Empowering the Human-Nature Bond
Discover the relationships facilitated by the Deshkan Ziibi Conservation Impact Bond
The Deshkan Ziibi Conservation Impact Bond is a place-based collaboration and financial instrument to accelerate healthy landscapes in the spirit and practice of reconciliation. It aims to protect the values of nature for monetary, sociocultural and ecological returns in the Carolinian Zone . The DZCIB is the first phase of a multi-regional model co-designed to restore relationships with the land which will be used to improve 400 hectares (1000 acres) of land. This initiative is co-designed to grow an ethical nature-based green economy across local communities in Southern Ontario while honouring Indigenous stewardship on Turtle Island since time immemorial.
This StoryMap aims to highlight the relationships being facilitated by the bond.
We start by sharing the stories of the Carolinian Zone to situate where the DZCIB takes place, who is the subject of stewardship, and what tools are being used to facilitate this work. We explore the diversity of human-nature relationships while highlighting Indigenous worldviews in healing the landscape. Next, we zoom in to showcase the work our habitat partners have contributed to restoring the Carolinian Zone. To conclude, we walk through the journey of reconciliation the partners of the DZCIB embarked on through this project to achieve the shared goals of preserving our ecosystems, mobilizing resources across sectors, and challenging dominant assumptions held by society about nature and its role(s) in human life.
Stories of Place
What is land? Ask different people and the response will vary. Is it dirt, the Earth, property, a resource? But rarely do we ask who is land? When we change the question, it changes the way we think about land and transforms the way we make decisions about how we engage with and steward the land.
One of the goals of the DZCIB is to recognize the agency of the land and share stories of the Carolinian Zone. The DZCIB strives to go beyond human actors and create space for the voices of beyond-human actors such as plants, animals, and fungi whose perspectives are often suppressed through Western value systems.
In an Indigenous worldview, often humans view themselves as one with nature and a part of an extended ecological family. The Indigenous worldview of nature promotes an awareness that life in any environment is viable only when humans view the life surrounding them as kin [1] .
Hover your cursor over the information symbol to meet some of the relations with whom you live alongside in the Carolinian Zone:
The Deshkan Ziibi CIB Model
Deshkan Ziibi / Thames River Aerial
Significance of the Name
The name Deshkan Ziibi comes from the original Anishinaabemowin name given to the Thames River which translates to “antlered or horned river.”
There are two origin stories of the name Deshkan Ziibi given by the Anishinabeg. One story is that the name is a reference to how the river forks in London, Ontario and resembles antlers or horns. A second story is that the name is in reference to a horned serpent that dwells within the river.
"As a Conservation Impact Bond partner, we felt it important that the original name of the river be used rather than its modern colonial name." - Emma Young, Deshkan Ziibing
The Co-Development Process
The CIB model was co-developed and refined concurrently with the design and implementation of the DZCIB pilot. The development of this model was supported by a local Leadership Team with place-based knowledge, cross-cultural, and cross-sectoral representation, including Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. This Leadership Team supports the model becoming locally adapted and community-driven through the identification of desired projects, outcomes, and selection of impact metrics.
The Carolinian Canada Conservation Impact Bond Model
Historically, governments and philanthropy have been the primary sources of conservation funding. Recent decades have seen innovative developments of conservation financing strategies that diverge from historic conservation funding models.
The Carolinian Canada Conservation Impact Bond (CIB) model is an innovative example of a "pay-for-success" conservation finance model. In this model, conservation is funded upfront through impact investors who receive a return-on-investment contingent on success in conservation outcomes.
Contemporary Conservation Funding Models vs. Conservation Impact Bond Model
The CIB model has been further developed and refined concurrently with the design and implementation of the DZCIB. The DZCIB is a five-year pilot project that seeks to accelerate healthy landscapes, nature-based solutions, advance Indigenous reconciliation, and empower human-nature relationships in southern Ontario. Included in the DZCIB pilot are 69 hectares (170 acres) of land in the Carolinian Zone.
Meet the Partners of the Deshkan Ziibi Conservation Impact Bond
Impacts & Outcomes
The desired impact of the DZCIB is to reconcile people and ecosystems to accelerate nature-based solutions, advance Indigenous reconciliation, and enhance community well-being. These impact goals were developed through collaborative dialogue amongst the Deshkan Ziibi Leadership Team and other community partners.
The Leadership Team developed five short- and medium-term outcome categories that guide the pathways towards the desired impact. The outcome categories are interrelated with the understanding that a particular activity of the DZCIB may contribute to multiple outcomes and success in one category is likely to enhance success in another. These five outcome categories serve as the DZCIB’s evaluation pillars and are described below:
Healing the Landscape
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. Photo by Rebecca Launchberry.
"The future of our planet lies in Indigenous ways of living on Earth… As a global community, we have lost our way; we forgot what it means to have a relationship with the land.” [5]- Jon Waterhouse, Environmental Steward and National Geographic Society Fellow
‘Ego-Eco’ Diagram: Humankind is part of the ecosystem, not apart from or above it [9]
Indigenous worldviews and experiences of nature contrast with the views of nature dominant in the Western world. The Western world tends to view relationships between forms of nature as hierarchical [8] with humans at the top. Whereas, an Indigenous worldview identifies humans as one form of nature among many others.
