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Environmental Management
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-024-02075-0
Setting Tiered Management Triggers using a Values-based Approach
in an Indigenous-led Cumulative Effects Management System
Katerina Kwon 1●Tom Gunton2●Murray Rutherford1●Taylor Zeeg3
Received: 31 August 2024 / Accepted: 17 October 2024
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2024
Abstract
Indigenous-led cumulative effects assessment and management (CEM) has emerged in recent years as a proactive and
strategic approach for addressing the cumulative impacts of industrial development and other activities. CEM identifies and
monitors high-priority values and stressors and develops management strategies to restore and improve the condition of
those values. As Indigenous-led CEM evolves, it faces a major challenge in linking cumulative effects assessment and
monitoring information to effective management actions. One promising approach to address this challenge is the use of
tiered management triggers, which are a series of progressive markers associated with specified degrees of change in the
condition of a value, designed to reflect increasing levels of concern about the value. These types of limits or thresholds
inform decision-makers that they need to act, or act more intensively, to restore values to an acceptable state. In this paper,
we present a novel method for setting tiered management triggers that was developed in an Indigenous-led CEM program.
We co-developed this six-step method with the Metlakatla First Nation (located on the northwest coast of British Columbia,
Canada) and applied it in a series of community workshops to select triggers for three values in the Metlakatla CEM
Program: butter clams, housing, and food, social, and ceremonial activity. The method draws from participatory frameworks
including structured decision-making and collaborative planning. The workshop results show that management triggers can
successfully be established through a values-focused process of social choice, involving community engagement and
informed by relevant scientific research and other knowledge.
Keywords Cumulative effects ●Cumulative effects assessment and management ●Management triggers ●Thresholds ●
Indigenous planning ●Structured decision making
Introduction
Many Indigenous peoples have experienced first-hand an
accumulation of adverse changes to their environment and
well-being arising from industrial projects and other
development activities (Adams et al. 2023; Lawe et al.
2005). In response, Indigenous groups are leading the
development of innovative cumulative effects management
(CEM) programs to manage the effects of past, present, and
future policies, projects, and activities (Che and Hickey
2021; Davies et al. 2020). CEM is an approach for
addressing cumulative effects that identifies and monitors
high-priority values and stressors and connects that infor-
mation to action plans and decision-making (Clogg et al.
2017; Noble 2013). In Indigenous-led CEM, monitoring
and management strategies are designed by Indigenous
people to support their own stewardship and decision-
making and to influence natural resource decisions made by
other levels of government. Some notable examples of
Indigenous-led or Indigenous-driven CEM in Canada
include the Metlakatla CEM Program (Metlakatla Stew-
ardship Society 2019), Tsleil-Waututh CEM Initiative
(Tsleil-Waututh Nation 2022), and the Northwest Terri-
tories Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program (Govern-
ment of Northwest Territories 2021).
Indigenous-led CEM programs have been lauded for
their innovative and holistic approaches to cumulative
effects assessment and management (Indigenous Centre for
*Katerina Kwon
katerina_kwon@sfu.ca
1School of Resource and Environmental Management, Simon
Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6,
Canada
2Resource and Environmental Planning Program, Simon Fraser
University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6,
Canada
3Tributary Project Services Ltd, Whitehorse, YT, Canada
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