Melanie Zurba

Dalhousie University | Dal · School for Resource and Environmental Studies and College of Sustainability

Here, we discuss the findings from and high-level recommendations of an IUCN-commissioned review on youth engagement and intergenerational partnership. Our study demonstrates that youth involvement in global conservation efforts at the international scale has grown dramatically over the past several years, with efforts to foster involvement at diff...

In Canada, small craft harbors (SCHs) are a federal government responsibility under Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). SCHs are economic centres for many rural coastal communities in Canada. By studying the role of SCHs on livelihoods one can delineate their importance to the users and community. The pilot study utilized semi-structured telephone i...

The impact of climate-related changes on northern Canada’s renewable resource sectors makes bolstering adaptive capacity an urgent imperative throughout the region. Although social learning is a key ingredient of adaptive capacity, our understanding of the relationships among social learning, adaptive capacity, and climate change adaptation is limi...

An increasing need for novel approaches to knowledge co-production that effectively and equitably address sustainability challenges has arisen in the twenty-first century. Calls for more representative and contextual co-production strategies have come from indigenous communities, scientific research forums, and global environmental governance netwo...

Climate change has become a reality for many people across Canada. Environmental changes occurring in Canadian ecoregions include: increasing temperature, more severe storms, increasing wildfire occurrence, and decreasing sea ice thickness and duration. These events are impacting mental health due to the psychological experience of grieving and los...

Global environmental governance (GEG) forums, such as those convened through the United Nations, result in the development of monumental guiding frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Conference of Parties (COPs) Aichi and post-2020 targets. The ratification of policy frameworks...

This article considers the potential for collaboratively produced boundary education as an advancement of the boundary work concept in academia. The boundary work process aims to support collaboration that works around social, cultural, political, epistemological, and other forms of boundaries. We explore how education can act as a boundary object...

Urban nature has the capacity to enrich the lives of those experiencing it, yet research shows that fewer and fewer humans feel this connection. While experiences with nature continue to decline, engagement with personal technology is on the rise. To engage people with urban trees, we sought to apply this technology in a new way. Text-A-Tree served...

This paper investigates learning occurring through cross-cultural collaboration and how learning processes and outcomes of such learning affect the governance of regional lands and resources in the context of a First Nation-industry partnership in northwestern Ontario, Canada. We use transformative learning theory as a basis for critically analyzin...

Precipitous declines in biodiversity threaten planetary boundaries, requiring transformative changes to conservation. Colonial systems have decimated species and ecosystems and dispossessed Indigenous Peoples of their rights, territories, and livelihoods. Despite these challenges, Indigenous-governed lands retain a large proportion of biodiversity-...

In response to the Premier of Nova Scotia’s announced plans to amend the Biodiversity Act (Bill 4) prior to law amendments, we submit this statement on behalf of Dalhousie University’s School for Resource and Environmental Studies, Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Biodiversity Act is a crucial step towards addressing serious declines in biological diversi...

The research featured in this chapter was part of my PhD dissertation. It actions Jonathan Jansen’s “post- conflict pedagogy” within the context of First Nations-settler relationships relating to forest management in northwestern Ontario. Jansen’s pedagogy was developed in congruence with his experiences as the first black dean at the (predominantl...

This research focuses on how Indigenous peoples might participate in collaborative environmental governance initiated by networked nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Fourteen Indigenous and six non-Indigenous board members and partners of Canadian Model Forests were interviewed and discussed seven aspects of collaborative governance affecting In...

Academic papers and media commentaries frequently appeal to hope as a necessary bulwark against despair for the conservation community. Such claims are often made in the absence of a rigorous discussion of the nature of hope. In this review, we investigate the importance of hope as it applies to conservation workers, educators, and others involved...

Canada is one of the world's top five energy producers and, within Canada's energy sector, the bioenergy economy is rapidly expanding. This research was conducted to identify perceived risks, barriers, benefits, and opportunities relating to the development of biomass energy by Indigenous business leaders and/or their communities. Eighteen Indigeno...

This article provides evidence and a rationale based on adaptive governance studies for why creating meaningful youth engagement should be understood in terms of intergenerational dialogue, collaboration, learning, and substantive decision-making in global environmental governance. We have centered our discussion on the International Union for the...

Substantial increases in the pace, scale, and effectiveness of conservation will be required to abate the ongoing loss of global biodiversity and simultaneous ecological degradation. Concurrently, the need for conservation to respect inherent human rights, including the rights and title of Indigenous Peoples, is increasingly recognized. Here, we de...

Boundary work, art, and place is an emerging intersection of interests in human geography that uses creative activity to facilitate place-based research and governance in partnership with Indigenous and other marginalized peoples. It arose in response to limitations of participatory research and co-management paradigms to effectively ground Indigen...

In this article, we focus on wellbeing as an important concept relating to bioenergy development in Canada. We use a three-dimensional or social approach to understanding wellbeing, which includes subjective and relational aspects in addition to the more traditional material dimension of wellbeing (e.g. financial resources, a healthy environment)....

Forestry companies and First Nations are increasingly working together through new forms of collaborative arrangements. Wincrief Forest Products is an example of such collaboration and was a partnership between Wabaseemoong Independent Nations and forestry and construction professionals from northwestern Ontario. Wincrief was initiated in 2004 lead...

