Indigenous-led Nature-Based Solutions for the climate crisis: insights from Canada

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Introduction

The escalating climate crisis, highlighted by severe impacts such as sea-level rise and extreme weather events, has intensified the need for mitigation and adaptation strategies. Indigenous peoples, whose knowledge and practices are rooted in long-term ecosystem stewardship, play an essential role in Nature-Based Solutions. These Indigenous-led NbS align with global goals to reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs) and promote resilience, yet also face challenges from historical and ongoing colonization and insufficient integration in policy frameworks. This article underscores Indigenous communities’ unique position to lead NbS in Canada and globally, focusing on multi-level governance and policy innovation that supports their leadership.

Methodology

The authors used policy frameworks, literature, and case studies to assess Canada’s NbS policies and to describe and illustrate the rapidly evolving landscape for Indigenous-led conservation partnerships and collaborations in Canada. This approach integrates data on global climate frameworks and provides case-specific evidence on Indigenous NbS in Canada. In doing so, it explores how a diversity of innovative approaches, incentives, and guiding frameworks for advancing landscape-scale conservation efforts and Indigenous collaborations with broad co-benefits can be achieved through ethical, reconciliatory collaborations.

Indigenous peoples and communities and Indigenous-led NbS: the international context

For millennia, Indigenous peoples around the world have used their Indigenous knowledge and science for adapting and living with nature. Globally, about 476.6 million Indigenous peoples, with 5,000 unique traditional cultures and ancestral lands across 90 countries, commonly share historic connections to lands and waters that protect and provide biodiverse natural habitats and life-supporting ecosystems.

Despite constituting only 5% of the global population and stewarding between 13% and 20% of global lands, Indigenous-held territories contain an estimated 80% of globally remaining biodiversity. Indigenous lands are critical to global efforts to capture and sequester carbon through the protection, conservation management, and restoration of natural landscapes that serve as important carbon sinks (e.g., forests, fields, and wetlands) and biodiversity hotspots.

A number of global frameworks offer guidance for local adaptation and mitigation. In 2015, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 were created and endorsed by almost all countries.

While emerging global frameworks show some promise, scholars have raised concerns including:

• Global goals do not sufficiently consider Indigenous world views or priorities;
• There is a need to “go beyond the global targets set by the UN to identify partnership goals that will foster our ability to achieve the SDGs for [and with] Indigenous Peoples by 2030”;
• Partnerships to achieve the SDGs will only be relevant to Indigenous peoples if there is “ . . . a collective acknowledgement of the past”, as well as an understanding of what Indigenous people seek to achieve.

Mitigation and adaptation efforts through NbS and other emerging approaches need to be situated within historic and ongoing colonization of Indigenous lands and waters. The 2015 Paris Agreement promotes global climate resilience through mitigation, adaptation, and sustainable development, urging countries to include Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), though challenges persist in setting quantifiable targets, especially in developing countries.

UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and Nature-Based Solutions: Launched by the UN General Assembly in 2021, the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration aims to prevent and reverse ecosystem degradation worldwide. It emphasizes the restoration of ecosystems as crucial for combating climate change, ending poverty, and sustaining biodiversity. The authors point out that the long-term level of success for NbS and conservation approaches is inextricably tied to the timely success of overall mitigation efforts, which requires an urgent and drastic increase in climate finance.Input from Indigenous People and Local Communities (IPLC) must be meaningfully included and financially supported in the rollout of global climate action at national and regional scales.

UNFCBD and Aichi Targets: The 1993 UN Framework Convention on Biological Diversity (UNFCBD) and the Aichi Targets of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity (2011–2020), serve as a blueprint for biodiversity conservation, promoting sustainable use and equitable benefit-sharing. Target 11 pursued the protection and conservation of terrestrial and inland water, as well as coastal and marine areas. Target 18 promotes the integration of Indigenous knowledge and practices into national biodiversity and sustainability efforts under UNFCBD and other international agreements.

Emerging Global Standard for NbS: The IUCN has developed a global standard for NbS to establish ethical practices and governance. This includes provisions for evaluating forest restoration, integrated water management, ecosystem-based adaptation, mitigation, and disaster risk reduction. It also includes UNDRIP rights of Indigenous peoples to self-determination and free, prior, and informed consent in implementing NbS on Indigenous lands and territories.

Policy Landscape for Advancing Indigenous-Led NbS: There is a need to address colonial structures in NbS deployment to prevent practices that could exploit Indigenous lands for offsetting emissions from profit-driven economies. The equitable involvement of Indigenous peoples is seen as vital for NbS that respects Indigenous land rights and knowledge systems. Indigenous Climate Action advocates for inclusive policy developments and the implementation of NbS and conservation measures in ways that ensure the acknowledgment of Indigenous peoples as rights holders with distinct obligations and responsibilities to protect and preserve natural areas, while prioritizing decarbonization alongside adaptation measures.

