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Integrated Assessment Tools: Using Indigenous values to determine cultural flows
Melanie Durrette from Synexe Consulting has recently published a working paper entitled "An integrative model for cultural flows: Using values in fisheries to determine water allocations" as part of their pathbreaking Knowledge Notes Series.
This paper is based on research which looked at identifying processes and methods that might be employed by groups that have limited capacity to engage on water allocation in the quantification of cultural flows. The paper outlines an integrative model which shows how values in customary fisheries, and the knowledge of them held by Indigenous people, may provide a useful starting point in the quantification of Indigenous values for water planning. This research forms part of a larger project by Synexe which is exploring Maori perspectives on water allocation.
Abstract
One of the major challenges to accounting for Indigenous values in water is the qualitative nature of them; that is, they tend to be expressed in a way that is descriptive and subject to the opinions and experiences of the person or people speaking about them. While qualitative descriptions of values provide a rich account of the relationships of people with the waterways that are important to them, they do not readily lend themselves to being expressed in a numerical form.
For this reason, water planners who rely mainly on quantifiable data in their work are less able to account for these more qualitative values in water plans. Thus, rather than accounting for these values in a category of their own in water plans, the assumption often made is that by allocating flows for the environment, Indigenous values are also protected. Yet, some would argue that the connections held by Indigenous people to water that have been part of their existence for thousands of years are not always reflected in environmental flow allocations.
Although the concepts of environmental and cultural flows may overlap in their content or definition, there may be cultural values that are not encompassed by a minimum flow determined on a limited set of ecological values.
Therefore, flows for the environment and for cultural purposes are not one and the same. In an attempt to bridge this gap in methodologies that account for Indigenous values, this research looked at how cultural flows may be quantified at least in part through their inherent relationship to cultural values in fisheries. In particular this research focused on identifying the processes and methods that might be employed by groups that have limited capacity to engage on water allocation. These processes and methods were identified both through a literature review and through a case study method. Lessons learned from the case study are incorporated into an integrative model that will inform other groups as they begin their own journeys in water planning and management.
The model demonstrates how values in customary fisheries, and the knowledge of them held by Indigenous people, may provide a useful starting point in the quantification of Indigenous values for water planning.
