms of reference for the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) already require the status of species to be assessed according to criteria "based on science and to include traditional and local knowledge" (Anon., 1999:1). At the international level, the Convention on Biological Diversity refers to the knowledge of indigenous and local communities (article 8[j]), and the recently amended Canada-United States Migratory Birds Convention requires the "use of aboriginal and indigenous knowledge" for migratory bird management (article II).

The requirement that the environmental knowledge of aboriginal people be given admissibility and weight in quasi-judicial proceedings and by co-management and other stakeholder bodies, is the outcome of several developments over the...