Conservation initiatives led by Indigenous peoples are a relatively recent phenomenon gaining momentum around the world. Initiatives to establish Indigenous protected areas are also taking root in Canada. We studied the Akumunan Biodiversity Reserve (ABR) in the province of Quebec to assess (1) the approach followed by the Essipit Innu First Nation (EIFN) Band Council to implement the ABR; (2) the EIFN’s vision that led to the creation of the ABR; and (3) the role the EIFN would like to play in the governance of the ABR. Six focus groups conducted with 22 community members have shown that the process which led to the creation of the ABR was fraught with challenges. The EIFN’s vision for the ABR is holistic — “everything” must be protected to respect the memory of the Elders and ensure natural resource sustainability. To ensure the respect of this vision, the community wants to play a leading role in governing the ABR. The EIFN faced many challenges, notably administrative hurdles, opposition due to cultural and value differences, lack of long-term funding, and disregard for the relationship that Indigenous people have with the land. Respecting EIFN’s vision also demands that traditional activities on the land be allowed to continue in protected areas, in order to guarantee that the identity, culture, health, and well-being of current and future generations will be maintained. The community management model developed by the EIFN Band Council provides useful insights on the process leading to the acknowledgement of the Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area status. Moreover, it could be a source of inspiration for other Indigenous conservation projects.

Ecosystem-based management, now a dominant forestry paradigm, implies reducing the gap between variability of natural and managed forests (i.e. ecological distance) to reconcile ecological issues with production of socioeconomic services. Here, we tested whether a trade-off exists between conserving key ecosystem attributes of natural forests and maintaining and/or increasing merchantable wood production at the stand scale in humid boreal stands. Using 20-y data from an experimental design comparing silviculture scenarios of increasing intensity, (i) careful logging around advance growth (CLAAG); (ii) CLAAG followed by pre-commercial thinning; (iii) plantation followed by mechanical release; and (iv) plantation followed by chemical release, we examined plant community composition, stand structure and the quantity and the quality of snags. We also assessed timber productivity by comparing scenarios in terms of conifer and merchantable (diameter at breast height > 9 cm) tree dimensions. We used data from stands originating from a spruce budworm outbreak as a baseline to understand scenario impacts on variability of key attributes and productivity. Our results showed increasing differences in these attributes between natural and managed stands with increasing silviculture intensity: the diameter structure became more homogenized, light demanding species richness and abundance increased and the quantity and the quality of snags decreased. Therefore, our results showed that the ecological distance from naturally disturbed stands was lower after CLAAG than after the other silviculture scenarios. However, CLAAG favored an increase in the density of deciduous trees and a decrease of conifer snag density that have the potential to affect resilience of mature stands. Pre-commercial thinning resulted in crop trees reaching larger diameter than following CLAAG only and in the decrease of birch tree density, with no effect on deciduous regeneration density ? 60 cm in height. We measured higher basal area of merchantable trees in plantations than in stands originating from natural regeneration scenarios, with mechanical and chemical release scenarios resulting in similar crop tree productivity. Globally, our study confirmed a general antagonism between the impacts of silviculture on key ecosystem attributes and forest productivity, posing a challenge for reconciling ecological issues with the production of socioeconomic services. At the stand level, results support that retention forestry could emulate natural disturbances by conserving biological legacies during harvest in humid boreal forests. Further research is needed to determine retention parameters to achieve expected wood production while maintaining variability of key attributes in humid boreal forests. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.

Effects of habitat loss and fragmentation on the behavior of individual organisms may have direct consequences on population viability in altered forest ecosystems. The American marten (Martes americana) is a forest specialist considered as one of the most sensitive species to human-induced disturbances. As some studies have shown that martens cannot tolerate

Abstract:

In the last 25 years, the number of published studies that refer to traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) has constantly increased, with now more than 200 papers published each year. The objective of this review was to determine how this knowledge is used in current forest management around the world, and how local communities are involved in forest management planning. Published papers from 1983 to 2005 relating to TEK were found using the ISI Web of Science database. Despite the growing amount of literature published on TEK, we found only 21 studies that specifically address forest management per se. In these studies, TEK integration took different paths: using traditional management rules as a framework (five studies), using value maps to adapt practices in time and space (three studies), or by a zoning process that divides the land into areas in which different land uses are emphasized (six studies). Some community involvements are “active” with co-management committees composed of stakeholders (including community members), each having a voice; some are “passive” with external managers using criteria and indicators previously developed from community values and objectives. Although important changes in mentality and firm political decisions are still required before more efficient partnership between TEK and western science is reached in forest management planning, our review showed that Canadian initiatives proposed promising processes that could ensure better TEK incorporation and improved community participation.

Résumé:

Au cours des 25 dernières années, la quantité d’études traitant des savoirs écologiques traditionnels (SET) a constamment augmenté, atteignant maintenant plus de 200 publications par an. L’objectif de cette revue de littérature était de déterminer comment ces connaissances sont utilisées aujourd’hui pour l’aménagement forestier à travers le monde, et comment les populations locales sont impliquées dans la planification de l’aménagement forestier. Tous les articles traitant des SET, publiés entre 1983 et 2005, ont été extraits à partir de la base de données ISI Web of Science.Malgré l’abondance de littérature publiée sur les SET, seulement 30 études abordaient spécifiquement l’aménagement forestier comme tel. Dans ces études, l’intégration du SET pouvait prendre différentes avenues : s’inspirer des règles ancestrales de gestion (cinq études), adapter les pratiques dans le temps et l’espace en fonction des valeurs à priorizer (trois études), ou en divisant le territoire en zones à vocations différentes basées sur l’utilisation des terres (six études). L’engagement des communautés pouvait être « actif », à travers des comités de co-gestion composés des différents utilisateurs de la forêt (incluant des membres de la communauté), chacun ayant une voix ; ou « passif » lorsque des aménagistes extérieurs utilisaient des critères et indicateurs développés à partir des valeurs et objectifs de la communauté. Cependant, d’importants changements de mentalité et des décisions politiques fermes seront encore nécessaires avant de voir une participation entière des communautés et une incorporation effective des SET et de la science occidentale dans la planification forestière. Il semble, par ailleurs, que plusieurs initiatives canadiennes présentent des processus prometteurs pour s’assurer de l’incorporation des savoirs traditionnels et pour instaurer une gestion participative.