Examining the issues of social and environmental justice among the Indigenous people of Canada through the lens of Sustainable Forest Management

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-192-0_19How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Social Justice; Indigeneity; Forest Governance; Canada

Abstract

The forests of Canada, spanning vast expanses from coast to coast, serve as more than a collection of trees; they are the ancestral home, hunting grounds, and spiritual core of Indigenous communities across the country, from Barriere Lake in Quebec to British Columbia and Ontario. For these Indigenous peoples, the forest embodies a sacred land ethic, holding profound cultural, social, and environmental significance. However, within the context of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM), the nexus of social and environmental justice issues among Canada's Indigenous populations becomes starkly evident. Policies governing forest governance often fail to adequately address or respect the rights and needs of these communities, leading to a disconnection between policy formulation, industrial practices, environmental advocacy, and the lived realities of Indigenous peoples. The struggle for social justice intersects with the very fabric of forest-related decision-making processes. The absence of meaningful engagement with Indigenous groups in these discussions perpetuates systemic inequities, limiting their ability to protect and sustainably manage their ancestral lands. The impacts of industrial activities, such as logging and resource extraction, disrupt not only the ecological balance but also threaten the cultural heritage and livelihoods of Indigenous communities reliant on these forests.

To achieve true sustainability in forest management, it is imperative to foster inclusive dialogues that center Indigenous voices, honor their traditional knowledge, and integrate their values into policy frameworks. Only through genuine collaboration and equitable partnerships among forest industries, environmental advocates, policymakers, and Indigenous communities can Canada reconcile the intertwined challenges of social justice, environmental preservation, and sustainable forest management.

Copyright

© 2023 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Lianboi Vaiphei
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/12/31
TI  - Examining the issues of social and environmental justice among the Indigenous people of Canada through the lens of Sustainable Forest Management
BT  - Proceedings of the World Anthropology Congress, 2023 (WAC 2023)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 183
EP  - 191
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-192-0_19
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-192-0_19
ID  - Vaiphei2023
ER  -