Overview
Athabasca Landing Métis Community Association (ALMCA) received $79,407 in grant proceeds for the completion of a Climate Resilience Action Plan.
This project was funded by the Government of Alberta, through the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre’s Climate Resilience Capacity Building Program.
Approach
Athabasca Landing Métis Community Association (ALMCA) represents the contemporary and historic rights-bearing Métis community whose members live primarily in the Town of Athabasca and Athabasca County. One of the goals of Athabasca Landing Métis Community Association (ALMCA) is to improve environmental sustainability practices within its traditional territories so that current and future generations can enjoy sustainable harvesting and the protection of Métis rights.
ALMCA engaged the contracted servicers of Oak Road Concepts to facilitate community engagement activities and compile information gathered during community engagement to produce a “What We Heard” Report and draft the ALMCA Climate Resilience Action Plan.
This work was completed in order to build local capacity to adapt to climate-related challenges such as floods, wildfires, and drought.
Based on their decades of living on the land and observing the local environment, ALMCA members are observing changes as a result of nearby industrial activity, more frequent extreme weather events, and changing climate conditions.
As part of this initiative, ALMCA members offered a series of insights about local environmental conditions. Currently in a dry cycle, the Athabasca River water levels appear to be lower on average in recent years. However, there have also been some extreme weather events such as flooding in June of 2023.
Between dry conditions and changing forest management patterns, ALMCA members are witnessing more severe wildfires than in the past when prescribed burning was common practice to reduce fuel for wildfires.
ALMCA members are seeing changing patterns of wildlife movement with more deer and moose around town and fewer caribou out on the land.
These insights and experiences were integrated into the final project deliverables through extensive community engagement.
Community engagement consisted of focus groups and interviews with 16 community members in June 2023. An additional 25 people attended a community meeting at Amber Valley Hall on October 15, 2023 where the Climate Resilience Capacity Program was discussed.
A presentation of findings was held on April 16, 2024 in Athabasca along with a Roundtable discussion featuring representatives from the Town of Athabasca, ALMCA, local environmental organizations, and the MCCAC.
Results
The “What We Heard” Report summarizes the themes from community engagement activities, outlining the ways that ALMCA community members are exercising their Métis harvesting rights and spending time on the land for traditional land-based activities, and the changes they are seeing on the landscape.
The project team also produced a map-based dataset representing places of cultural importance to ALMCA members, to be used for future engagement and consultation related to impact assessment.
The Climate Resilience Action Plan includes five overarching goals, each with objectives and key tasks, to build climate resilience within ALMCA and across the region.
Benefits
The community will benefit through the implementation of the Climate Resilience Action Plan which will promote adaptive measures in the short, medium, and long term.
The project has already benefitted the community through building relationships and developing the capacity to implement the Action Plan.
“Participating in the CRCB Program has enabled the Athabasca Landing Métis to establish connections and build relationships with local municipal officials and academics at Athabasca University. Together we can improve our local capacity to adapt to climate challenges.”
Ron Donald, President, Athabasca Landing Métis
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