This article provides analysis of the issues relating to movement towards new models for Indigenous-led conservation in light of Canada's initiatives for greater protected areas representation through Target 1. We provide a background on Canada's Pathway to Target 1, which is based on Target 11 from the Aichi Biodiversity Targets set forth by the C...

Boundary work' is a relatively new and innovative qualitative approach in place-based research and often involves the creation of 'boundary objects'. Such objects can be created collaboratively with Indigenous communities, and can be used to communicate knowledge, values and aspirations across social and political boundaries. This article provides...

The rapidly expanding forest bioenergy sector in Canada promises to support low carbon energy options that also support economic development and Indigenous involvement. Li le empirical research has been conducted on Indigenous participation in forest bioenergy in Canada, which points to the need for a nuanced and reliable knowledge base to foster i...

Plain English summary The involvement of patients in health research has resulted in the development of more effective interventions and policies in healthcare that respond to the needs of healthcare users. This article examines how working with youth and their families as co-researchers in health research communities of practice (CoPs), rather tha...

This paper explores ethical challenges in qualitative research by bringing forward examples from the literature and from IN●GAUGE®, a research program spanning over fifteen years and focusing on the significance of multiple perspectives and the value of gauging the health needs of young people and their families. In addition to exploring the ethica...

This research was designed to support the overarching goal of developing a nuanced yet reliable knowledge base that is required if we hope to foster innovation needed to have a world class bioenergy industry that will contribute to community economic development and make Canada a global leader. Findings are significant because they can improve info...

Indigenous peoples (First Nations, Inuit, and Métis) are currently overrepresented in the HIV epidemic in Canada and are infected at a younger age than those who are not Indigenous. This article presents our findings on the stigma and discrimination (as well as related themes such as disclosure) experienced by Indigenous people who contracted HIV i...

In this article we outline the creation of boundary objects as just one of the means to communicate the results of the Youth's Voices research study that sought to understand young people's experiences of living with anxiety. Fifty-eight young people living with anxiety took part in open-ended interviews complemented by photovoice. As one knowledge...

Background Indigenous young people are currently highly overrepresented in the HIV epidemic in Canada, especially in the Prairie Provinces, such as Manitoba. Understanding HIV-vulnerability in Indigenous peoples must begin with understanding that social determinants are intersectional and linked to the historical legacy of European colonization. In...

Traditional food harvesting is an integral part of culture and food security for Indigenous people in Canada and elsewhere. However, new generations are more inclined to consuming market foods rather than traditional foods. We report on a project in Norway House Cree Nation, northern Manitoba, Canada, to engage youth to express their thoughts about...

This paper presents research findings that advance knowledge around the power and agency families with children with complex care needs (CCN). Our conceptual framework uses concepts from geography towards situating the experiences and social realities of family carers within the 'embodied space of care'. The data originate from a longitudinal quali...

Indigenous and local people are increasingly asked to participate in natural resources and environmental governance with limited training and knowledge of environmental, economic, and social policies. This article presents the case for the development of university access programming with a specialization in environmental, economic, and social poli...

Photovoice, a popular method in qualitative participatory research, involves individuals taking photographic images to document and reflect on issues significant to them. Having emerged in the mid-1990s, its popularity has been related to several advantages of working with the method associated with enhanced forms of expression and accessibility, a...

Historically, First Nations in Canada have been marginalized with regards to the governance of forests. This has contributed to racial tensions in places such as northwestern Ontario, where First Nations and settlers have come into conflict over land allocations and forestry practices, causing a great need for reconciliation within the institutions...

Finding Common Ground through Creativity, a community-based action research project, was activated with the purpose of engaging the community, cross-culturally, by exploring the values and connections surrounding land. The project was to create shared-spaces for promoting place-based dialogue around a theme accepting of the intersections of context...

This paper looks at the potential for collaborative governance for land and resources to become a form of on-going reconciliation in societies transitioning from past oppression and on-going social injustice. Structural violence in the form of capacity disparities and policy configuration are explored in order to frame the discussion. Canada and So...

The forests of Northwest Ontario, Canada are common property resources with an emerging and complex governance system involving industry and local, provincial, federal and First Nations governments. Matters are further complicated by recent shifts in the regional economy away from forest products. Additionally, movements towards inclusivity and col...

The trend towards the inclusion of diverse groups in environmental decision-making has led to the need to explore new forms of communication to engage communities in expressing their values and aspirations. Participatory art as an emergent methodology was explored with Traditional Owner groups involved in policy development through the Girringun Ab...

The North End of Winnipeg is an urban Canadian community, which is affected by poverty and food insecurity. A community food security assessment is used here as a model to understand the complexities of food security issues, which are generally embedded in cultural and socio-demographic attributes of a society. Interviews with key informants and fo...

Collaborative problem solving has increasingly become important in the face of the complexities in the management of resources, including protected areas. The strategy undertaken by Girringun Aboriginal Corporation in north tropical Queensland, Australia, for developing co-management demonstrates the potential for a problem solving approach involvi...

Canadian on-line arts magazine

The North End of Winnipeg is an urban Canadian community, which is affected by poverty and food insecurity. A community food security assessment is used here as a model to understand the complexities of food security issues, which are generally embedded in cultural and socio-demographic attributes of a society. Interviews with key informants and fo...

Protected area management in Australia, as in Canada and elsewhere, has begun to focus on community-based management strategies. In response, governments and communities, including Indigenous groups, face the challenges of developing cooperative management arrangements with multiple interests potentially entering the appropriate arenas, and being i...