natural resource management

Expanded Ethical Principles for Research Partnership and Transdisciplinary Natural Resource Management Science

Year

Natural resource researchers have long recognized the value of working closely with the managers and communities who depend on, steward, and impact ecosystems. These partnerships take various forms, including co-production and transdisciplinary research approaches, which integrate multiple knowledges in the design and implementation of research objectives, questions, methods, and desired outputs or outcomes.

These collaborations raise important methodological and ethical challenges, because partnering with non-scientists can have real-world risks for people and ecosystems. The social sciences and biomedical research studies offer a suite of conceptual tools that enhance the quality, ethical outcomes, and effectiveness of research partnerships. For example, the ethical guidelines and regulations for human subjects research, following the Belmont Principles, help prevent harm and promote respectful treatment of research participants.

However, science–management partnerships require an expanded set of ethical concepts to better capture the challenges of working with individuals, communities, organizations, and their associated ecosystems, as partners, rather than research subjects. We draw from our experiences in collaborative teams, and build upon the existing work of natural resources, environmental health, conservation and ecology, social science, and humanities scholars, to develop an expanded framework for ethical research partnership.

This includes four principles: (1) appropriate representation, (2) self-determination, (3) reciprocity, and (4) deference, and two cross-cutting themes: (1) applications to humans and non-human actors, and (2) acquiring appropriate research skills. This framework is meant to stimulate important conversations about expanding ethics training and skills for researchers in all career-stages to improve partnerships and transdisciplinary natural resources research.

Resource Type
Citation

Wilmer, H., Meadow, A. M., Brymer, A. B., Carroll, S. R., Ferguson, D. B., Garba, I., Greene, C., Owen, G., & Peck, D. E. (2021). Expanded Ethical Principles for Research Partnership and Transdisciplinary Natural Resource Management Science. Environmental Management. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-021-01508-4

Surging Waters: Science Empowering Communities in the Face of Flooding

Producer
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Year

Surging Waters: Science Empowering Communities in the Face of Flooding is a report produced by AGU, a global not-for-profit scientific society dedicated to advancing the Earth and space sciences for the benefit of humanity. The report is reviewed by leading experts in these fields. From devastating monsoons to sea level rise, extreme weather is taking its toll across the globe. Surging Waters looks at flooding in the United States and demonstrates how science is supporting flood management, as well as furthering the solutions needed to mitigate flood impacts on people and property in the future.The report’s authors highlight three types of flooding—flooding due to hurricanes, floods in the central U.S., and coastal flooding—through local stories. In 2017, Houston, Texas, was hit by Hurricane Harvey, the second most damaging weather disaster in U.S. history, and is still recovering.

The city of De Soto, MO, is emblematic of many areas in the Midwest that have been plagued by recurrent flash flooding. The Hampton Roads area of coastal Virginia has fallen victim to sinking land and rising seas.Through these stories and others, and compelling flood data presented for regions across the United States, the report shows how scientific research and data collection are essential to finding modern-day and future solutions to mitigate flooding. Robust funding for science-related federal agencies drives the advancement of science and provides support that is critical for the most vulnerable communities and individuals. Surging Waters recommends actions that community members and leaders, scientists, federal agencies, and policy makers can take to build a strong foundation to empower communities to make decisions for a more resilient and sustainable future.

Communities can use this report to inform and guide conversations with stakeholders on local, regional, and national levels. Lawmakers need to hear that people care about flooding issues and support the scientists working toward solutions. It is essential that science, with support from policy makers, continues to inspire readiness, cultivate collaboration, and empower communities.

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

American Geophysical Union. (2020). Surging Waters: Science Empowering Communities In the Face of Flooding. Retrieved from https://scienceisessential.org//wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2019/10/Sur….

