More than just a 'value' : views of aboriginal people in Northern Ontario on aboriginal values in Ontario's forest management planning

Abstract

The last decade has seen an introduction of Aboriginal values into Ontario’s forest management planning. Ontario forest management regulations and forest management research, however, are lacking spatial definitions of Aboriginal values and directions about how they should be protected. The protection designation that does occur in forest management is a mixture of local initiatives and guidelines for cultural heritage sites. The objectives of the thesis are fourfold: (1) to obtain views from Aboriginal people in northern Ontario about important aspects in defining and protecting Aboriginal values in forest management, and specifically, to obtain views on how individual Aboriginal values such as trapping, a trapper’s cabin, a burial site, and a spiritual site should be defined and protected; (2) to obtain views from Aboriginal people in northern Ontario on the use of different mapping media and Virtual Reality GIS in particular in representing and discussing Aboriginal values; (3) to review and analyze pertinent forest management planning regulations in Ontario for their treatment and impact on Aboriginal values; and (4) to make recommendations to improve the process of Aboriginal values identification and protection in forest management planning in Ontario. To achieve the thesis objectives, Aboriginal people from six Aboriginal communities in northern Ontario were interviewed and Ontario forest management regulations and policies examined. The chosen research method for the thesis is qualitative, with focus groups and individual interviews as research instruments and subsequent grouping of data into themes and categories as the method of qualitative analysis. Research results show that (1) Aboriginal people take an encompassing and holistic view when discussing Aboriginal values, including concerns about cumulative impacts from natural resource developments, social and cultural ramifications, wildlife resources, and broad landscape protection of potential burial sites; (2) individual Aboriginal values are sometimes spatially defined as more than the physical objects that represent them; (3) Aboriginal values are in effect expressions of Aboriginal land use and might be more appropriately mapped by using methods already existing in Traditional Land Use and Occupancy Studies; (4) typical forestry maps can be seen as confusing by Aboriginal people, and Virtual Reality GIS media can be an effective alternative to traditional mapping media in discussing Aboriginal values; and (5) within the paradigm of ecosystem forest management, there is a need for the presence of definitions, protection provisions and management objectives for Aboriginal values in Ontario’s forest management regulations.