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
Proposed Canadian Organic Aquaculture Standard opposed by over 40 North American organizations
Over 40 organizations from across Canada and the U.S., including Raincoast, have submitted a joint letter to the General Standards Board opposing proposed organic standards that allow antibiotic and chemical treatments of farmed fish.
Animal-welfare needs to go wild say Raincoast scientists
A new study published in the Journal of Animal Welfare by Raincoast scientists Paul Paquet and Chris Darimont, argues that degrading or destroying habitats and other impacts of human activities on wildlife causes them to suffer. As such, animal welfare considerations granted to domestic animals need to be expanded to include wild animals. Photo: grizzly…
Wildlife should be treated better: study
Animal-welfare rules that apply to animals in captivity like pets and farm animals should also apply to wildlife, says a newly published study by scientists from the Victoria-based Raincoast Conservation Foundation.
Group says animal welfare rules should apply in the wild – and these images show you why
Remote cameras in the forests near Bella Bella show bears hanging out in a circle. Animal-welfare rules that apply to animals in captivity like pets and farm animals should also apply to wildlife, says a newly published study by scientists from the Victoria -based Raincoast Conservation Foundation. The peer-reviewed paper, published in the British scientific…
Wildlife conservation meets animal welfare
Paquet, P.C., and C.T. Darimont. 2010. Wildlife conservation meets animal welfare: two sides of the same coin? Animal Welfare 19: 177-190.
Just say no to “certified organic” farmed salmon
While British Columbia (BC) farmed salmon could carry a certified organic label if the proposal by the Canadian General Standards Board and organic aquaculture working group at Fisheries and Oceans Canada gives the stamp of approval, the practices involved in raising salmon in open net-pens is antithetical to the spirit and intent of certification.