Community-based monitoring initiatives provide the opportunity for Indigenous people to work collaboratively with industry, government, academia, and citizens on monitoring, tracking and responding to issues that are of concern to a community.
Community-based monitoring empowers Indigenous people to incorporate Indigenous knowledge and western science into a research design, develop and implement culturally relevant data collection techniques, and have a greater role in local governance and meaningful input into the management of local natural resources. Community-based monitoring provides communities with the ability to produce easily communicable results, increase environmental education in their community, and increase citizen engagement and participation in resource management.
Associated Environmental, in partnership with the Government of Northwest Territories and Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources, is developing a suite of Community-based monitoring software modules to assist communities in the collation of information about lands and waters, and the plant and animal species that live there, and to monitor the condition of lands, waters and species over the long-term. These tools will help communities identify their needs and priorities based on outcomes from their own data collection.