Project Summary
The Issue
Through an unprecedented pace and scale of change, rural and Indigenous communities across Canada are facing significant challenges associated with the cumulative impacts of economic restructuring, infrastructure deficits, colonialism, and climate change. Owing to decades of underinvestment, critical community infrastructure systems are often in poor condition. In Canada, rural and Indigenous communities play vital roles in our economies, house 30% of the population, and serve as stewards for the land base -- while also being under-represented from the research and discourse about how to solve infrastructure and climate change problems.
Project Purpose
The purpose of this project is to explore the use of nature-based solutions (NbS) to address important planning, policy, and research gaps associated with infrastructure renewal and climate adaptation in rural and Indigenous places. Working closely with partner communities, the Squamish Nation, Summerland, Prince Rupert, and Nelson, the project brings together SFU researchers and students, in partnership with local governments and First Nations to learn from innovative infrastructure solutions. We will then use these learnings as a foundation to share knowledge with other communities, support a community of practice, and engage policy actors across Canada and internationally.
Our goal is to catalyze a shift from a siloed, project-based infrastructure planning approach, which often results in NbS that are fragmented and singularly focused, to one that both connects NbS with the broader ecosystem and maximizes their multifunctionality. In particular, NbS should be optimized to address multiple issues, such as enhance biodiversity, promote Indigenous leadership and knowledges, absorb carbon, help regions and communities adapt to projected climate changes, advance equitable processes and outcomes, and optimize ecosystem services in a sustainable manner over time.
Approach
Value and Values
In our approach to NbS research, we seek to differentiate between utilitarian approaches including the protection and expansion of existing natural assets and the advancement of engineered green and blue infrastructure, and healthy ecosystems approaches that emphasize inherent value beyond human interest and use, including spiritual value. Values, worldview, and justice are equally important considerations when engaging with NbS. NbS literature has evolved to consider dimensions of NbS and justice (Cousins, 2021; Haase, et al., 2017), NBS and more-than-human (Pineda-Pinto et al., 2021), and NBS and Indigenous Peoples (Artelle et al., 2019; Indigenous Climate Action, 2021; Reed et al., 2022). These frameworks and techniques can improve equitable outcomes in NBS initiatives by adding justice, equity, and cultural inclusion at the very start of planning and investment processes.
NBS, as planning interventions (and at larger scales), are inherently political and can either contribute to, or detract from Indigenous sovereignty (Pavsek, 2021). However, in NBS literature at large, the risks of NBS to Indigenous Peoples “are not being discussed broadly and are certainly not being addressed” comprehensively (Indigenous Climate Action, 2021, p. 7). NBS practitioners and researchers must consider these risks to ensure that NBS are not colonizing initiatives. For example, NBS solutions can become another method by which settler states steal land (Indigenous Climate Action, 2021), which works to further endanger place-based Indigenous cultures and erode Indigenous resilience (Whyte, 2018). NBS planning processes may also impose settler conceptualizations of “nature” on Indigenous communities (Alfred, 2009). In addition, pursuing natural asset strategies such as NBS may force Indigenous communities to adopt processes compatible with settler bureaucracy (Coulthard, 2014), which can erode self-determination.
Nature-directed Stewardship
This book calls for action in cities based on the science and practice of nature-directed stewardship (NDS), developed and refined through decades of experience in the context of protecting forest ecosystems from logging. NDS starts by focusing on what to leave (and restore), not on what to use (or take). NDS seeks to protect the ecological integrity or natural character of ecosystems. It guides us to the right nature (the natural character of ecosystems that existed before the city did), in the right places (interconnected networks of ecosystems at multiple spatial scales), and in the right amount (sufficient to provide ecological integrity).
Framework for Action
The project brings together a leading team of academics and community practitioners capable of bridging the silos across research and practice in the co-development of a systemic, multifunctional framework for nature-based solutions (NbS) action. The framework incorporates four main planning areas, aiming to optimize the potential of NbS to: 1) advance climate change adaptation and mitigation; 2) prevent biodiversity loss; 3) overcome inequities and address systemic reconciliation; and 4) ensure sustainable local government, Nation asset management and service delivery. Figure 1 presents a framework to help organize and guide the topical, temporal, and scalar dimensions of our NbS research and planning in our case communities.