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
One with the wolves
Monday Magazine By Bill Stuart Feb 27 2008 Chris Darimont goes north to the Great Bear Rainforest No question, wolves have gotten a bad rap through literature and folklore over the years, but in truth they are an essential part of many northern ecosystems. Thanks to the work of the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and scientists…
Slideshow of Raincoast Birds
The lands and waters of Canada’s Pacific coast support an astonishing diversity of marine birds. Millions breed here every year and millions more migrate, rest, overwinter and feed here. With industrial projects, such as oil tankers and pipelines, being proposed for the lands and waters of the Great Bear Rainforest, the marine birds of our…
Juvenile Salmon Migration Mapping Report
Raincoast investigated juvenile salmon habitat use along BC’s central coast in order to identify primary migration routes. This is a year-one report. Juvenile Salmon Migration Mapping Report
Sea lice are spreading. Is the government noticing?
By Stephen Hume Vancouver Sun January 23, 2008 Sea lice infestations affecting wild salmon smolts that migrate past fish farms have been found in yet another region of British Columbia’s remote coast. The problem poses potential headaches for the provincial government, since it suggests implications for commercial and recreational fisheries worth close to $1 billion…