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
Raincoast examines cougar conservation
View the poster In May 2008, Raincoast presented a conference poster at the Mountain Lion Workshop in Sun Valley, Idaho. The poster, entitled “Cougars in British Columbia: conservation assessment and science-based management recommendations”, includes highlights from a forthcoming report that examines opportunities for cougar conservation.
Migrations
by Ian Jansma, Field Station Coordinator Denny Island, July 2008 A new season has begun at our field research station on remote Denny Island in the Great Bear Rainforest. This part of the world gets up late from its misty winter slumber and rolls slowly over through spring rain toward the summer sun. The days…
Grizzly bears need protection
Vancouver Sun, Thursday, July 31, 2008 Letter: by Chris Genovali Re: B.C. grizzly population at ‘great risk’, July 29 I’d like to clarify an important point in the article. I did not state that the 430 grizzly bears killed in 2007 were all from sport hunting. What I did say is that a record number…
Scale of B.C. grizzly bear hunt, population disputed
The Prince Rupert Daily News Thursday, July 31, 2008 George T. Baker In a Vancouver Sun article published on Tuesday, it was reported that 430 grizzly bears were killed in the province last year. But the Environment Minister Barry Penner shot back that the number was not accurately portrayed by the coalition of scientists, conservationists…
Grizzlies at ‘great risk,’ hunting ban urged
Conservationists press premier on matter Vancouver Sun July 28, 2008 Kelly Sinoski As hunters prepare for the fall season, conservationists are calling on the provincial government to keep the grizzlies out of the hunt. A coalition of scientists, conservationists and animal advocates sent a letter to Premier Gordon Campbell Monday, suggesting it ban grizzly hunting…
Dozens of scientists, environmentalists urge B.C. to end grizzly hunt
Canadian Press July 29, 2008 VANCOUVER – Hunting grizzly bears puts even more pressure on a species already in jeopardy from shrinking habitats, poaching and global warming, says a group of scientists and conservationists calling on the B.C. government to end the hunt.