Indigenous leaders help tackle land protection

Chiefs use workshops to aid communities across the globe

Indigenous leaders in Canada are helping communities across the world in their ongoing struggles with land protection and development.

Global Indigenous Trust, a Toronto-based non-profit working to empower First Nations communities, has just launched a campaign to support the Maya people in southern Belize. The community won legal battles in 2015 to reclaim rights to their land and its natural resources.

But, as is the case in many other indigenous communities all over the world, the government is keen on issuing concessions to oil companies and building hydro dams — the kinds of projects that are prone to destroying the very sacred nature indigenous people want to preserve.

“That’s the dilemma. Yes, you’ve won land rights, now what? You can’t eat that paper,” said trust president Sonia Molodecky, noting poverty and external pressure affect how people decide. “Indigenous communities do want to have a better life for their future, but they want to do it in a way that is respectful of their environment and their values.”

Drawing on Canadian experiences with land treaties, indigenous chiefs conduct workshops to help their counterparts navigate the obstacles. Some leaders are already experts in environmental protection, financial planning and management, capital projects and governance.

Indigenous communities across Canada have largely succeeded in creating economic opportunities on their land through indigenous-led economic development corporations, where shareholders are community members, Molodecky said. The trust tries to replicate those models in other indigenous communities as they rethink land use.