“Like the plains people losing the buffalo”: perceptions of climate change impacts, fisheries management, and adaptation actions by Indigenous peoples in coastal British Columbia, Canada

Abstract

Rapidly developing and complex climate change impacts have profound implications for coastal communities, demanding adaptation actions for both social and ecological systems. Along the coast of British Columbia, Canada, Indigenous peoples developed a tightly coupled social-ecological system that was interrupted by the arrival of settler colonialism in the 1800s. Although both climate change adaptation and the impacts of colonization have been well studied, little research has examined how these themes interact, and the conditions that may support or prevent people's ability to adapt to the social-ecological changes that emerge. Through a collaborative partnership with four First Nations and their umbrella organization for technical support, we examined people's perceptions of social and ecological aspects of adaptation to climate change. Using semistructured interviews (n = 50), four key strategies emerged as critical for climate change adaptation: (1) strengthening Indigenous governance autonomy and authority, (2) promoting knowledge sharing for adaptation practices within and among communities, (3) promoting adaptive comanagement among governance scales, and (4) developing learning platforms for climate impacts and adaptive strategies. Actions typically proposed by non-Indigenous government, including marine protected areas and ecosystem-based management were not prioritized. We found diverse attitudes toward climate change impacts, indicating that people's perceptions of adaptation strategies are strongly influenced by exposure to observable impacts, the social-ecological context in which they live, and perceptions of governance and self-determination. Our study suggests that supporting Indigenous peoples' ability to adapt to climate change will require transforming the current governance model into one that acknowledges Indigenous social, cultural, and food needs and how these relate to marine resources and territorial management rights.

Hotspots for rockfishes, structural corals, and large-bodied sponges along the central coast of Pacific Canada

“…Biodiversity loss affects all human societies 1 , yet its harm can be disproportionately greater for Indigenous peoples who derive food security and cultural identity from local ecosystems 2 , 3 . In the latter part of the twentieth century, First Nations along the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada, began to experience rapid declines in the abundance of marine species inherent to traditional foods, including Pacific salmon ( Oncorhynchus spp . )…”

Knowledge Pluralism in First Nations’ Salmon Management

“…Indigenous leadership in knowledge integration supports Indigenous autonomy in environmental governance. This is important for improved local management outcomes and adaptive capacity in responding to environmental stressors such as climate change (Thompson et al, 2020;Whitney et al, 2020). Further, Indigenous leadership and self-determination are key to disrupting colonial legacies and harmful relationships of power (Reid et al, 2020).…”

Indigenous Environmental Justice within Marine Ecosystems: A Systematic Review of the Literature on Indigenous Peoples’ Involvement in Marine Governance and Management

“…Only 9 per cent of papers (#20, #21, #24) discussed increased exposure to environmental risks as being of significant concern for Indigenous peoples; this stands in marked contrast to scholarship on global environmental change that emphasises Indigenous peoples' heightened vulnerability to the impacts of climate change as a prime example of an environmental injustice [184][185][186][187][188][189][190][191][192][193][194][195]. Instead, the reviewed papers primarily focused on the distributive injustices of decreasing access to marine biota and the risk of greater food insecurity.…”