Exploring Diversified Strategies for Co-operative Management of Forests by a First Nation and the Province of Alberta

• Main Author: Naotaka Hayashi
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: 2004
• Subjects: envir; scipo; Canada; Little Red River; First Nations
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.7939/R3VH5CK77; https://era.library.ualberta.ca/items/09dcd743-ebd3-4d2e-bf63-c47f687f577e

While the boreal forests in northern Alberta have rich natural resources, which assure economic development for regional and provincial finances, for Aboriginal people living there, the forests have played a pivotal role in continuing their traditional subsistence based on hunting and gathering. In Canada, about eighty percent of Aboriginal people live in the forested area; and therefore, forests are indispensable for sustaining Aboriginal cultures and societies. Among First Nations in northern Alberta, the Little Red River Cree Nation (LRRCN) was the first to begin the management of their boreal forests in the form of co-operation with governments and the forestry sector. With this, the Nation has gained a timber harvest permit and runs a forestry operation along with private forest companies within their traditional territories. Aboriginal participation into the global capitalist economy will be a means to create job opportunities within the community, to regain control over their traditional relationship with the land, to contribute to conserve the ecological integrity of the forests, and ultimately to sustain the community as such. However, researches to this date reveal problems that industrial forestry can be incongruent with Aboriginal uses of the forest and sustainability of the forests. High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF), including carbon credits and certification, will serve to reduce the contractual burden (e.g. volumes of timber harvest) and to diversify strategies of forest management.