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
It’s a grizzly situation
Edmonton Sun September 2, 2009 Re: “Alberta mulls ban on grizzly hunt,” (Sun, Aug. 29). It is mystifying Alberta is actually considering lifting the ban on the trophy hunt given the paucity of grizzlies in Alberta.
See You In September
I always associate September with wild salmon and with its onset I’m reminded of a particularly affecting experience I once had with these remarkable fish.The pale afternoon light that is so peculiar to autumn filtered through the trees, refracting through the flowing water to the tessellation of river rocks below, giving the entire landscape a…
The elephant in the room
FOCUS September 2009 Re: The elephant in the room, congratulations to Katherine Palmer Gordon for the in-depth article on climate change in August’s Focus.
Salmon farmers have earned suspicion
by Mike Price Times Colonist August 29, 2009 Raincoast Conservation agrees with Clare Backman that caution should be used before laying blame for the Fraser River sockeye collapse on salmon farms (“Don’t blame fish farms for sockeye decline,” Aug. 27).
Coexisting with bears
by Chris Genovali Edmonton Journal August 31, 2009 Re: “Bears kept eating as companions shot; ‘Serious public safety issue’ required quick action, official says,”. The massacre – as one local resident described it – at the Conklin dump is a reminder of similar problems here in British Columbia with “control kills” of bears.
Fraser Sockeye: Scale of sea-lice problem?
by Mike Price Globe and Mail, Aug. 19, 2009 Paul Sprout, of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, writes that sea lice from fish farms are not the explanation for this year’s crash of Fraser River sockeye (Fishing For Answers – letters, Aug. 15). How can anyone make such a conclusive statement at this juncture?