There is a fundamental life-supporting relationship between humans and the ecosystems in which they are embedded. This project seeks to facilitate mutually enhancing and regenerative relationships among humans, between humans and ecosystems, and within ecosystems.
Restoring the Carolinian Zone
Implementing a Healthy Landscape Strategy
Carolinian Canada’s Healthy Landscape Strategy aims to grow Canada’s Biggest Wildlife Garden connecting Toronto to Windsor with healthy habitat. The Healthy Landscape Strategy includes four key activities, linking restoration and conservation priorities based on the latest local and global science. The on-the-ground habitat restoration work involves one or more of the following activities, adapted to local needs:
- SAVE local nature - increase commitment to saving habitat with long-term agreements
- STEWARD healthy landscapes with best ecosystem practices - increase habitat quality
- SEED, grow, create or restore high-quality habitat and green infrastructure using native plants sourced locally, ecologically, and ethically - increase habitat quantity and connections
- LEAD healthy resilient communities connected to nature through strong equitable collaboration, positive engagement, First Nations leadership and an ethical, local native plant industry. Support a climate-smart, green economy for thriving local communities through cross-sector collaboration.
The habitat partners featured here include: Thames Talbot Land Trust , Deshkan Ziibing ( Chippewas of the Thames First Nation ), the Living Centre , ReForest London , and Camp Kee-Mo-Kee . These partners were chosen to showcase the four healthy landscape activities and impact to date. Additional habitat partners involved in the DZCIB include: the City of London , Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority, Ontario NativeScape , and Oneida Nation of the Thames .
Thames Talbot Land Trust
Thames Talbot Land Trust (TTLT) is a registered charity that actively works to protect, conserve, and restore nature within Elgin, Middlesex, Oxford and Perth counties, contributing to a stable climate, human wellbeing, and healthy habitats for all species. Working with TTLT as a habitat partner, the DZCIB supported four projects ranging from habitat creation and enhancement to community leadership.
Deshkan Ziibing
The Living Centre
The Living Centre is an eco-spiritual educational sanctuary that was established in 1983 in London, Ontario. Their vision is to have a world of peace and joy where humans live in harmony with each other and all of nature.
ReForest London
ReForest London is a non-profit organization with the mission to plant, grow, and sustain our urban forests by engaging the community. The DZCIB supported seven habitat projects in City of London parks.
Camp Kee-Mo-Kee
Journey of Reconciliation
In the Spirit of Community Collaboration
The development of the bond provided the space for discussion, sharing, honesty and building trust. I find I am eager to learn more and understand the world from more viewpoints while challenging my assumptions. I have found a new home since my values and beliefs align closely with the teachings I have learned from our Indigenous partners. - Daria Koscinski, TTLT
Each partner in the DZCIB - including First Nations, multinational corporations, impact investors, not-for-profit organizations, and academic researchers - came together due to their shared interest in land restoration and conservation.
Building trust among partners across various sectors is crucial to the facilitation of a cross-sectoral instrument. One of the most unique and transformational aspects of the DZCIB, as stated by many of the participants, is the social platform that it builds for partners to engage with, and learn from, one another. Through ongoing collaboration, group workshops, and monthly check-in meetings, relationships have been built among many people that, despite their diverse individual backgrounds, come together for the conservation and restoration of the land and life-support mechanisms upon which all lives rely.
Listening & Learning
"By supporting the Indigenous-led conservation movement, we aim to help bring about the bold, transformative change to heal the relationships between humans and our planet, including relationships amongst human and non-human beings. We strive to model this change by centering Indigenous leadership, mutual respect, reciprocity, shared relationships, and a deep concern for our current condition. We hold a deep conviction that bringing about reconciliation in the conservation world will result in the transformation necessary to heal the planet." - Conservation through Reconciliation Partnership
Embedded in this vision is an acknowledgement that Indigenous ways of knowing and being are essential to reconciliation processes that can promote healthier landscapes and healthier communities. The process of reconciliation involves learning about the past and present relationships between Indigenous peoples and the settler society, understanding the ongoing impacts of colonization, challenging dominant social structures and thought processes, and working towards healing and rebuilding relationships [10] .
All in all, the definition of decolonization is not cut-and-dry. Decolonization is an ongoing process that occurs through having continual conversations similar to those that occurred over the bond process. Shifting the paradigm requires that everyone is heard and feels comfortable to continue contributing to the decolonizing process. - Emma Young, Deshkan Ziibing
Next Steps: Scaling the Carolinian Canada CIB to Other Contexts
The CIB is a flexible model that allows for adaptation to local contexts using ecological and Indigenous principles that apply globally. The funding provided by the CIB is intended to support the goals of the community in a regenerative process that respects the diversity of the local environment on a complex landscape (connecting rural, urban, Indigenous, cultural, and wild spaces), rather than restricting local projects by imposing a uniform structure through which to operate.
When scaling the Carolinian Canada CIB, the goal is not only to scale “up”, but also to scale “out” and “deep”, by prioritizing community involvement, connecting diverse healthy landscapes, and commitment to building relationships over rapid growth. The principles of community involvement, healthy landscapes, and relationship-building have been key features of the development and implementation of the DZCIB.
Additional Resources
See recommended websites and readings below to explore the topics presented in this StoryMap in greater detail.
Click around the map to see the relevant territories, languages, and treaties around the world. (Native-Land.ca)
Hover over the information symbol to learn and read more.