80 Indigenous Guardians Programs Secure Funds to Care for Lands and Waters

September 16 2022

The Seal River Watershed Alliance is working to protect 50,000 square kilometres of lands and waters in northern Manitoba as an Indigenous Protected Area. Now the alliance has funds to launch a Guardians program that will monitor the area, care for caribou, and research climate impacts. The Seal is one of the largest intact watersheds in the world, and it stores massive amounts of carbon—the equivalent of eight years of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions. The Guardians will help ensure the watershed remains healthy for generations to come.

The Seal River Watershed Alliance Guardians program is just one of 80 to receive recent federal funding. On August 29, Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault announced $30 million of investments in new and existing First Nations, Inuit, and Metis Guardians programs.

There are now 120 First Nations Guardians programs across the country! This means almost 20 percent of all First Nation communities have Guardians—bringing us closer to the goal of ensuring every First Nation that wants a Guardians program has the support to launch one.

These 120 programs cover huge, sweeping landscapes, and Guardians care for them on behalf of their Nations and for the benefit of all people. When he announced the recent round of Guardians funding, Minister Guilbeault underscored how essential Indigenous-led conservation is for Canada to lead globally and meet its own domestic goals.

“Our shared future depends on ambitious and accelerated conservation goals, goals that are only achievable by trusting and recognizing Indigenous knowledge, science, and traditional roles,” the Minister said. He mentioned the United Nations biodiversity summit Canada is hosting in December and said Indigenous-led conservation would be at the forefront. “Canada’s ambitious target to conserve 30% of lands and waters by 2030—a target we are encouraging the international community to adopt—can only be reached in partnership with Indigenous Peoples.”

Guardians are an essential part of sustaining lands and waters. They represent a way for First Nations to mobilize Indigenous knowledge systems. Our very understanding of who we are as Indigenous Peoples is in relationship to the land and water. We know the land is a part of us, and we are a part of the land. We have deeply rooted understanding about the world around us, and when we use it as the basis to investigate the changing environment, we provide much needed insights and solutions.

That’s why the Land Needs Guardians campaign, the Indigenous Leadership Initiative, and other partners have been advocating for sustained funding for Guardians. The 2017 federal budget included $25 million over 5 years in seed funding for Guardians programs. Then in August 2021, Canada announced $340 million in new funding over 5 years to support Indigenous-led conservation, including more than $173 million for Guardians initiatives and the First Nations National Guardian Network. The funds allocated to the 80 programs last month is an implementation of this investment.

This marks a good start, but sustained investment will launch more Guardians programs and spread the benefits even farther.

“Guardians programs provide hope in our communities,” said Dahti Tsetso, Deputy Director of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative. “They represent our leaders, our knowledge keepers, and our youth. The work that they do gives back to our communities and upholds our knowledge systems. It is a gift we can share with others.”