Shifting salmon policy
Photo by Alex Harris.
Ecosystems are complex. They are communities of living organisms connected through interacting processes and features on the land, in water, and between the two. Yet BC’s antiquated environmental policy doesn’t reflect this. Colonial society governs ecosystems by siloing them into distinct ministries and resources instead of reflecting the interconnected nature of habitats that make them function in the living world. This “siloed decision making”is the root cause of many of the ecological challenges we face today.
Our policy goals
1. Manage fisheries for ecosystems
- Set salmon harvest at levels that optimize the benefits of spawning salmon to watersheds and wildlife.
- Shift away from historic management paradigms that minimize the number of spawning salmon reaching rivers and maximize harvest (called Maximum Sustainable Yield). Move towards fisheries management that meets salmon spawning targets that are ecologically based, not harvest-based.
- Shift harvest toward selective terminal fisheries (conducted in or near the rivers of origin) that respect the ‘place-based’ nature of salmon, and optimize the benefits to ecosystems, Indigenous cultures, and local communities.
2. Implement ecological-based governance
- Conservation planning and a commitment to sustainability that looks 7 generations ahead.
- A “whole-of-government” approach that implements shared solutions by Indigenous, federal, provincial, and municipal governments to achieve salmon recovery from inland watersheds and rivers, to the open ocean.
- Governance that honours Aboriginal rights and title, inherent Indigenous jurisdiction and law, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA).
- Sustainable funding strategies for watershed-scale restoration and planning.
3. Advance land-use policies that prioritize the health of wild salmon and biodiversity
- Zoning that bolsters functioning watersheds and riparian habitat (i.e.protect natural features, limit impervious surfaces, reduce urban sprawl, adopt nature-based solutions).
- Forestry policy that prioritizes salmon health by restricting clear-cutting in salmon watersheds, and incentivizes a sustainable, second or third-growth forest economy.
- Climate adaptation policy that incentivizes nature-based solutions including natural shorelines, intact riparian areas, unrestricted floodplains, managed retreat, and use of rain-gardens in urban areas.
Our recent reports
Recent articles
Disease transmission (TB) in elk
This paper, published in Molecular Ecology, examines the role of social behavior in transmitting bovine tuberculosis (TB) in a Manitoba elk population.
Genetic differentiation in wolves
This paper examines genetic differentiation in a population of southwestern Manitoba wolves. Published in Conservation Genetics
A Family Affair
Seaside Times
January 2012
By Chris Genovali
The Raincoast staff is a tightly-knit group of people. But for Raincoast biologists Andy Rosenberger and Adrianne Jarvela Rosenberger it’s literally a family affair…
We did it again! the Spirit of Christmas
In July of 2011 we raised the $370,000 in acquisition costs needed to purchase the tenure. Since raising the funds, we have been waiting for the BC Ministry of Environment to transfer the new territory to Raincoast
Spirit bear hunting territory: January update
Frustrating and unnecessary government delays have prevented us from being able to announce this purchase. However, in December 2011 we received assurances from the BC provincial government that the territory will be transferred to us in early 2012.
Tanker traffic increase threatens the Salish Sea
Public not given a say in expansion of oil exports from Burnaby port
By Chris Genovali and Misty MacDuffee, Times Colonist December 16, 2011
Incremental applications to the NEB are an effective way for Kinder Morgan to significantly increase the amount of crude oil exported out of Burrard Inlet without mentioning the terms oil tanker or tarsands…