Article by Ida Rehnström
What does a forest look like through the eyes of Indigenous Peoples? What does a cultural landscape look like? And how can FSC move forward involving Indigenous Peoples when creating landscape level solutions like Intact Forest Landscapes (IFLs)? The side meeting ‘Indigenous Cultural Landscapes’ offered, if not an answer, an insight into these questions.
“We seek to contribute to the global FSC International growing awareness and understanding of Indigenous Cultural Landscapes within the resource management sector and support concepts for ongoing standards development” panel facilitator David Flood, RPF (Individual Member, Aboriginal Chamber, Canada) about the importance of the session.
Linking landscapes and culture
Attending an Indigenous led side meeting at an FSC General Assembly can be quite the reality check. It’s easy to get lost in policies, principles and indicators but when talking about forests, Indigenous Peoples are often experts at pinpointing the value of forests that goes beyond typical market value.
One of today’s many examples of this came from Niila Inga of the Swedish part of Sámi who underlined the link between landscape and culture through the example of the Sami reindeer culture. Their traditional ways being threatened by logging, mining and tourism:
"We only borrow this land from the next generations. It’s our obligation to ensure that future generations also have the opportunity to carry on with our culture."
Another great example of the link between landscape and culture came from Pamela Perreault from The Firelight Group and part of the Aboriginal chamber in Canada, who started her presentation with:
"An introduction of an Indigenous leader or person can sometimes take 10-20 minutes. And the reason for that is that our identity, who we are, is defined by the land that we come from. So, when I describe where I come from, I use my hands a lot, I talk about how I come from parts of Canada where the three biggest lakes all come together. My nation is in the center (..) and we will tell a full story, our hands moving around referring to mountains and landscape features, that define who we are."
In other words, when we talk about landscapes we also talk about identity and culture.
Peggy Smith RPF (Individual member, Aboriginal chamber, Canada) took the stage to talk about FSC’s IFL approach and how the idea of keeping landscapes “intact” correlates with Indigenous Peoples and the fact that they are an inherent part of those landscapes, having looked after them for generations.
The way forward with ICL in the FSC context seems to be about gaining more knowledge, so we were presented with studies from Canada testing the meaning of Cultural Landscapes for Indigenous Peoples, which you can read more about here.
Isabelle Allen from Wahkohtowin Development (Aboriginal Chamber, Canada) shared key findings from the study which showed how working with ICLs takes time and building relations between parties and ensuring trust is critical for success. Peggy Smith later underlined that point stating:
"I don’t think we can be prescriptive about it at an international level, I don’t think we can write a broad methodology (…) it really has to be resolved at a local level."
Another strong point at the session was a global map from Peggy Smith that demonstrated how areas of important biodiversity and critical habitats overlap with areas of Indigenous Peoples land. This highlighted two important points: the presence of Indigenous Peoples is a benefit to the forest as a whole and FSC will need to be involved with Indigenous Peoples to reach the ambitious goals for IFLs globally.
"I appreciate that FSC is trying hard to understand where we are coming from and to make a difference" - Larry McDermott, Plenty Canada (FSC Aboriginal Chamber)