Our Approach: We work with elders and knowledge holders to map how communities use land and water for hunting, trapping, fishing, plant gathering, camping, and many other important activities. We also document and assess potential impacts on these activities from industrial developments. We adapt our methods to meet community needs, to provide results that are timely and effective, and that strengthen local voices both within and beyond the community. Firelight’s expertise with mapping and GIS and ecology is critical to this work.

Expertise: Firelight’s traditional knowledge and use team includes some of the foremost anthropologists and social scientists in Western Canada. Our research leaders are familiar with national and international standards of practice and with the realities of completing quality work on challenging timelines.

Capacity Building: We provide training so that communities can run their own TUS interviews, including developing interview questions, leading an interview, mapping, and how to work with data to produce maps and reports.
Quotes: “We support communities to map and document how they use lands and waters, and to do it in ways that can make a difference in regulatory processes, at negotiating tables, and in other places where hard decisions are being made.” Dr. Craig Candler, Firelight TUS team co-lead