Does community-based monitoring advance Indigenous self-determination? Inuit-led monitoring and governance in Nunavut and Greenland

Existing literature on Community-Based Monitoring suggests that participation in monitoring can increase the extent to which decision-making is informed by observed environmental trends. Yet, there is an ambivalence within the literature concerning the value for Indigenous peoples. Some scholars maintain that CBM programs replicate and reinforce colonial political inequalities while others suggest that such programs can and do support Indigenous self-determination. In this study, I explore such questions through empirical engagement with case studies of two established Indigenous-led programs in Nunavut, Canada, and Greenland that involve the collection of Indigenous Knowledge for use in decision-making. I contribute to the field by examining monitoring as a process through which knowledge and governance are co-constituted through politically unequal relationships. Considering this, I argue that Indigenous-led CBM can support self-determination in environmental governance given the right conditions. I identify three factors that are fundamental to achieving this. First, explicit legal acknowledgement of Indigenous rights, authority, and knowledge systems is key to mobilizing CBM data. Second, while the fundamental goal of such programs is to enhance the use of knowledge in decision-making, Indigenous leadership and data governance are important safeguards against extractive knowledge production. Finally, a theory of power is necessary to critically analyse both the directly observable and more subtle ways in which power influences the potential for CBM programs to promote Indigenous self-determination.