ID: 2118
Presenting Author: Matthew Carlson
Session: 604 - Everything Everywhere All at Once: Harnessing Holistic Impact Assessment
Status: pending
The need for holistic approaches when assessing impacts to Indigenous land use is demonstrated through a case study exploring impacts to moose harvest by the Cadotte Lake Métis Nation.
Project-level impact assessment has limited capacity to address impacts to Indigenous land use due to inadequate consideration of cumulative and indirect effects. As a result, outcomes are inconsistent with community member experiences, eroding confidence in the regulatory process. To adopt a holistic perspective, we worked with the Cadotte Lake Métis Nation to assess indirect and cumulative effects to Indigenous moose harvest and food security that have accompanied natural resource development in northwestern Alberta, Canada. Three types of impacts were considered: 1) cumulative changes to habitat over the past 120 years; 2) non-Indigenous harvest and predation by wolves facilitated by linear footprints such as roads and cutlines; and 3) degradation of Indigenous access to the land due to tenure and industrial activity. The impacts were assessed through reconstruction of historical changes in landscape composition, moose population, and Indigenous accessibility using an integrated landscape and population simulation model. Competition with non-Indigenous hunting, a declining moose population, and impediments to Indigenous access combined to cause a large decline in the availability of moose for Indigenous harvest, a result that is consistent with experiences of community members. The estimated reduction in availability of moose for Indigenous harvest far exceeded the decline in moose habitat, demonstrating the importance of a holistic perspective and meaningful Indigenous involvement when assessing impacts to Indigenous land use.
Matt Carlson, ecologist and cumulative effects team lead at the Integral Ecology Group, uses computer modeling to provide strategic perspectives for environmental assessment and planning.
Coauthor 1: Rob Rempel
Coauthor 2: Wendy Goulet
Coauthor 3: Liam Bindle