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
Conservationists slam DFO for chum impacts in commercial fishery
Three BC salmon conservation groups are concerned that 1.37 million pounds of chum salmon have been discarded as by-catch in pink salmon fisheries. CFAX interviews Raincoast biologist Misty MacDuffee…
Conservationists point finger at DFO over thrown back chum salmon
By Alan S. Hale – The Northern View
August 18, 2011
The Watershed Watch Salmon Society, Raincoast Conservation Foundation, and SkeenaWild Conservation Trust are not putting most of the blame on the fishermen who are actually breaking the rules, but instead are pointing the finger at the DFO…
‘Verified’ livestock losses in decline as province adopts open-season policy on wolves
Larry Pynn, Vancouver Sun
Paul Paquet, senior scientist for Raincoast, argues there is a vast discrepancy between government policy and solid information on wolves…
NGOs slam Canada’s salmon management
Three Canadian environmental groups say Canada is mismanaging the British Columbia chum salmon fishery by requiring massive amounts of discards…
Chum salmon discards in the Great Bear Rainforest
Commercial fisheries targeting pink salmon on BC’s north coast have discarded over 1.37 million pounds of chum salmon as by-catch. Many of these fish are from depleted stocks…
The Enbridge pipeline: Northern Gateway to what?
The recent chatter from energy industry spokespersons about the need to formulate a national energy strategy is simply code for developing an export strategy for Alberta’s tar sands…