We are part of the International Earth BioGenome Project
The CEBP recognizes that the unique and vast scope of understanding Canadian biodiversity includes whole social-ecological systems that are known to and have been managed by Canada’s Indigenous Peoples and First Nation Communities since time immemorial. “Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities” are defined in accordance with the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Report1.
This is a living discussion — it will change as needed.
We are continually engaged with and learning from the Indigenous and First Nations stewards and rights holders on whose land we live and work.
Although Indigenous Peoples represent less than 5% of the global population, these groups act as custodians for 40% of terrestrial protected areas and ecologically intact landscapes on Earth23. They are “informed custodians of biodiversity”2.
For millennia, these groups have tracked climate and changes in species composition and ecosystems, and are thus increasingly being sought out for research partnerships that incorporate Indigenous Knowledge4.
However, contemporary research methods have historically had negative consequences for Indigenous Peoples, to include but are not limited to: data misuse and misrepresentation, non-Indigenous control over Indigenous data, data that are not representative of Indigenous priorities, and, historical and ongoing lack of cooperative partnerships in ecological management and with Indigenous Sciences.
Goals of the CEBP are inclusive of: identifying species of interest to Indigenous partners, and working with these and other end user groups acquire species and environmental genomic data, mobilizing information on genomic data and its use in innovative genomics tools and conservation strategies, producing database-driven end user digital tools, outreach materials, and data and knowledge exchange platforms, and use this data to co-develop policy recommendations to advance conservation and maintain biodiversity.
The CEBP project largely recognizes policy documents relevant to Canada’s Indigenous Peoples Rights and First Nations-to-Crown engagement, including the Assembly of First Nations5 and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami6. The CEBP is committed to supporting the asserted and innate rights as described in these documents through its work in data infrastructure, policies, and practices within the fields of biodiversity, ecology, and biodiversity conservation.
However, the IDSEEID Statement focuses on the existing protocols and legal principles specific to sovereignty and ownership that govern Indigenous data and terms of scientific engagement in its use3.
The IDSEEID Statement provides guidance for project participants for meaningful engagement with Indigenous data, and should be considered throughout the CEBP data lifecycle (acquisition, analysis, reducing, segmenting, or downscaling the data, data and analysis sharing/publication, curation and long-term storage, among others).
It furthermore serves to make explicit acknowledgement of the issues surrounding Indigenous Data Sovereignty. The CEBP recognizes that Indigenous Data Sovereignty can be exercised by Indigenous Peoples as rights holders through the retention and control of their data to include non-geographically bound relational contexts.
This Statement is therefore intended to provide flexible guidance and does not preclude the project partners from making changes to the approaches described in the Statement to accommodate specific needs and requests of Indigenous communities that may occur over the course of the project, and upon agreement of all parties.
The Canadian BioGenome Project (CEBP) Statement on Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Ethical Engagement with Indigenous Data (IDSEEID) is provided to complement the Earth BioGenome Project’s Statement on Data Sharing and Management Best Practices and Statement of Principles on Digital Sequence Information (DSI).
Open access and sharing species genomic data is at the core of the EBP, deemed as essential to enable all nations and peoples to progress and share the benefits of our global biodiversity. To specify the EBP Statement of Principles on DSI that seek to “to improve the ethical treatment of DSI for local people, nations, and the international community”, the CEBP recognizes the protocols of the peoples unique to Canadian lands.
This Statement therefore aligns with the language of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Nagoya Protocol entrenched in the EBP DSI and further acknowledges that Local Indigenous and First Nations Communities’ rights have been codified by the following protocols which elucidate on their participation and engagement with, and contributions to, nation-to-nation and international fora, exercising their sovereignty in these spaces.
These protocols and principles include but are not limited to: OCAP®, CARE, and ICC EEE (described below). The CEBP recognizes that equitable participation and recognition across the biodiversity research enterprise includes Indigenous Peoples and that meaningful partnerships that are grounded in proactive, open, transparent, and accessible communication. These guiding protocols enable the basis for equitable and ethical engagement but are not meant to replace or diminish existing engagement and data protocols that may already exist for individual First Nations communities.