Chemşhúun Pe'ícháachuqeli (When our Hearts are Happy): A Tribal Psychosocial Climate Resilience Framework

Year

Tribes are keenly aware of the interconnection between health, nature, and personal wellbeing. Leading experts in climate change and wellbeing are increasingly encouraging communities to be proactive about protecting and building psychological, social, cultural, and spiritual wellbeing. Often overlooked in adaptation planning, wellbeing interventions can be critical to adapting to the growing stressors and trauma associated with climate change.

Climate changes are expected to present unpredictable, severe, long-term, and recurring adversities for communities across the U.S. They can induce biological stress responses, especially in the absence of personal coping skills and trusted social relationships. New climate stressors compound historical traumas that tribes encountered over generations of ecological and political change, such as the eviction of the Cupeño people from their ancestral homeland in 1903. The need for trauma-and culture-informed interventions is greater and more urgent than ever.

Chemşhúun Pe'ícháachuqeli, Pala’s Tribal Psychosocial Climate Resilience Framework, is designed to help Pala and other communities consider how to safeguard mental and emotional wellbeing when preparing for the impacts of climate change. This report is part of Pala’s National Indian Health Board (NIHB) funded Climate Change Adaptation Plan, which incorporates health and wellbeing strategies.

Resource Type
Citation

Gaughen, Shasta and Angie Hacker. Chemşhúun Pe'ícháachuqeli (When our Hearts are Happy): A Tribal Psychosocial Climate Resilience Framework. (June 2019). Pala Band of Mission Indians: Pala, CA. Accessed March 22, 2023: http://tribalclimatehealth.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Psychosocial-…

Tribal Climate Adaptation Menu

Year

Climate change has impacted and will continue to impact indigenous peoples, their lifeways and culture,
and the natural world upon which they rely, in unpredictable and potentially devastating ways. Many climate
adaptation planning tools fail to address the unique needs, values and cultures of indigenous communities.
This Tribal Climate Adaptation Menu, which was developed by a diverse group of collaborators
representing tribal, academic, intertribal and government entities in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan,
provides a framework to integrate indigenous and traditional knowledge, culture, language and history into
the climate adaptation planning process. Developed as part of the Climate Change Response Framework,
the Tribal Climate Adaptation Menu is designed to work with the Northern Institute of Applied Climate
Science (NIACS) Adaptation Workbook, and as a stand-alone resource. The Menu is an extensive collection
of climate change adaptation actions for natural resource management, organized into tiers of general and
more specific ideas. It also includes a companion Guiding Principles document, which describes detailed
considerations for working with tribal communities. While this first version of the Menu was created based
on Ojibwe and Menominee perspectives, languages, concepts and values, it was intentionally designed to
be adaptable to other indigenous communities, allowing for the incorporation of their language, knowledge
and culture. Primarily developed for the use of indigenous communities, tribal natural resource agencies
and their non-indigenous partners, this Tribal Climate Adaptation Menu may be useful in bridging
communication barriers for non-tribal persons or organizations interested in indigenous approaches to
climate adaptation and the needs and values of tribal communities.

Resource Type
Citation

Tribal Adaptation Menu Team. 2019. Dibaginjigaadeg Anishinaabe Ezhitwaad: A Tribal Climate Adaptation Menu. Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, Odanah, Wisconsin.

Return of the Red Lake Walleye (Ogaag bii azhe giiwewag)

Author
Producer
Native Nations Institute
Year

The Native Nations Institute's film "Return of the Red Lake Walleye" is a 30-minute documentary that tells a compelling story of tribal sovereignty in practice. It chronicles the extraordinary effort of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians -- working together with the State of Minnesota and the federal government -- to bring back the culturally vital walleye from the brink of extinction and restore it to health in Red Lake. It examines how the Band and State overcame decades of bad blood to forge an innovative public policy solution that puts cooperation before conflict and science before politics, fueling an amazing recovery that has defied the odds.

Resource Type
Citation

Record, Ian (Director). (2010). Return of the Red Lake Walleye [film]. Native Nations Institute. Tucson, AZ.

