Pacific IPCA Innovation Centre: Anchoring a New Movement of Indigenous-led Conservation
By Monica Shore, Executive Director & Co-Founder, IISAAK OLAM Foundation
Eli Enns, Co-Founder & President, IISAAK OLAM Foundation
August 30, 2021
What are IPCA Innovation Centres?
As the Conservation through Reconciliation Partnership (CRP) was being formed, three legacy initiatives were identified to support Indigenous-led conservation beyond the partnership’s seven-year journey: The IPCA Knowledge Basket, an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) Alliance (or Network) and IPCA Innovation Centres.
While the IPCA Alliance/Network and the IPCA Knowledge Basket focus on relationships, organizational capacity, ideas and learning resources, IPCA Innovation Centres are the physical places and spaces that host these relationships. The vision of IPCA Innovation Centres is to develop a world-class model for innovation and learning that is specifically designed for IPCAs.
IPCA Innovation Centres will be established regionally by Indigenous Peoples, organizations, Nations and partners. They are the on-the-land hubs where educational programming is delivered to support and strengthen IPCA establishment, governance and management within the region.
Examples of programming include language and cultural revitalization, Indigenous economics and stewardship in action, eco-cultural tourism, Indigenous technologies and craftsmanship, the art of Indigenous laws, and guardianship training.
IPCA Innovation Centres will depend on the collaboration of a diverse range of partners, including Indigenous governments and organizations, civil society organizations, Crown governments and agencies, private industry, academic institutions and philanthropy.
We envision that these centres will braid together the best of modern and traditional technology, western and Indigenous science and diverse knowledge systems within Ethical Space to conserve and protect ecological, environmental and community health and well-being.
Photo: An aerial image of Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia. Photo Credit: Jeremy Williams
What is the Pacific IPCA Innovation Centre?
The first IPCA Innovation Centre is taking shape in Nuu-chah-nulth and Coast Salish territories on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. It has been named the Pacific IPCA Innovation Centre and will, over time, aim to include a network of satellite campuses along the Pacific coast from North to South America.
The IISAAK OLAM Foundation, a host partner of the CRP, is advancing the establishment of the Pacific IPCA Innovation Centre through the leadership of Eli Enns, its President and CEO, citizen of Tla-o-qui-aht Nation, and member of the CRP’s Leadership Circle.
While the Centre will be anchored academically by a network of universities in western Canada, its inaugural satellite campus will be in Clayoquot Sound. Happening this week thanks to a generous donation by an anonymous Canadian philanthropist, what’s currently known as the Tofino Botanical Gardens will become the Clayoquot Campus for the Centre.
The West Coast location of Canada's first IPCA Innovation Centre is appropriate considering the many decades of trailblazing undertaken by First Nations in British Columbia, starting with the Haida and Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks in the early 1980s.
Development of the Clayoquot Campus and its activities will be developed over the fall and winter. The official public launch will take place in the spring of 2022.
In 2019, the IISAAK OLAM Foundation hosted one of its Productive Retreats at the soon-to-be Clayoquot Campus of the Pacific IPCA Innovation Centre. This retreat focused on the establishment phase of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs).
Who are the partners?
There are a variety of partners* involved with the Pacific IPCA Innovation Centre ranging from academic and research institutes, to Indigenous organizations, to private businesses, philanthropy and civil society.
Partners will come together regularly through collaborative activities and programs catalyzed by a Canadian Mountain Network-funded knowledge hub announced in June 2021. Partners’ efforts will focus on knowledge sharing and curriculum development for supporting new and existing IPCAs and IPCA-type initiatives in western Canada and the Pacific coast. Programs and activities requiring a physical or nature-based classroom will be offered at the Clayoquot Campus of the IPCA Innovation Centre in Tofino B.C., then at other satellite campuses as they are established with diverse local leadership.
*For a current list of partners, please scroll down to the end of the blog.
What are its goals?
The Pacific IPCA Innovation Centre will be a hub for gathering, testing and advancing diverse ideas, knowledge systems, technologies and approaches for Indigenous-led conservation that are emergent on the needs of Indigenous Nations as they navigate the establishment, management and governance of IPCAs within the region.
The centre will host a combination of virtual and in-person classroom and land-based educational programs that will be made available to Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, researchers, experts and leaders engaged in IPCAs. For example, Vancouver Island University is working alongside the IISAAK OLAM Foundation to develop an undergraduate IPCA Planning Certificate, and UBC’s Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty will develop on-the-ground and virtual programming on food security from an Indigenous worldview.
Regular co-learning and knowledge sharing opportunities will include workshops featuring partner expertise, annual IPCA capacity building conferences and ceremonies, educational retreats and university field schools.
Cultural and linguistic revitalization are central to the founding and vision of IPCAs. As such, the programmatic design of the Pacific IPCA Innovation Centre’s Clayoquot Campus will be rooted in Nuu-chah-nulth knowledge and teachings, including, for example, language learning, dug-out canoe and totem carving apprenticeships, storytelling and singing workshops, ethnobotany programs within ancient cedar rainforests and traditional harvesting of Pacific foods.
Where will the other IPCA Innovation Centres be located?
The establishment of the Pacific IPCA Innovation Centre will be documented in Ethical Space in order to provide a roadmap for the creation of IPCA Innovation Centres in other locations across Canada.
IPCAs are Indigenous-led, and each one will reflect the unique vision, objectives, traditions, cultures, languages and laws of each Nation or collection of Nations. Similarly, IPCA Centres of Innovation will evolve and expand, pooling resources from a vast array of disciplines and knowledge to serve the unique needs and goals of Indigenous Nations as they establish, govern and manage IPCAs.
Current list of partners for the Pacific IPCA Innovation Centre:
Vancouver Island University’s Master of Community Planning
The Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region Research Institute
The University of Victoria’s Faculty of Engineering
The University of British Columbia’s Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty
UBC Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability
The Assembly of First Nations Environment Sector
The Canadian Wildlife Service of Environment and Climate Change Canada