Thank you.
For the record, my name is Nils Andreassen. I'm the executive director of the Alaska Municipal League. It's in that capacity, and as the former director of the Institute of the North, that I am speaking to you today. I want to be clear that I am not speaking for, or on behalf of, indigenous peoples. Really, I want to reflect on roughly a decade's worth of work with the Arctic Council and with northern peoples. My comments will be in that regard.
I was able to facilitate a workshop in partnership with the Arctic Council just a few years back that was related to this topic of good practices and meaningful engagement. I'll read through some of the summary notes from that and then be ready to answer questions more specifically on some Alaska examples.
“Good” practice is challenging to define. For a government agency, good might mean consistent with current law and customary practice, and the ability to be impartial but responsive. For a project proponent, efficient but effective may be considered good, as they are concerned with timeliness as well as the outcomes of a decision. Generally speaking, decisions will reflect good practice when they work the best for most, and include or respond to all points of view. A good practice will allow an agency or government to quantitatively understand and assess impacts.
At the community level and for indigenous peoples, good practice will feel right if the ultimate decision is values-driven and reflects local feedback. Good practices should include effective coordination between agencies, between project proponents and the community, and between rights holders within the region. Good practices should include engagement that occurs early and often, and ultimately long before decision-making. That engagement doesn't stop with a decision, but the decision should be reported back to a community, with an explanation of how local and indigenous input was included. Good practices should include inclusiveness that spans different types of user groups and also types of knowledge or cultural context. They should also include the co-production of knowledge, which will result in the research used within that process, and have local and indigenous knowledge holders involved in each component of that process.
Meaningful engagement will reflect these practices. Meaningful engagement should feel like an equitable partnership between indigenous peoples, local rights holders and government agencies. This should be developed well before a project, but be demonstrated within a decision-making process with robust communication, inclusion and respect. One of the challenges, however, of meaningful engagement is to determine the extent to which local and indigenous input impacts a project decision. How is that input weighted? Ultimately, who gets to decide whether a project should move forward or not?
The meaningful engagement of indigenous peoples goes well beyond consultation and includes both formal and informal versions. It enhances a project through the application of traditional knowledge and the inclusion of traditional knowledge holders. The idea of building relationships with communities goes well beyond consultation or most review processes. It extends into every facet of government, industry and research activities. The goals from this relationship-building are to understand indigenous cultures and knowledge, and to ultimately result in trust and respect for the region and peoples.
The history of projects and research in the region finds that time and time again, mistakes were made when local peoples were not included, and value derived when they were. Projects, whether driven by research or industry, are more successful when local and indigenous knowledge is embedded in the design, implementation and decision-making. The meaningful engagement of indigenous peoples results not just in better results or understanding but also in increased safety related to activities in the region.
As sovereigns, indigenous governments demand a more robust level of engagement and corresponding expectations. Expectations can range from being informed early in a project scoping, or even before scoping occurs, to follow-up throughout the life of a project. Multiple meetings with government agencies require multiple follow-up engagements that answer questions or provide additional information. Government decision-making should reflect a balanced approach to the need for economic development—including jobs to local residents, revenue to local governments and mitigation measures—and environmental protection and food security.
The disconnect between resources extracted from a remote region and the revenue that is reinvested creates a real sense of anger within a community that is struggling to see better education, public safety, lower energy costs, etc. Indigenous people should see their values reflected within a decision. This is how communities will know that they have been listened to and engaged with meaningfully. Values-driven decision-making will be a significant result of meaningful engagement, and ultimately it will be indigenous peoples who will determine whether an engagement has been meaningful or a practice best.
The diversity within a region requires a strong understanding of the relationships between and roles and authorities of individual rights holders. These different rights holders have different capacities to engage in an engagement process, and successful engagement often depends on collaboration. Those partners with greater capacity often act as conduits to or as go-betweens for other partners. The value of having capacity at the regional level is that coordination is more likely to result in informed rights holders.
Beyond the formal role of some rights holders, innovative approaches have been taken to ensure regional co-operation and communication. Regional organizations can be established to act as intermediaries between the communities and government agencies or project proponents. The goals here are not to replace or displace local rights holders, but to ensure effective engagement and to advocate in the interests of indigenous peoples in the region.
The role of intermediaries isn't to speak for indigenous peoples or communities, but to help facilitate meaningful engagement where none had existed. Additionally, intermediaries can serve to educate agencies and project proponents about the region. Regional government, for instance, already has resources that can be useful to a decision-making process, including community plans and regional plans.
Agencies often ask researchers before asking local peoples. Western science is approached and included first, as the baseline, after which indigenous peoples and knowledge are brought in. A better practice would be to organize these jointly. Consultation should inform a process from the beginning, with engagement throughout such that it isn't used just to comment upon already established research, project design and decisions.
Communities are experiencing fatigue from continuous engagement with little benefit. In general, consultation isn't reimbursed, promises to follow up aren't kept and decisions don't reflect what local peoples have said. There is little incentive to participate, beyond the dramatic potential negative impact that non-participation would result in.
Adaptive management requires adaptive institutions instead of requiring indigenous peoples to adapt. That management can and should include indigenous peoples and the increase we're seeing in co-management opportunities reflect some movement toward this goal. In many ways, the rights of indigenous peoples are embedded in their role in co-management such that they ensure and have control over their future.
Often the meaningful engagement of indigenous peoples is difficult for an agency if it means loss of control or decision-making authority, but collaboration is a key to overall success and agencies must be responsive.
In conclusion, where projects are successful, they have returned benefit to communities and engaged meaningfully. This is the result of partnerships that have been developed over time.