The First Nations Information Governance Centre (FNIGC) established the OCAP Principles7 to assert First Nations’ data and information will be collected, protected, used, or shared. NIGC also offers education and training resources for researchers and others who wish to engage with First Nations communities and their data.
“Ownership refers to the relationship of First Nations to their cultural knowledge, data, and information. This principle states that a community or group owns information collectively in the same way that an individual owns his or her personal information”7.
“Control affirms that First Nations, their communities, and representative bodies are within their rights to seek control over all aspects of research and information management processes that impact them. First Nations control of research can include all stages of a particular research project-from start to finish. The principle extends to the control of resources and review processes, the planning process, management of the information and so on.”7
“Access refers to the fact that First Nations must have access to information and data about themselves and their communities regardless of where it is held. The principle of access also refers to the right of First Nations’ communities and organizations to manage and make decisions regarding access to their collective information. This may be achieved, in practice, through standardized, formal protocols.”7
“While ownership identifies the relationship between a people and their information in principle, possession or stewardship is more concrete: it refers to the physical control of data. Possession is the mechanism by which ownership can be asserted and protected.”7
CARE Principles complement the existing data-centric approach of FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). However, applications of FAIR have the potential do not adequately address the benefit-sharing concerns nor protect the rights and interests of Indigenous Peoples.
The CARE Principles were therefore developed in consultation with Indigenous Peoples, scholars, non-profit organizations, and governments as the International Indigenous Data Sovereignty Interest Group (within the Research Data Alliance), a network of nation-state based Indigenous data sovereignty networks and individuals8. CARE Principles are people and purpose-oriented, reflecting the crucial role of data in advancing innovation, governance, and self-determination among Indigenous Peoples.
Inuit of the Circumpolar (ICC)9 is an international Indigenous Peoples’ organization representing approximately 180,000 Inuit of Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Chukotka (Russia). The Protocols for Equitable and Ethical Engagement were developed from a synthesis report of Inuit-produced materials and voices of existing rules, laws, values, guidelines and protocols for the engagement of Inuit communities specifically, and Indigenous Knowledge more broadly9. Although written from an Inuit perspective these protocols have wider applicability and can be applied to the data space. The ICC EEE include 8 protocols.
‘Nothing About Us Without Us’
Recognize Indigenous Knowledge in its Own Right
Practice Good Governance
Communication with Intent
Exercising Accountability — Building Trust
Building Meaningful Partnerships
Information, Data Sharing, Ownership and Permissions
Equitably Fund Inuit Representation and Knowledge
The CARE principles and protocols described in the IDSEEID Statement provided a set of broad principles for researchers to apply and implement when partnering with Indigenous Peoples in genomics and genomics data research. However, they do not provide more granular, practical guidelines on how these principles ought to be applied in this specific research space.
To this end, the CEBP will also provide a framework—Indigenous Engagement and Partnership Plan—to support partners in CEBP and researchers in the field of biodiversity genomics to operationalize these principles across the data lifecycle from proactive engagement to communication and dissemination.
It is further recognized that the term “partnership” is a multi-level and longitudinal commitment to direct benefit to Indigenous communities, and that spanning local and traditional Indigenous knowledge and science across applied sciences takes time, building relationships and parameters for project co-production and local implementation.
1 Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (2023).
2 The UNESCO Courier, Jan–Mar (2021).
3 McCartney, A.M., Head, M.A., Tsosie, K.S. et al. Indigenous peoples and local communities as partners in the sequencing of global eukaryotic biodiversity. npj Biodiversity 2, 8 (2023).
4 Jennings, L., et al. Applying the ‘CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance’ to ecology and biodiversity research. Nature Ecology and Evolution 7:1547–1551 (2023).
5 Draft for Discussion Purposes Only, Developing a New Rights-Based Policy: Summary of Current Approaches, February 2019.
6 National Inuit Strategy on Research Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK 2018).
7 OCAP® is a registered trademark of the First Nations Information Governance Centre (FNIGC).
8 Carroll, S.R., et al (2020) The CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance Data Science Journal 19:43.
9 Inuit Circumpolar Council. 2022. Circumpolar Inuit Protocols for Equitable and Ethical Engagement.