A/HRC/22/50/Add.1 among others, on days when country food was consumed. These findings highlight the important relationship between access to country foods and health. 64. Although communities can, and often do, pursue a diet based on traditional/country foods, obtaining this is not without cost. Issues with accessing traditional foods include the impacts of climate change on migratory patterns of animals and on the mobility of those hunting them; limited availability of food flora and fauna; environmental contamination of species; flooding and development of traditional hunting and trapping territories; lack of equipment and resourcing to purchase equipment or inputs necessary for hunting, fishing and harvesting; and lack of requisite skills and time. 65. Many Aboriginal communities expressed concerns regarding federal government policies that have disrupted and, in some cases, devastated the traditional practices of indigenous people, including through removing control over land and natural resources. Access to country foods represents more than increased nutrition and physical accessibility; it also has significant cultural importance. C. Access to land 66. Aboriginal and treaty rights are protected by section 35 of the Constitution Act (1982). The expression of those rights is outlined in various treaties and other agreements so as to clarify rights and responsibilities. But concerns have been expressed that the Government has sought to extinguish existing titles through negotiations and terms of modern land claims and self-government agreements, as well as through a narrow and reductionist reading of historical treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements. Ongoing land claims across the country have implications for the right to food and access to country foods among aboriginal Canadians. Yet, under international law, indigenous peoples have the right to possess and control their traditional lands and resources. The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples affirms that indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources that they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired (art. 26, para. 1); the right to develop priorities and strategies for the development or use of their lands or territories and other resources (art. 31, para. 1); the right to maintain and strengthen their distinctive spiritual relationship with their traditionally owned lands, territories, water and coastal seas (art. 25).59 It also provides for States to provide effective mechanisms “for prevention of, and redress for…[a]ny action which has the aim or effect of dispossessing them of their lands, territories or resources” (art.8, para. 2 (b)). 67. The Special Rapporteur notes the existence of the Aboriginal Consultation and Accommodation: Updated Guidelines for Federal Officials to Fulfill the Duty to Consult, a Government policy document on aboriginal consultation and accommodation. In this context, he recalls that the Declaration establishes that, in general, consultations with indigenous peoples are to be carried out in “good faith … in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent” (art. 19). He believes that continued and concerted measures are needed to develop new initiatives and reform existing ones, in consultation and in real partnership with indigenous peoples with the goal towards strengthening indigenous peoples’ own self-determination and decision-making over their affairs at all levels. 68. The broad range of indigenous rights to possess and use natural resources as stated in the Declaration, extend beyond the scope of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur. Nevertheless, these rights do provide a point of reference for evaluating questions related to 59 See also ILO Convention No. 169 (1989), arts. 13-19. 19