How is the on-the-ground effort of resource agencies changing?

Resource agencies are often under-staffed and underfunded when it comes to fulfilling their mandates, especially with respect to field-based staff positions. In general, this has resulted in decreased effort put into monitoring, data collection, compliance and enforcement by federal and provincial regulators.

At the same time, many Indigenous communities are establishing stronger Indigenous Guardian and stewardship programs.  In some cases, Indigenous Guardians now outnumber agency staff in terms of person-hours spent patrolling, monitoring, or collecting data and are therefore filling a gap created by a reduced presence of resource agency staff. This often means Indigenous Guardian programs have significantly better information than other resource agencies, information that can be used to make management decisions and understand emerging issues and trends.

The growing number of Indigenous Guardian programs can be seen on the Indigenous Guardian Program Map. Add your program to the map if it isn’t already represented there.