Martin Hébert

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.

An inventory of collaborative arrangements between Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian forest sector: Linking policies to diversification in forms of engagement

This paper examines collaborative arrangements between Aboriginal peoples and the forest sector across Canada. Using a broad definition of collaboration, we identified 1378 arrangements in 474 Aboriginal communities in all Canadian provinces and territories, except Nunavut. We categorize these collaborative arrangements into five broad types: treaties and other formal agreements; planning and management activities; influence on decision-making; forest tenures; and economic roles and partnerships. Consistent data was available for only the first three types, which showed that close to 60% of Aboriginal communities use each approach. However, this masks significant differences between provinces. For example, economic roles and partnerships are in place in all New Brunswick communities and 74% of communities in British Columbia, but only 12% of Manitoban communities. The proportion of communities that have been involved in participatory processes in forest decision-making (such as advisory committees and consultation processes) is particularly high in Quebec with 88% of communities, but only 32% of communities hold forest tenures. We also find that three-quarters of all communities choose to engage in two or more approaches, despite the demands that this can place upon the time and energy of community members. We finally consider how policy environments in different jurisdictions affect the frequency of certain types of collaboration. This empirical study, and the typology that it demonstrates, can inform policy development for Aboriginal involvement in Canadian forestry and help guide future research into broader issues of collaborative governance of natural resources.

Communal interest and political decision making in an emerging Mexican indigenous movement

Consensual decision making has traditionally been a defining characteristic of debates within Mexican indigenous communities. But in a modern socio-political context where inter-community alliances are perceived as necessary for economic and cultural survival, hitherto isolated communities have to converge in regional movements and reassess the bases and implications of this type of decision making, especially the interests that should be pursued by these decisions. Based on an ethnographic study of the internal dynamic of an emergent indigenous movement in the Mexican state of Guerrero, the Consejo de Pueblos Indigenas, it appears that the qualitative shift between intra- and inter-community decision making resides less in procedural changes than in the symbolic redefinition of the “community” within which consensus has to be achieved.

COMMUNITY FORESTRY AND THE PARADOXES OF CITIZENSHIP IN MEXICO: THE CASES OF OAXACA AND GUERRERO

Abstract In this article we examine how the Mexican governments framing of the forestry sector has impacted the lives of indigenous populations in the states of Oaxaca and Guerrero. The image of the income-earning, nature-conserving, and duty-conscious indigenous peasant-citizen constructed through the governments development discourse acts as a norm that has shaped the expectations implicit—and sometimes explicit—in many forestry programs to this day. We examine ways in which these norms of good citizenship articulate with local identities, practices, and aspirations in two distinct contexts: that of a “model” community in Oaxaca and that of communities in Guerrero which the government would like to see aspire to this model. In doing so, we aim to provide a clearer view of the complex, multi-layered, and sometimes paradoxical relationships between the State and indigenous communities surrounding community forestry in Mexico.