Water stewardship through innovative policy development: mobilization and transfer of the Yinka Dene Water Law

Policy mobility and transfer play a role in larger policy development and implementation processes, as actors look elsewhere for policy solutions to local issues. Conducted in collaboration with the Nadleh Whut’en First Nation and guided by an Indigenous methodology based on the Too Declaration with support from constructivist grounded theory, this research explores the mobilization and transfer of the Yinka Dene Water Law. Conversations with participants representing First Nations and interest groups reveal that the Water Law is being mobilized by individuals and groups at a variety of scales, and use varies from adoption and implementation, to inquiring about its transfer. This research also discusses factors influencing Water Law transfer, including shared policy problems and its function as a communication tool. There are few empirical examples of policy transfer processes between Indigenous contexts. This research contributes to filling this gap in the policy transfer literature by exploring such transfer between First Nations, and advances Nadleh Whut’en’s stewardship and implementation related objectives.