Wildfires disproportionately threatening First Nations and worst could be yet to come, study finds

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TORONTO — First Nations communities are disproportionately threatened by wildfires, a study finds, with people who live on reserves making up nearly one-third of all evacuees in Canada since the 1950s.

“How frequently communities will experience fires is going to be a lot higher for First Nations reserves than for non-Indigenous communities in Canada,” said Amy Cardinal Christianson, one of the co-authors of a study published in Canadian Science Publishing in April, in a telephone interview with CTVNews.ca.

“Our results suggest that the extent of losses and the number of evacuations that First Nations populations experience could drastically increase in the coming decades,” the authors wrote.

Christianson, a Metis fire research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service, said it is troubling that is the case given that First Nations living on reserve make up a much smaller proportion of the total Canadian population -- about 1.1 per cent.

“We need to start preparing now for more fire events and that means sending additional money to mitigate the impacts on these communities,” she said.

The National Resources Canada study, which looked at wildfire data dating back to the 1950s, found around four million people – or 12 per cent of the country’s total population – live near or within at-risk forest areas.

But when it came to First Nations people who live on-reserve, 32.1 per cent of this population were at risk of natural disasters driven by climate change.

Christianson said this increased risk to wildfires is brought about by a “perfect storm” of factors including warmer climates, increased fuel load of dead leaves and vegetation which can drive fires, Indigenous communities sometimes having a limited ability to evacuate by road, and more people moving into areas where homes are built near or in wooded areas.

The recent findings are specially pertinent as wildfires destroy homes, habitats and livelihoods in many parts of Canada.

As of Aug. 18, 3.9 million hectares of land in Canada have been affected by wildfires this summer, according to data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

Researchers from the latest study said as buildings continue to go up near at-risk forests, we can expect more of them to be damaged or destroyed by fire. They say two-fifths of Canada forests are already close to housing, industry buildings and other infrastructure.

The authors said the risk of wildfires has only increased as the climate has become drier, and wildfire seasons have been starting earlier and ending later.

“We hope that our findings will raise awareness of the impacts of climate change on humans living and working in areas exposed to wildland fire,” the authors wrote.

FIRST NATIONS RESIDENTS MADE UP THIRD OF ALL EVACUEES

The federal fire study found that people who live in First Nations reserves made up nearly a third of all evacuees in the recent decades.

“Indigenous communities in Canada are on the front lines of climate change,” Christianson said. “We're seeing that northern communities are already experiencing significant changes.”

In May, hundreds fled their homes in First Nations communities in Manitoba. In mid-July, more than 1,000 people were evacuated from Pikangikum, Deer Lake, and Poplar Hill First Nations in northwestern Ontario. And a week after that, 200 residents of the Cat Lake First Nation fled their homes to shelters in the Greater Toronto Area.

Researchers expect First Nations communities to continue being disproportionately represented among evacuees in the coming years.

They also echoed what many Indigenous people and fire researchers have been saying for decades: there needs to be larger focus on prevention and mitigation efforts, not simply allocating resources to extinguish fires.

“It is also important to recognize and value traditional knowledge,” the researchers said.

Knowledge keepers and fire experts have previously said governments’ disregard of Indigenous prescribed and cultural burns -- purposefully burning away entire patches of trees and dry vegetation -- has greatly contributed to the wildfire crisis in British Columbia today.

A University of Waterloo study also found that Indigenous fire stewardship could help protect the world from the type of severe wildfires that have been occurring more frequently in recent years. Researchers there suggested cultural burning, could also help promote greater biodiversity. And while some countries and cultures are embracing these practices, Canada has fallen behind.

With files from CTVNews.ca’s Sharon Lindores