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 oil spills could reverse years of recovery efforts
By Chris Genovali Lessons from the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska have shown that even after two decades, some species and fisheries still have not recovered. This includes killer whale populations, some seabird populations, shellfish harvesting and the commercial herring fishery. If the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline is constructed from Alberta’s tar sands…
Oil spill would devastate BC wildlife: report
Fragile Ecosystems Judith Lavoie, Financial Post Tuesday, March 24, 2010 Whales, wolves, bears and birds would be devastated by an oil spill in the waters north of Vancouver Island and off Haida Gwaii, says an extensive new study. Photo: Chris Darimont, Raincoast.org The extent of a simulated oil spill is marked in dark grey…
What’s at stake? The cost of oil on British Columbia’s priceless coast
What’s at Stake is based on 5 years of marine surveys on the BC coast, but puts this region in a broader ecological context.
B.C.’s coastal wildlife would be ‘devastated’ by oil spill: report
Conservation group states case against pipeline, coastal shipping Calgary Herald By Judith Lavoie, March 24, 2010 VICTORIA – Whales, wolves, bears and birds would be devastated by an oil spill in the waters off Vancouver’s coast, says an extensive new study released a day before the anniversary of one of the world’s most devastating human-caused…
B.C. oil profits may come at a high price
By Chris Genovali, Paul Paquet and Misty MacDuffee
Special to the Times Colonist
To borrow a phrase from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, today is a day that will live in infamy.
Report warns of catastrophic oil spill in waters north of Vancouver Island
Conservation group states case against pipeline, coastal shipping By Judith Lavoie, Victoria Times Colonist, March 23, 2010 Whales, wolves, bears and birds would be devastated by an oil spill in the waters north of Vancouver Island and off Haida Gwaii, says an extensive new study. What’s at Stake: The Cost of Oil on British Columbia’s…