Navigating the Tensions in Collaborative Watershed Governance : Water Governance and Indigenous Communities in British Columbia, Canada ...

• Main Authors: Simms, Rosie, Harris, Leila, Joe, Nadia, Bakker, Karen
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: The University of British Columbia 2018
• Subjects: First Nations
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0340930; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0340930

First Nations in British Columbia (BC), Canada, have historically been—and largely continue to be—excluded from colonial governments’ decision-making and management frameworks for fresh water. However, in light of recent legal and legislative changes, and also changes in water governance and policy, there is growing emphasis in scholarship and among legal, policy and advocacy communities on shifting water governance away from a centralized single authority towards an approach that is watershed-based, collaborative, and involves First Nations as central to decisionmaking processes. Drawing on community-based research, interviews with First Nations natural resource staff and community members, and document review, the paper analyzes the tensions in collaborative water governance, by identifying First Nations’ concerns within the current water governance system and exploring how a move towards collaborative watershed governance may serve to either address, or further entrench, these concerns. This paper ...