ID: 1957
Presenting Author: Lore Masters
Session: 604 - Everything Everywhere All at Once: Harnessing Holistic Impact Assessment
Status: pending
Gitxaała Nation’s Marine Cumulative Effects Assessment holistically examines the status of ecosystems and Indigenous Use in relation to marine shipping impacts, informing leadership’s decision making.
Gitxaała Nation has participated in dozens of major project impact assessments over the past ten years under the jurisdiction of both Canada and British Columbia. Despite multiple renewals, regulations, and legislative changes, these assessments continue to miss the mark when addressing holistic cumulative effects assessments and examinations of direct and indirect impacts on Indigenous rights and governance. From a Gitxaała perspective, human wellbeing is embedded in the health and abundance of the territory, and territorial management decisions should be made with traditional laws and future generations in mind. This sustainable decision-making requires holistic and accurate baseline knowledge of the territory and impacts of developments. Faced with the shortcomings of standard assessments, Gitxaała has developed its own set of tools for understanding impacts to Gitxaała people and territory. One of these tools is the Gitxaała Marine Cumulative Effects Assessment (GMCEA). Building on methods developed by another Indigenous-led process, the Gitxaała Risk and Impact Assessment, novel vulnerability scores were deployed to assess the impacts of vessel traffic on marine territorial Indigenous Use and exclusion of use by marine shipping, which complements existing methods of assessing ecosystem impacts. This assessment process presents a holistic and Nation-specific cumulative impact assessment that supports Gitxaała governance and exercise of rights in the territory as development pressures mount.
Lore Masters is an information professional with a background in Earth science serving as Impact Assessment Officer, advancing Gitxaała Nation’s understanding of cumulative and project impacts.
Coauthor 1: Natascia Tamburello