Youth Conservation/Education
Reconnecting with the Land
Youth at Risk Conservation/Education Program
As the national institution responsible for promoting humane and sustainable furbearer trapping practices, the Fur Institute of Canada (FIC) states its support for land-based alternative education. It is the position of the FIC that alternative land-based programs are an important yet uncommon part of regular school curricula. This is particularly true in Aboriginal communities, which regularly experience higher unemployment and school dropout rates than in urban areas.1
It is accepted that land-based educational programs better reflect the local values, traditional knowledge, mixed economies, and the employment opportunities that exist in rural Canada. Accredited land-based programs also broaden the scope of school curricula so that they respond to the needs and strengths of a wider variety of students, particularly those considered at-risk. Moving out of the usual "closed" school environment has proven to help reduce defensiveness and change students' relationships with adult leaders. For Aboriginal students, on-the-land programs also have the potential to incorporate more culturally oriented approaches into school curricula.
To date, the FIC has been involved in two on-the-land pilot programs targeting youth from ages 16-30 in the Sahtu region of the Northwest Territories. This program, titled "Reconnecting with the Land - Youth At-Risk Conservation Education" took several youth into an elder's trapping camp for an extended period of time. The program has met with wide acceptance and a wide array of successes:
- Educational: Unemployed youth who once considered school to be "irrelevant" have been encouraged to re-enrol and gain credits towards their grade 12 diploma.
- Professional certification: They have earned licensing in various skills, including first aid, firearms safety, small engine repair, setting fish nets under the ice and trapper training (including the requirements under the Agreement on International Humane Trapping Standards).
- Cultural: Aboriginal students acquired traditional skills which they can use in daily life and pass on to the next generation.
- Livelihood: Participants have used trapping to gain income and become contributing members of their communities.
- Well-being: Participants have come away with greater self-reliance, respect and confidence. Such positive influences have the potential to reach beyond the individual and into the community and the family that surrounds the individual.
- Conservation: Individuals have learned conservation, management and sustainability practices of one of Canada's natural and renewable resources.
The FIC is embarking on a long-term strategy to promote the At-Risk Youth Trapper Training Program in schools across Canada. In 2005, we will be managing our third pilot project in the Inuvik region, in cooperation with the NWT Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Gwich'in Tribal Council, the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and the Beaufort Delta Education Council. By continuing to support partnerships between school boards, regional organizations, and industry, it is our aim to make accredited on-the-land education programs accessible to the hundreds of communities expressing interest in alternative education, while forwarding the FIC mission to promote humane harvesting and the sustainable and wise use of Canada's fur resources.
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