Funding boosts Indigenous conservation efforts

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This article was published 07/07/2022 (1210 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the face of what the federal government calls an unprecedented biodiversity crisis, Canada is working to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030, with hopes of achieving a full recovery by 2050.

The ambitious goals are backed up by $3.7 million in funding over the next three years through the Aboriginal Fund for Species at Risk (AFSR), announced on June 29 by Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault.

The fund, intended to help Indigenous communities protect species at risk and their habitats, will support 33 conservation projects across the country, led by Indigenous nations and organizations. It also supports the implementation of the Species at Risk Act.

A total of 640 species are at risk in Canada, which the government said has critical implications for humanity, including the collapse of food, economic and health systems. Guilbeault said that to see any real progress, the projects must be led by Indigenous people in a way that reflects their unique values, interests and knowledge. It’s also something that requires co-operation from everyone involved, including all levels of government and individual Canadians.

“The Government of Canada is working to strengthen protection and the recovery of species at risk and advance reconciliation by supporting Indigenous leadership in conservation. The AFSR is enabling real, on-the-ground actions to achieve better outcomes,” the minister said.

Since its inception in 2004, the AFSR has supported approximately 1,330 projects by providing more than $50 million in funding. One of these projects was a three-year stewardship protecting Manitoba’s prairie mixed grass and tall grass. The stewardship program received support from the federal government’s Habitat Stewardship Program (species at risk stream) and the Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation as well. Its aim was to protect the native mixed-grass and tall-grass prairie habitats for southern Manitoba species at risk.

The grass provides habitat for at least 30 species, including endangered prairie skink, one of only seven species of lizards that are found in Canada; endangered small white lady’s slipper, and threatened Sprague’s pipit. The government classifies native prairie habitats as among the most endangered ecosystems in Canada and are being lost and degraded due to invasive species and conversion to agricultural uses.

Curtis Hullick, in his role of co-ordinator of field programs with the Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation (MHHC), worked with the mixed-grass and tall-grass prairie stewardship program when it was running a few years ago, starting in 2013. He said the native grass is also an important habitat for grassland birds, which are considered an at-risk species due to habitat loss. The MHCC works with private landowners in Manitoba.

“We enter into an agreement … between two parties that indicates the landowner can keep doing what they’re doing, and they receive a financial payment for conserving the grassland. They can continue to graze it, they can cut it if they want to, but they won’t be able to spray it or cultivate it.”

Eligible recipients for funding from the AFSR for the future include Indigenous not-for-profit and for-profit organizations, district councils, chiefs councils and tribal councils, Indigenous research, academic and educational institutions and more. Non-Indigenous organizations can apply for funding if mandated by an eligible Indigenous recipient.

Projects must take place on reserves or land set aside for the use and benefit of Indigenous peoples under the Indian Act or under section 91 (24) of the Constitution Act of 1867, or other lands directly controlled by Indigenous peoples. Lands where traditional food, social and ceremonial activities are carried out by Indigenous peoples can also be included.

Frank Tacan, a traditional healer and elder at the Brandon Friendship Centre, said conservation is an essential part of Indigenous values. He uses native plants in his work as a healer, including the four sacred medicines: tobacco, which is used before a teaching ceremony or prayer; sage, which cleanses on a physical level; cedar, for protection and healing; and sweetgrass, which Tacan calls the hair of Mother Earth, for calming.

In an email to the Sun, Tacan said he worries about the methods being used in modern agriculture, from exhausting the land by growing whatever will make the most profit, to spraying pesticides to keep insects and weeds at bay.

“These chemicals are destroying the native plants, what we call medicines, that Mother Earth provides to us First Nation and Métis people of this land. Dams are being built, trees are being cut down, marshes bulldozed to make room for more farmland.”

Certain mining practices also destroy some medicines that Tacan said are important to keep his people healthy.

If he had one message to share with anyone interested in conservation, it’s to take care of the earth, as it provides all things people need for survival.

The Sun reached out to Carmen Callihoo-Payne, biologist with the AFSR, via phone call and email. Asked why conservation is culturally important for Indigenous people, she said it would be “somewhat presumptuous” of herself to speak for all Indigenous peoples on the matter.

» mleybourne@brandonsun.com

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