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
Uncontrolled disease in dogs threatens wildlife, humans in remote B.C. areas
Study links unhealthy pets to decline in wolf populations
By Judith Lavoie, Postmedia News
The study by researchers from Raincoast Conservation Foundation and the University of Calgary tested dogs in five remote B.C. communities – Hartley Bay, Klemtu, Ocean Falls, Bella Bella and Oweekeno…
Northern Gateway Project threatens wildlife
By Paul C. Paquet and Chris Genovali, Special To The Vancouver Sun
March 11, 2011
Although rarely considered, many human activities deprive wild animals of their life necessities, causing suffering of individuals through displacement, stress, starvation, and diminished security…
Study: Sea lice from salmon farms infecting BC sockeye
A new study by researchers from Raincoast, Watershed Watch, UVic and SFU provides the first link between salmon farms and elevated levels of sea lice on juvenile Fraser River sockeye…
Pipeline threatens wildlife
Animal Writes – The Vancouver Humane Society Newsletter, Spring 2011
by Paul C. Paquet and Chris Genovali
Why is there no concern about the pain, fear, suffering and even death that wildlife will endure if the pipeline is approved? It is largely because we place a higher priority on economic growth than on the welfare of other species…
Raincoast responds to letter in North Island Gazette
The North Island Gazette recently published a letter about supposed discrepancies between our press release and the peer-reviewed study it refers to…
The importance of large carnivores: Awakening Spirits
A new book chapter by Raincoast senior scientist Dr. Paul Paquet and co-authors discusses the ecological role of large carnivores on the landscape…