IBCC: Two Decades of Protecting the Boreal Forest by Supporting Indigenous-led Conservation
June 21, 2023
In the early 1990s, The Pew Charitable Trusts committed to helping stem the loss of biodiversity by protecting large forest ecosystems, beginning not in the remote tropics, but at home in North America. Not long after, the World Resources Institute completed the first global survey of remaining large, intact forests. This report, “The Last Frontier Forests,” found that the world had already lost 80% of its original, large old growth forests. Only three major old growth ecosystems remained intact: the Amazon Rainforest, the Siberian taiga, and the North American Boreal Forest, most of which is in Canada.
At more than 1.2 billion acres—about half the size of the U.S.—the Boreal Forest in Canada is the world’s largest remaining intact forest ecosystem. However, compared with the old growth forest strongholds, Canada stands out with robust rule of law, stable government, a prosperous economy, and a long history of conservation leadership. Pew recognized these conditions as favorable for making major progress in arresting the worldwide degradation of intact forests by conserving this global treasure. In the late 1990s, Pew began evaluating the opportunity in earnest.
First, Pew and the early campaign partners sought the counsel of notable conservation biologists, including Dr. David Schindler, Dr. Reed Noss, and Dr. Fiona Schmiegelow to help understand what would be required to sustain the Boreal Forest ecosystem over time. Notably, this group of experts recommended adoption of strict, no industrial development rules for at least 50 percent of the intact forest tracts, with careful stewardship applied to any development in the remainder. At the time, this recommendation was already well supported by sound conservation biology principles and research. However, it was politically unprecedented and widely considered an unreachable standard. Indeed, it took two more decades for this ambitious ecological threshold to become widely accepted. Yet, the IBCC partners immediately embraced the visionary science and then began focusing educating the public and marshalling their support.
Pew reached out to Ducks Unlimited Inc., Ducks Unlimited Canada, World Wildlife Fund-Canada, and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society as initial partners in figuring out how best to conserve and sustain the Boreal Forest ecosystem. These environmental groups formed the initial core membership of the International Boreal Conservation Campaign, which later grew to include many other Canadian and international conservation organizations.
Pew’s partnership with Ducks Unlimited was particularly important. The Boreal Forest in Canada contains 25% of the world’s wetlands, and these clean, fresh waterways, fens, and peatlands serve as breeding grounds for over half of North America’s waterfowl. Ducks Unlimited and its sister organization Ducks Unlimited Canada became leading partners in IBCC, providing technical research and support for efforts across the country. Similarly, Pew’s partnership with the Boreal Songbird Initiative, National Audubon Society, and Canadian bird conservation organizations focused on the billions of songbirds born and raised in the boreal each year, contributing substantially to the migratory flyways that grace the Western Hemisphere. Sustaining the critical breeding habitat of these shared migratory resources, waterfowl, songbirds, caribou, and other species, requires international cooperation and joint action.
As other partners joined, they coalesced around a shared goal of making the boreal the best managed forest in the world, while supporting the cultural and economic well-being of Northern communities. This unifying vision was articulated in the Canadian Boreal Conservation Framework, a science-based proposal developed following the recommendations of scientists, conservationists, First Nations, and respected industry leaders.
The Boreal Framework boldly called for protecting at least 50 percent of that forest and supporting sustainable development in the other half, at a time when it was considered pushing the envelope to propose protecting just 10 percent of each country for the conservation of nature. Yet, given the broad base of support and the sound principles behind it, the Framework’s 50-50 vision was eventually endorsed by more than 1,500 scientists, two of Canada’s leading provinces, many First Nations, and has served for decades as the campaign’s core organizing principle.
Early Recognition: Indigenous Rights and Title Issues in the Boreal Must Be Addressed
At first glance, the campaign’s founding partners took for granted that the Boreal Forest was largely under the ownership and control of provincial and federal public governments. Surveying the jurisdictional lines on maps of Canada—the ones outlining provinces and territories—it was naturally but erroneously assumed they accurately represented a long-settled relationship between the Crown and its subjects. Further research revealed, however, that the process of colonization of Indigenous lands was still underway, and often being fiercely contested, all across the Boreal Forest landscape. Indeed, even today, large areas of the Canadian landscape still lack modern treaties or settled land claims.
Nevertheless, IBCC was initially conceived as a traditional advocacy campaign, working with and funding other NGOs to accomplish necessary government policy changes. Early investments soon revealed that it was First Nations who actually possessed the direct interests and legal claims required to most effectively influence Crown land use decisions in the Boreal Forest. Seeing this opportunity, in 2003, Dave Porter, ILI senior advisor and Kaska Dena leader, challenged IBCC to invest directly in First Nations whose traditional territories were the focus of land use decisions.
