Partnering with Indigenous communities to improve research outcomes

While marine systems provide us with invaluable economic, social, and cultural values, anthropogenic issues like pollution, unsustainable resource extraction, and climate change intensify the pressures these ecosystems face and threaten biodiversity. Urbanized marine areas epitomize this trade-off; for example, Atl’ka7tsem (Howe Sound), in Squamish Nation’s ancestral territory, provides numerous values with far-reaching benefits to communities but is also one of the most heavily impacted water bodies in British Columbia.

Scientists have searched for solutions that prioritize a balance between protecting marine systems and the needs of surrounding communities. Social data from communities play a critical role in successfully meeting long-term conservation goals but are often misinterpreted by typical marine conservation planning methods. To ensure long-term conservation objectives are met in Atl’ka7tsem, a recent study was co-developed between Squamish Nation and researchers from The University of British Columbia to survey community members about the different values the ocean provides them throughout the region.

“Using a co-created approach to interviews built a foundation of trust across researchers and community members,” says researcher Fiona Beaty, who conducted community interviews alongside youth from Squamish Nation. Trust was essential in encouraging the community to discuss their relationships with spaces in Atl’ka7tsem and to use research findings during decision-making.

Community values can inform marine conservation decisions

Hundreds of community members answered survey and interview questions about the ecological, social, cultural and economic values they believed the ocean provides by using maps to identify specific locations related to their values in Atl’ka7tsem. Ecological values were consistently ranked as the most important to the community. Non-ecological values, such as education, recreation, tourism, and Indigenous cultural values, often overlapped spatially with where ecological values had been identified in the region. The positive interactions between ecological and non-ecological values mapped throughout Atl’ka7tsem “breaks down false narratives of how humans are inherently bad for biodiversity conservation,” says Beaty, “and generates an alternative narrative that we can live in balance with healthy ecosystems and adapt our systems to become more sustainable.”

Beaty’s team highlighted the value of establishing a large, publicly accessible Marine Protected Area or an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area, specifically near Ramillies Channel, where many ecological and cultural values were identified. This conservation area would serve as a tool for specifying the boundaries of where large-scale economic activities, which may negatively interact with these identified values, can occur. Establishing a conservation area which supports human activities that positively interact with ecological and cultural values would foster social buy-in, protecting biodiversity outcomes and Indigenous cultural values. “It is critical that people see ourselves as part of the ecosystem,” says Beaty, “embracing human relationships to places and building toward more respectful, reciprocal, and regenerative ways of being, rather than separating people from nature, is essential to protecting threatened and degraded places.”

Decolonizing marine research

Instead of relying on typical marine conservation planning methods, Beaty’s team weaved together oral, written, visual, and spatial knowledge to prioritize community values. Long-term protection of these values for future generations must be considered during the planning process. Indigenous youth played a central role in designing and implementing their study and communicating results to the community, which Beaty’s team hoped would empower young community members and encourage intergenerational knowledge sharing. Despite the impact of settler and industrial activities on Atl’ka7tsem over time, community members have noticed some recovery in ecosystem health and marine life. A member of Squamish Nation reflected on the value of the recovery in strengthening cultural connections to the ocean: “The fish and sea life are overcoming a lot of barriers and obstacles now, I think our people are doing the same thing… Once that all starts healing, things start coming back to our people. So, whether it’s in the ocean, whether it’s with us as human beings, I think we’re moving in that direction. I feel like the spirit of it all is returning.”

Centering community values in marine planning was published in Marine Policy

Tags: British Columbia, climate change, community, conservation, ecology, Indigenous conservation, Indigenous culture, Indigenous fisheries, Indigenous history, Indigenous Knowledge, IOF students, Research, Skwxwú7mesh Nation, Squamish