David C. Natcher

Increasing Wildfire in Alaska's Boreal Forest: Pathways to Potential Solutions of a Wicked Problem

ABSTRACT Recent global environmental and social changes have created a set of “wicked problems” for which there are no optimal solutions. In this article, we illustrate the wicked nature of such problems by describing the effects of global warming on the wildfire regime and indigenous communities in Alaska, and we suggest an approach for minimizing negative impacts and maximizing positive outcomes. Warming has led to an increase in the areal extent of wildfire in Alaska, which increases fire risk to rural indigenous communities and reduces short-term subsistence opportunities. Continuing the current fire suppression policy would minimize these negative impacts, but it would also create secondary problems near communities associated with fuel buildup and contribute to a continuing decline in subsistence opportunities. Collaborations between communities and agencies to harvest flammable fuels for heating and electrical power generation near communities, and to use wildland fire for habitat enhancement in surrounding forests, could reduce community vulnerability to both the direct and the indirect effects of global climate change.

Land use research and the duty to consult: a misrepresentation of the aboriginal landscape

Abstract This paper addresses the means by which the government of Canada is fulfilling its fiduciary obligation to consult with Aboriginal communities whose traditionally used lands are subject to industrial development. Specifically, the use of Aboriginal land use studies, as a means of consultation, is called into question on the basis of methodological limitations and cultural misrepresentation. In closing, it is suggested that until the Canadian government is prepared to take a proactive stance in mitigating land use conflicts through an effective and equitable consultative framework one should expect an escalation of litigation and continued Aboriginal discord.

Directional Changes in Ecological Communities and Social‐Ecological Systems: A Framework for Prediction Based on Alaskan Examples

In this article we extend the theory of community prediction by presenting seven hypotheses for predicting community structure in a directionally changing world. The first three address well‐studied community responses to environmental and ecological change: ecological communities are most likely to exhibit threshold changes in structure when perturbations cause large changes in limiting soil or sediment resources, dominant or keystone species, or attributes of disturbance regime that influence community recruitment. Four additional hypotheses address social‐ecological interactions and apply to both ecological communities and social‐ecological systems. Human responsiveness to short‐term and local costs and benefits often leads to human actions with unintended long‐term impacts, particularly those that are far from the site of decision making or are geographically dispersed. Policies are usually based on past conditions of ecosystem services rather than expected future trends. Finally, institutions that strengthen negative feedbacks between human actions and social‐ecological consequences can reduce human impacts through more responsive (and thus more effective) management of public ecosystem services. Because of the large role that humans play in modifying ecosystems and ecosystem services, it is particularly important to test and improve social‐ecological hypotheses as a basis for shaping appropriate policies for long‐term ecosystem resilience.

Rethinking Devolution: Challenges for Aboriginal Resource Management in the Yukon Territory

After decades of state administration, indigenous peoples throughout the world are now succeeding, to varying degrees, in the reimplementation of self-governing institutions and administrative processes. This reorientation has been most observable in the context of natural resource management, where a major policy trend has been to devolve state authority and administrative responsibility directly to local levels. While the language of devolution and local control now permeates local–state interaction, in many cases the new institutions that have been created following devolution have little resemblance to indigenous forms of management. In this article, we present some of the institutional and ideological factors that continue to influence the way in which lands and resources are managed by First Nations in the Yukon Territory of Canada. In doing so, we identify the difficulties of applying indigenous cultural ideals into a management process that continues to be derived from nonindigenous values and principles.

The Significance of Context in Community-Based Research: Understanding Discussions about Wildfire in Huslia, Alaska

Community workshops are widely used tools for collaborative research on social-ecological resilience in indigenous communities. Although results have been reported in many publications, few have reflected explicitly on the workshop itself, and specifically on understanding what is said during a workshop. Drawing on experience from workshops held in Huslia, Alaska in 2004 on wildfire and climate change, we discuss the importance of considering cultural, political, and epistemological context when analyzing statements made by indigenous people in community workshops. We provide examples of statements whose meaning and intent were, and may remain, unclear, with descriptions of our attempts to understand what was being said by placing the statements in a variety of contexts. We conclude that, although workshops can be an efficient means of exchanging information, researchers should strive for multiple channels of communication and should be cautious in their interpretations of what is said.