Taking that wise advice, IBCC began reaching out and forming direct relationships and conservation partnerships with Indigenous Nations. The new strategy explicitly recognized and honored the rights and title of First Nations to their traditional lands. Many of IBCC’s early funding agreements focused on supporting Indigenous-led, community-based land use planning processes, such as the Dehcho First Nations Land Use Plan. Indigenous-led land use plans have become an effective way for Nations to assert their aspirations for their traditional territories, including establishing proposed protected areas as well as rules for responsible economic development.
New Ways of Working
Over the years, IBCC has supported conservation partnerships with dozens of Indigenous Nations in three key areas:
Indigenous-led land use planning: Planning for the future of ancestral lands—including where to conserve or develop resources—can be a powerful expression of Indigenous Nationhood. IBCC and its partners have supported communities to create their own plans, including by providing independent, technical assessments when outside companies propose industrial activities.
Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs): IPCAs are places identified by Indigenous Nations for conservation. They reflect Indigenous law and culture and ensure Indigenous Nations can sustain relationships with the lands. The campaign has supported Nations pursuing IPCAs with technical support, advising on efforts to secure recognition for IPCAs, and peer mentoring from Indigenous leaders who have successfully created IPCAs.
Indigenous Guardians: Indigenous Guardians are the boots on the ground in Indigenous territories. They work on behalf of their Nations to help manage ancestral lands, monitor development and IPCAs, and promote intergenerational sharing of Indigenous knowledge. IBCC has supported successful efforts to secure federal funding for Guardians programs.
Over time, the critical mass of dozens of land use plans and protected area initiatives emerging across the Boreal Forest has leveraged a national focus on Indigenous Protected Areas, managed by Indigenous Guardians. This effort has ripened into a new, 21st Century approach to conservation of biodiversity, an Indigenous-led conservation system that is rapidly advancing across Canada, just as it has gained traction in Australia, New Zealand, and other leading democracies.
Advancing Indigenous Leadership Within the Campaign
About a decade into the campaign, IBCC was working extensively with more than a dozen Indigenous leaders. In 2013, those leaders met to collaborate around the shared understanding that land stewardship responsibilities are central to nation building. To increase their influence and authority within IBCC and the NGO community, they decided to form the Indigenous Leadership Initiative (ILI).
Starting out as an informal network, ILI brought together distinguished Indigenous elders, experts, former elected officials, and younger activists. Over time it became more organized and formalized and its relationship with IBCC evolved. In 2018, the ILI and the other boreal campaign partners commemorated, through ceremony, a Statement of Relationship that better defined and secured the working relationship between all the IBCC entities.
From that point, IBCC and ILI began operating as a more integrated initiative, culminating in the eventual decision for IBCC to be subsumed into ILI, a process which has been completed in June 2023.
Going forward, ILI is now the primary organization in Canada focused on supporting conservation in First Nations territories. It is the only one that is majority Indigenous governed and staffed.
Key IBCC Successes 1999-2023
IBCC has supported conservation partnerships with dozens of Indigenous Nations, comprised of well over 100 communities.
Over the past 20 years, the campaign has provided direct support to at least 35 First Nations to initiate and complete land use plans on their traditional territories, covering a total of more than 300 million acres of boreal lands.
In land use plans, First Nations determine for themselves where to create protected areas, build infrastructure, and zone for sustainable development.
Where First Nations have proper support in their land use planning, they propose protecting about 60% of their territory on average. And in most cases, the colonial governments have based the creation of new, protected parks and refuges on these Indigenous-led land use plans.
In the NWT, for instance, IBCC helped support land use plans that led to the establishment of three IPCAs since 2018. These IPCAs alone total over 50,000 sq km—about the size of Coast Rica.
Since 1999, over 80 million hectares of new or expanded protected areas have established by Canadian governments, primarily at the initiative of partner First Nations and with IBCC’s fiscal, technical and advocacy support.
Comprehensive joint land use planning efforts involving provincial governments and First Nations, focused on conservation and sustainable use of Crown lands that overlap with traditional territories, have been commenced on hundreds of millions of acres in Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba. Similar agreements are being negotiated in the Northwest Territories and British Columbia.
IBCC, ILI and partners have worked together to ensure IPCAs and Guardians are featured prominently in federal investments in nature conservation. For instance:
In 2016, IBCC worked with ILI to help secure an initial five-year investment of $25 million for a pilot National Indigenous Guardians Network in the 2017 federal budget.
In 2019, ILI and IBCC helped generate substantial federal and matching philanthropic funding for IPCAs proposed by dozens of Indigenous communities.
In 2021, ILI and IBCC helped encourage the Government of Canada to include stand-alone funds for Indigenous-led conservation efforts within landmark Budget 2021 nature funding. Ultimately, the government announced $340 million in new funding over 5 years to support Indigenous-led conservation and stewardship, including:
Almost $100 million for First Nations-led Guardians programs and the National First Nations Guardian Network; and.
Over $166 million for IPCAs, the largest such investment by Canada to date.