Honoring Nations All-Stars Profile: The Red Lake Walleye Recovery Program

Year

In 1997, the members of the Red Lake Fisheries Association (RLFA), a cooperative established by com-mercial fishermen from the Red Lake Nation,1 voted to discontinue all commercial gillnet fishing on Red Lake for the upcoming season. An overwhelming majority of the RLFA’s members supported the decision, despite its direct impact on their livelihoods. Less than a year later, the Red Lake Tribal Council passed a resolution banning hook-and-line subsistence fishing for walleye, effectively ending all fishing on tribal waters. Hundreds of families lost income from the demise of commercial walleye fishing, and with the overall fishing ban, every tribal citizen lost access to a significant food source. But witnessing firsthand the stark decline of the walleye and recognizing that a vital cultural and economic resource was slipping away, the Red Lake Nation had taken a stand: it needed to do everything it could to save the walleye and make its iconic lake healthy again.

Resource Type
Citation

Dolan, Jamie; Ian Record; Miriam Jorgensen; and Eileen Briggs. "Honoring Nations All-Stars Profile: The Red Lake Walleye Recovery Program". Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2013.

Water Quality Standards (Sandia)

Year

Responding to the severe contamination of the Rio Grande River that threatens human health and ceremonial uses of the water, the Pueblo was awarded "treatment as state" status in 1990. Subsequently, the Pueblo developed and implemented US EPA approved water quality standards that give it control over local and regional water issues as well as management of water quality improvement efforts. In 1997, the Pueblo of Sandia received EPA's "Partnership in Environmental Excellence Award" for "outstanding success in developing an environmental management program to protect and manage tribal resources." Most importantly, the Pueblo is acting to ensure the program's future success; by having the Pueblo's grade school students tour the river and test its water quality as part of the school science projects. The Pueblo of Sandia is helping to create a new generation of water quality guardians.

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

"Water Quality Standards." Honoring Nations: 1999 Honoree. Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2000. Report.

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.

Trust Resource Management (Salish and Kootenai)

Year

For more than three decades, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) have been building capable governing institutions and taking over management of resources and programs previously managed by outsiders. Recognizing that self-management both allows the tribal government to determine its own priorities and has positive bottom-line effects, CSKT is a leader in incorporating tribal values into natural resource management and in delivering first-rate services to its 7,000 citizens.

Resource Type
Citation

"Trust Resource Management." Honoring Nations: 2003 Honoree. Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2004. Report.

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.

Red Lake Walleye Recovery Project

Year

Clearly demonstrating that tribal nations not only have the ability to make large scale achievements in resource conservation, but that they can do so with unprecedented success, the Red Lake Walleye Fishery Recovery Project has brought the walleye fish population back from virtual extinction to an optimal level in less than a decade. Operating under a consensus arrangement with local and commercial fisherman, as well as state and federal officials, the Recovery Project now determines when, how, and who can fish the historic waters from which the Band claims their name.

Resource Type
Citation

"Red Lake Walleye Recovery Project." Honoring Nations: 2006 Honoree. Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2007. Report.

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.

Umatilla Basin Salmon Recovery Project

Year

The Umatilla Basin Salmon Recovery Project has successfully restored salmon to the Umatilla River, where they had been absent for nearly 70 years, while also protecting the local irrigated agriculture economy. Partnering with local irrigators and community leaders, the tribe undertook a comprehensive effort that included fish passage improvements, stream habitat enhancement, hatchery stations, research, and a federally funded project that allowed irrigators to access water from other sources. In addition to bringing a thriving salmon population back to the River — a cultural and economic imperative for the tribe — the Project has fostered cooperative relationships among stakeholders with divergent interests.

Resource Type
Citation

"Umatilla Basin Salmon Recovery Project." Honoring Nations: 2002 Honoree. Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2003. Report.

Permissions

This Honoring Nations report is featured on the Indigenous Governance Database with the permission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.