Support for the Canadian Mountain Network Knowledge Hub

The Canadian Mountain Network (CMN) announced the launch of seven Knowledge Hubs across Canada, totalling $3M in funding. The Hubs will advance the role of both Indigenous and Western ways of knowing, doing and being in evidence-based decision-making to support the health and resilience of mountain people and places. With the launch of these Hubs, 50% of the total funds support Indigenous-led research.

RJC is providing engineering support for one of the knowledge hubs, the Pacific Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) Innovation Centre. The Pacific IPCA Innovation Centre will bring together western science and Indigenous knowledge systems for the restoration and conservation of biocultural diversity. Partners and visiting researchers/students will include experts in conservation biology, ecology, ethnoecology, ecological restoration, Indigenous knowledge and food systems, governance, languages and cultures. The Centre will host a combination of virtual, classroom, and land-based educational programming. Regular offerings will include workshops featuring partners’ expertise, an annual conference and ceremony convening partners and collaborators with capacity-building sessions on IPCAs, weekly and monthly educational retreats, and university field schools. Virtual events will be promoted through new and existing platforms and listservs. The Solutions Bundle, an IPCA website created by IISAAK OLAM and the CRP, will include multimedia case studies showcasing achievements and lessons learned. In collaboration with partners, the process of establishing, developing, and operating the Pacific IPCA Innovation Centre will be documented in written, oral, and audiovisual formats to facilitate and catalyze the establishment of additional IPCA Innovation Centres across Canada and internationally. 

CMN’s Knowledge Hubs are enabling a diverse group of people and organizations, comprised of 110 collaborators and 79 partner organizations, to work together to build meaningful and sustained knowledge relationships that are inclusive, honour different ways of knowing, prioritize values and relationships, and encourage innovation. RJC’s Terry Bergen is a collaborator for the Pacific IPCA Innovation Centre Knowledge Hub.

The Hubs will enhance Canada’s international leadership in areas of high current economic and social importance, including, but not limited to, reconciliation, preservation of Indigenous languages and knowledge systems, Indigenous stewardship, environmental monitoring and assessment, cumulative effects management, tourism development, economic diversification and nature conservation.

CMN is a model to support national and international efforts to bring multiple ways of knowing to the table to inform and enhance decision-making. CMN is dedicated to advancing Canada’s commitments to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) and The United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).