Item – Theses Canada

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OCLC number
1006675392
Author
Natcher, David C.,1967-
Title
Co-operative resource management as an adaptive strategy for aboriginal communities : the Whitefish Lake First Nation case study.
Degree
Ph. D. -- University of Alberta, 1999
Publisher
Ottawa : National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, [2000]
Description
3 microfiches
Notes
Includes bibliographical references.
Abstract
Over the last three decades the traditionally used territory of the Whitefish Lake First Nation (WFLFN) has been targeted for the extraction of both renewable and nonrenewable natural resources to the extent of limiting all other forest uses, including the traditional land use patterns of Whitefish Lake residents. As a result of the industrial and regulatory effect, the WFLFN has found itself nested within a landscape of competing and dominating interests that have failed to recognize the cultural significance of the land in the formation of the Whitefish Lake identity. Because of the interplay of interests that have come to exist within the same geographical landscape, and because access to lands and resources remains fundamental to Cree culture, Whitefish Lake has recognized the need to establish an interdependent relationship with competing interests or risk continued marginalization or possible displacement. Accomplished through the Whitefish Lake Co-operative Management Agreement, the reordering of existing social systems has provided an institutional space to articulate local concerns, has facilitated local involvement in the land management process, and has established mechanisms of self-empowerment through which the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and economic self-sufficiency can provide a wider range of options for Whitefish Lake to call upon when dealing with competing populations. Thus the Whitefish Lake Co-operative Management Agreement, as used in this analysis, represents an adaptive strategy employed by the WFLFN to enact fundamental change in the institutions that most directly influence their access to traditionally used land and resources. This research therefore represents a primary theme in human ecology; that is, the study of how people adapt, whether through competitive or cooperative processes, to gain or maintain access to natural resources.
ISBN
0612468933
9780612468931