Ottawa Justice © Courtesy of RAVEN
Many of us learn as children about the food web, predators and prey, and the interconnectedness of the ecosystems around us. But we are now facing a biodiversity crisis that threatens to remove crucial strands of those webs, leading to the collapse of our ecosystems as we know them.
But there is a solution that is already proving successful—we just need to implement it.
Indigenous-managed land has some of the highest rates of biodiversity and conservation success; there is growing evidence in the scientific literature that Indigenous-managed lands are at least as effective as Canadian protected areas in resisting deforestation and ecological degradation. According to one recent comparative study, Indigenous-managed lands in Australia, Brazil, and Canada host greater biodiversity than government-managed protected areas or randomly selected non-protected areas. In Canada specifically, biodiversity is often equal or greater in Indigenous-managed lands than in government-managed parks. In British Columbia, a government-to-government partnership between Saulteau First Nation and West Moberly First Nation led to the development of the world’s most effective recovery program for endangered caribou.
Unfortunately, not everyone recognizes these benefits. As a result, Indigenous Nations across Canada are taking Canada and the provinces to court to fight for their territories and their rights. As these Nations gain control of their territories, they are able to implement the land management practices that we need to protect biodiversity.
These include Nations like the Heiltsuk Nation, who are challenging the failure of the regulatory system to provide compensation and restoration for an oil spill that devastated their coastline and the plants and animals that called it home; the Gitxaała Nation, which is seeking to have British Columbia uphold the promises it made to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which will help them continue taking the steps needed to protect their territory; and Beaver Lake Cree Nation who are arguing that Treaty No. 6 and their rights have been rendered meaningless because of Canada and Alberta’s failure to consider the cumulative impacts that industry has on their land.
With each of these legal challenges—and the others RAVEN supports—Nations are moving one step closer to being able to govern and manage their territories in ways that protect biodiversity. RAVEN fundraises to support Nations facing governments and corporations in court because, without this financial support, many of these Nations would be unable to pursue justice for these violations of their rights. And without taking these violations to court justice, we will continue to see degraded ecosystems, dwindling biodiversity, and additional effects of the climate crisis.
An Indigenous-led organization, RAVEN is the only charity in Canada with a mission to assist Indigenous Nations with funds to protect their rights and territories in court. Thanks to thousands of monthly supporters and donors committed to providing access to justice for Indigenous Nations, RAVEN has raised over 22 million dollars since 2010 for Nations whose legal victories have protected sacred lands, upheld Indigenous rights, stopped pipelines, defended the land from open-pit mining, and set powerful precedents for future generations.
Indigenous nations are protecting the land and environment for themselves and for all of us. Will you join them?
Visit us at raventrust.com and make a donation to sustain our work in raising funds to help Indigenous Peoples enshrine stewardship values into law.
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Supporting the assertion of the inherent and constitutionally-protected rights of Indigenous Peoples is a powerful pathway towards reconciliation and environmental justice. Working together we’ve raised millions of dollars to back some of the most groundbreaking legal challenges of our time.