When research is done on marine environments that may involve Indigenous peoples and their sacred practices or knowledge, researchers and governments often develop a relationship with them that is not actually inclusive nor favorable to the Indigenous groups. They are tolerated or exploited for their knowledge, but do not normally end up having a say in what is going on. It appears that the shadow of colonial thinking still exists.
Less than 0.5% of MPA peer reviewed articles discuss governance and management with respect to indigenous peoples…suggesting that Indigenous peoples are rarely involved. There has been some advancement in this area; Oceania and Canada, for example, do have co-management practices in place. Austraila, New Zealand and the United States however, are primarily government led with little to no involvement allowed by indiginous communities.
One study that looked into this topic noted that in South Africa "When the MPA was introduced to the area (located in the Eastern Cape), the Indigenous coastal communities experienced a whole raft of adverse impacts. These included: the weakening of tenure rights; the criminalisation of customary harvesting and management practices; the loss of access to resources; the loss of livelihoods; the marginalisation and erosion of [Indigenous Knowledge]; the alienation of communities from conservation efforts; the exacerbation of poverty; increased burden on women to find alternative sources of food; the fragmentation of community cohesion and identity; the increase in intergroup conflict (specifically between communities and government officials); and the physical abuse, arrest and imprisonment of community members by MPA officials and police. ”
This colonial attitude towards Indigenous Communities is a great disservice.
Continuing on this vein an article we read gave reference to new research protocols. To avoid conflicts with indigenous communities, researchers at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks authored “Community and Environmental Compliance Standard Operating Procedure,” or CECSOP. While this document does lay out some guidelines for working with and communicating with the communities, it still falls short of truly including them. Indigenous communities are portrayed as a potential hinderance that need to be navigated instead of a source of information and potential partners.
Research into including local communities in projects could be a good starting point for the future. The efforts support the active participation in most to all steps in the research project building buy-in from the community and increased trust and collaboration. Another byproduct was the increase of educated advocates to help spearhead campaigns. If a similar methodology is used when working with Indigenous Communities we think both the community and the researchers will benefit.
