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
Tankers and Tar Sands Oil Threaten the Salish Sea
San Juan Islander
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
By Chris Genovali and Misty MacDuffee
The NEB approved the latest request by Kinder Morgan, which will consequently increase tanker traffic in the Salish Sea. Despite requests by Raincoast and other NGOs, this was done without a full public process…
Tankers and tar sands oil threaten seas
Gulf Islands Driftwood
December 13, 2011
By Chris Genovali and Misty MacDuffee
Kinder Morgan wants to triple the amount of crude oil being shipped from Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet through Georgia Strait, the Fraser estuary, the Gulf Islands, the San Juan Islands, Haro Strait and Juan de Fuca Strait…
Simulating effects of human disturbance on a wolf population in Manitoba, Canada
Stronen et al. 2012 Simulating effects of human disturbance on a wolf population in Manitoba, Canada
Conservationists warn of catastrophe for herring
By Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist
November 30, 2011
A change in the Strait of Georgia herring fishery could be catastrophic for resident herring populations, conservationists say…
Seeing red over British Columbia’s herring fishery
Other than salmon, few species in BC hold the ecological, cultural and economic importance of Pacific herring. A decision by Fisheries and Oceans Canada puts them at risk.
Winter herring quota could be ‘catastrophic’
Island Tides
November 17-30, 2011
In early November, the Raincoast Conservation Foundation wrote to Minister of Fisheries Keith Ashfield, expressing doubt that the resident herring populations were taken into account in the quota decision…