Canada’s national policy landscape

Pan-Canadian Framework on Climate Change: Canada’s 2016 framework emphasizes collaboration with Indigenous communities in climate action, integrating traditional knowledge in adaptation strategies to build climate resilience. Canada’s strengthened climate plan, “Healthy Environment and Healthy Economy” (HEHE, 2020) states objectives to protect the environment, create jobs, and support communities. The plan focuses on reducing GHG emissions and stresses the importance of NbS through Indigenous collaborations. It also mentions the development of Canada’s first-ever National Adaptation Strategy, working with provincial, territorial, and municipal governments, Indigenous peoples, and other key partners to establish a shared vision for climate resilience in Canada

Advancing Adaptation and Risk Reduction in Canada: Geographic diversity of climate risks and impacts in Canada necessitates collaborative, holistic leadership across political boundaries and cultures to realize successful adaptation outcomes. This includes advancing contributions to support Indigenous reconciliation and climate leadership, while generating equitable opportunities for economic recovery and disaster risk reduction.

Indigenous Communities’ Roles in Nature-Based Solutions for the Climate Crisis: The Canadian parliamentary ratification of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2021), and the findings of the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2015) provide an essential sociopolitical backdrop to the broader landscape for innovations in conservation partnerships.

Conservation in Canada and Indigenous Guardians Initiative: National and regional peer-led networks in Canada, like Indigenous Guardians (IG), play a vital role in disaster risk reduction, conservation, and climate adaptation, promoting cultural knowledge transfer, environmental monitoring, and land-based employment. IG initiatives, supported by federal funding, help achieve both national and international climate and biodiversity goals, fostering reconciliation and strengthening Indigenous leadership in conservation through partnerships and collaborative governance.

Indigenous-Led Collaborations on Conservation Projects in Canada: Since 2018, the national Canada Nature Fund has invested in the development of 30 Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) and 25 additional projects aimed at enabling the planning and capacity building needed to establish IPCAs. Scholars emphasize that continued progress on IPCAs requires focusing efforts on “conservation and reconciliation by restoring nation-to-nation relationships and relationships between the land and peoples.”

Target One Goals and IPCAs: Target One Challenge investments by the federal government of Canada aim to support and enhance ecological connectivity and opportunities for Indigenous-led conservation and collaborations, with co-benefits for species at risk and carbon storage. IPCAs play a key role in supporting Target One Goals, by promoting the protection, conservation, and restoration of the ecosystem services.

IPCAs in Canada: They authors find that 87% of funded projects are Indigenous-led or primarily involve Indigenous collaborations on matters related to establishing or working preliminarily on developing IPCAs. The government of Canada reports that 58% of funded projects are expected to establish a protected or conserved area in the near future, and 41% of projects will build capacity for protected and conserved areas over the next 5 to 10 years. Data from Canada’s Target One Challenge estimates that over 17 million hectares of land have the potential to be protected under IPCA development, with projects spanning diverse regions and reflecting Indigenous values and stewardship practices.

Innovation in Conservation Finance: New financing models, such as the Conservation Impact Bond (CIP) pilot with Chippewas of the Thames First Nation, provide innovative funding for Indigenous-led conservation, advancing NbS while attracting investment in sustainable projects. The CIP pilot pairs social impact investors and corporate outcome payers to protect, conserve, and restore 1000 acres of rare Carolinian habitat in densely urbanized and agricultural south-western Ontario.

Discussion

The study shows that Indigenous leadership and collaborations have been central to the implementation of NbS in Canada. It advocates for the establishment of “ethical spaces” that foster mutual respect between Indigenous and settler societies, enabling true collaboration on NbS projects. It also underscores the need for frameworks that respect Indigenous land rights, prioritize Indigenous knowledge, and promote co-management of resources. Critical attention is required to ensure the true, inclusive, meaningful, and self-determined participation of IPLCs in greater rights-based opportunities for responsible, accountable, and just climate interventions. A pathway forward involves integrating Indigenous-led conservation within Canada’s broader climate strategies, supporting socio-economic resilience in Indigenous communities, and advancing international efforts that center Indigenous leadership in NbS. To ensure effective NbS implementation, continuous community engagement, policy support, and adaptive management are essential.

Conclusion

Indigenous-led NbS in Canada are vital for achieving meaningful climate action, biodiversity conservation, and reconciliation. Supporting Indigenous leadership and knowledge within NbS frameworks enables resilient, inclusive approaches to climate adaptation that respect Indigenous rights and values. As global and national climates evolve, these Indigenous-led initiatives provide a model for sustainable, ethical conservation practices that address both ecological and cultural priorities.

Suggested citation

Vogel, B., Yumagulova, L., McBean, G., Charles Norris, K.A. (2022) Indigenous-Led Nature-Based Solutions for the Climate Crisis: Insights from Canada. Sustainability, 14, 6725. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/su14116725