Project TEACH Final Report: Bridging the gap between recognition and action in coastal ecosystems in southern British Columbia

Citation: Doll, S., Burton, C., Harris, N., & Craighead, A. (2023). Project TEACH: Bridging the gap between recognition and action on coastal ecosystems in southern BC. ISBN: 978-1-9993892-8-4 www.raincoast.org/reports/project-teach/

June 2023 | ISBN: 978-1-9993892-8-4
Written by Shauna Doll, C. Burton, N. Harris, and A Craighead

Executive summary

Project TEACH took place in the spring of 2022. It was a series of five webinar broadcasts, with each episode focusing on a different conservation problems in the Coastal Western Hemlock (CWH) and Coastal Douglas-fir (CDF) zones of British Columbia.

This series was followed by a public in-person strategy session, facilitated by subject matter experts. Attendees heard from three policy and social science experts, then broke into smaller groups to explore policy and management solutions. The ideas shared during those brainstorming sessions were combined with the results of a subsequent survey and thematically coded resulting in five overarching themes: Effective policies, Conservation action, Communities for change, Education for behaviour change, and Financing conservation. In reviewing and discussing these themes, six recommendations are made to help guide local governments operating within the range of the CDF and/or CWH zones to better incorporate ecological protections into land-use planning and decision-making. 

Acknowledgements

Project TEACH (Talking about Ecology & Aims for Conserving Habitat) was a collaborative initiative spearheaded by Raincoast Conservation Foundation and contributed to by Coexisting with Carnivores Alliance, the Wildlife Coexistence Lab at University of British Columbia, and the Applied Conservation Science Lab at the University of Victoria. It was made possible by the Community-University Engagement Support (CUES) Fund at UBC with additional support provided by Stream of Consciousness. 

A special thanks to all of the scientists and experts who shared their expertise through the lifetime of Project TEACH! This would not have been possible without you. A full list of contributing scientists can be seen below under the Webinar topics  heading and is also provided in Box 1 (p. 6) of the final report.

Positionality statement

The Project TEACH team was made up of settler scholars, community members, and other experts from the regions of focus. The information shared in this document is the result of the 1) knowledge of both Indigenous and academic experts throughout the Project TEACH series and 2) collected perspectives of community members.

Introduction

From wide-roaming carnivores to below-ground fungal networks, ecosystems are deeply connected. This connectivity means that when one element is disturbed or degraded, a cascade of effects can be felt throughout the system. To explore the landscape-level impacts of human decision-making, particularly in the range of the Coastal Western Hemlock and Coastal Douglas-fir biogeoclimatic zones characteristic to southeastern Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and small pockets of mainland BC, Raincoast Conservation Foundation, the Coexisting with Carnivores Alliance , the Wildlife Coexistence Lab  and Raincoast’s Applied Conservation Science Lab  initiated Project TEACH  in the late spring of 2022. 

In 2022, between May 12th and June 9th, Project TEACH partners facilitated five webinar broadcasts, with each episode focusing on a different conservation challenge in the CWH and CDF zones.  Raincoast also published a synthesis article of key concepts shared via Project TEACH webinars in early August 2022. The purpose of the webinar series was to collect and disseminate academic and Indigenous conservation expertise to resident populations and local decision makers. 

Following the webinar episodes, we hosted a half-day, in-person, Solutions Session at the University of Victoria. It opened with talks by three policy and social science experts, followed by a panel discussion featuring the same speakers and facilitated by scientist Andy MacKinnon. Following the panel, attendees broke into smaller groups to engage in roundtable discussions to explore potential policy options for better maintaining ecological integrity and resilience in target ecosystems, particularly in the face of the twin biodiversity and climate change crises.

Webinar topics

In person session

  • Solutions Session with Deborah Curran, Lauren Eckert, and Chief Gordon Planes and facilitated by Andy MacKinnon (attended by 50 people)

Conclusions

Based on the information disseminated by presenters and participants throughout Project TEACH, the report’s six recommendations have been made to help guide local decision-makers in the necessary transition toward a more ecologically-informed governance model throughout the range of precious coastal forests in southern BC.

Notably, while divided into separate recommendations, each is related and a nested implementation approach  will help shift governance within the CWH and CDF ranges toward a more conservation-centric model. 

Implementation of the six recommendations will be an evolving learning and unlearning process. Continued reflection and refinement will be needed. This means setting concrete and measurable conservation targets, undertaking ongoing monitoring to ensure objectives are being met along the way, and refining the transition process as needed.