Indigenous Guardians Pilot

Overview

In the 2017 Budget, the Government of Canada announced $25 million over four years to support an Indigenous Guardians Pilot. This program will provide Indigenous Peoples with greater opportunity to exercise responsibility in stewardship of their traditional lands, waters, and ice.

The Pilot supports Indigenous rights and responsibilities in protecting and conserving ecosystems, developing and maintaining sustainable economies, and continuing the profound connections between Canadian landscape and Indigenous culture.

The Pilot will inform a long-term approach for a potential National Indigenous Guardians Network.

Map of funded initiatives

See the Indigenous Guardians Pilot Program map for more information on the funded initiatives.

Individual approach for First Nations, Inuit and Métis

The Pilot is being implemented jointly with First Nations, Inuit, and Metis using an individual approach that respects and recognizes the unique perspectives, rights, responsibilities and needs of Indigenous Peoples.

Eligible organizations

Indigenous communities, Indigenous Nations, governments, and representative organizations are eligible for funding under the Pilot Program.

Eligible activities

The kinds of activities eligible for funding under the Pilot include:

research
surveys
inventories and monitoring
collection and gathering of Indigenous Traditional Knowledge
conservation planning
outreach and education
best management land-use practices
capacity building
training
species management/restoration
species protection
species and habitat threat abatement
habitat improvement
habitat management for maintenance and improvement of ecosystem services

Application process

The proposal application processes have been co-developed with Indigenous groups.

Please note the 2021-2022 call for proposals for new (Tier 1) First Nations Guardians’ Initiatives closed on November 30, 2020.

The funding envelopes for Inuit, Métis and First Nations new initiatives (Tier 1), community-based initiatives (Tier 2) and networks (Tier 3) have now been fully allocated. There are no further rounds of funding confirmed at this time.

Early round of funding

With the aim of proceeding quickly with funding in the fall of 2018, the Pilot provided funds to a number of guardian initiatives across the country. Proposals were sourced through individual groups’ expressions of interest, discussions with Indigenous groups and national Indigenous Representative organizations, and relevant submissions received by other federal departments.

For more information

For more information, please contact the Indigenous Guardians Pilot team by email at ec.gardiensautochtones-indigenousguardians.ec@canada.ca.

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