Vulnerability and adaptation to climate-related fire impacts in rural and urban interior Alaska

This paper explores whether fundamental differences exist between urban and rural vulnerability to climate-induced changes in the fire regime of interior Alaska. We further examine how communities and fire managers have responded to these changes and what additional adaptations could be put in place. We engage a variety of social science methods, including demographic analysis, semi-structured interviews, surveys, workshops and observations of public meetings. This work is part of an interdisciplinary study of feedback and interactions between climate, vegetation, fire and human components of the Boreal forest social–ecological system of interior Alaska. We have learned that although urban and rural communities in interior Alaska face similar increased exposure to wildfire as a result of climate change, important differences exist in their sensitivity to these biophysical, climate-induced changes. In particular, reliance on wild foods, delayed suppression response, financial resources and institutional connections vary between urban and rural communities. These differences depend largely on social, economic and institutional factors, and are not necessarily related to biophysical climate impacts per se. Fire management and suppression action motivated by political, economic or other pressures can serve as unintentional or indirect adaptation to climate change. However, this indirect response alone may not sufficiently reduce vulnerability to a changing fire regime. More deliberate and strategic responses may be required, given the magnitude of the expected climate change and the likelihood of an intensification of the fire regime in interior Alaska.

Arctic Climate Impacts: Environmental Injustice in Canada and the United States

Abstract The current and projected future physical impacts of climate change are most extreme in the northern latitudes. The indigenous peoples in the North American arctic and sub-arctic rely on the availability of natural resources in mixed subsistence economies for nutritional and cultural survival and thus experience disproportionate burdens with respect to our changing climate. Arctic climate impacts exemplify how global phenomena and activities can significantly affect people locally in remote regions. These impacts are largely consistent throughout the region, irrespective of national boarders; however, indigenous peoples in Canada are better positioned than those in the United States to shape policy in a way that would ensure their adaptation to climate change. Political and industrial activity on national and global scales can have significant environmental, social and cultural repercussions on the local scale in remote areas. Remedies for environmental injustice will thus require strong cross-scale political and institutional linkages.

Implications of Fire Policy on Native Land Use in the Yukon Flats, Alaska

Through a process of participatory mapping, this research assessed the impacts of the 1984 change in Alaska fire policy from one of exclusion to one of management on Native land use in the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge. Findings suggest that while the change in policy has had little measurable effect on community land use the continued suppression of fire on Native owned lands is having a direct impact on the current availability of wildlife resources to the point of necessitating territorial expansion among Native resource users. However, given the complexity of human nature, the impacts associated with the 1984 policy change should not be reduced to a simplistic cause-and-effect relationship. Rather this analysis demonstrates the interaction as well as the contradiction that occur between policy, culture, and ecology as these factors together have come to influence Native land use.

Consensus Building or Constructive Conflict? Aboriginal Discursive Strategies to Enhance Participation in Natural Resource Management in Australia and Canada

This article analyzes the strategies used by the Girringun Aboriginal Corporation from the Wet Tropics, Australia, and the Innu Nation of Labrador, Canada, in their efforts to participate in natural resource management within their traditional lands. Comparative research highlights that both Aboriginal groups engage in strategies of consensus building and constructive conflict, matching their choice to the dynamic institutional settings that govern natural resource management in their respective territories. Both groups build consensus for more equitable participation in natural resource management institutions while engaging, when necessary, in forms of constructive conflict that will bring about more expedient institutional change needed to fully reflect the full suite of Aboriginal interests and values. The result is a mix of Aboriginal strategies that are used to instigate planning reforms on their traditional estates.

Collaboration between Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian forest sector: a typology of arrangements for establishing control and determining benefits of forestlands.

Over the last thirty years, Aboriginal peoples, forestry companies and governments in Canada have developed a wide variety of arrangements and mechanisms aimed at fostering collaboration and establishing an increasing Aboriginal role in managing and harvesting forestlands. This paper seeks to facilitate the analysis and investigation of various forms of collaboration by presenting a typology based upon institutional arrangements and desired outcomes. Development of the typology followed an iterative process of categorisation, description, testing and revision, using scientific and grey literature combined with testing against an ever-widening number of communities; firstly in Quebec, then in six provinces and finally with 474 communities across the country. We identify five principal forms of collaborative arrangement, each with a number of sub-types: treaties and other formal agreements that establish roles and responsibilities; planning and management activities; influence on decision-making; forest tenures; and economic roles. The application and utility of this typology is illustrated through the examples of four communities, each of which is engaged in several different collaborative arrangements. The typology demonstrates the variety of arrangements that are available to encourage Aboriginal involvement in Canadas forest sector while also provided a basis for future work in comparing the benefits of different arrangements or in analysing the effectiveness of policies.