Canada
Coastal British Columbia
Contact Information
- *Robert Prescott-Allen
627 Aquarius Road
Victoria, BC
V9C 4G5 Canada
rpa@padata.com
Project Team and Institutions
The assessment was conducted by the Coast Information Team (CIT), consisting
of a management committee of representatives of the British Columbia Provincial
Government (David Johns, Ken Baker [Co-Chair], Gary Reay), First Nations
(Art Sterritt [Co-Chair], Dallas Smith), environmental NGOs (Dr. Jody Holmes,
Ivan Thompson, Tom Green), forest products companies (Rick Jeffery, Corby
Lamb, Patrick Armstrong, Linda Coady, Hans Granander), and the community
at-large (GraemWells, Bill Beldessi), a secretariat (executive director
Robert Prescott-Allen, program manager Melissa Hadley), and ten project
teams: Ecosystem-based Management (EBM) Framework (led by Alex Grzybowski),
EBM Planning Handbook (Dan Cardinall), Hydroriparian Planning Guide (Dr.
Mike Church, Karen Price), Scientific Basis of EBM (Dr. Andy MacKinnon),
Ecosystem Spatial Analysis (Dr. Reed Noss and Chuck Rumsey), Ecosystem Trends
Risk Assessment (Dr. Rachel Holt), Cultural Spatial Analysis (Dr. Bob Lee),
Economic Gains Spatial Analysis (Dr. Doug Williams, David Hall), Well-being
Assessment (Robert Prescott-Allen), and Policy and Institutional Analysis
(Dr. George Hoberg). The peer review chair was Dr. Rod Dobell, Emeritus
Professor of Public Policy, University of Victoria.
Intended Users
Provincial and First Nations governments.
Funding
The total cost of the assessment was CA$3.3 million, funded by the Province
of British Columbia (58%), environmental groups (18%), forest products companies
(18%), and the Federal Government of Canada (6%).
Main Findings
Ecosystem services and human well-being: The region’s ecosystems provide
supporting and regulating services that are essential for human well-being.
In rural societies, major provisioning and cultural services-notably those
required for sustenance-are identical. However, the assessment distinguished
economic services (sources of income and employment with a direct monetary
value) and cultural services (all other material and nonmaterial contributions
to human well-being, including the provision of food). The main economic
services are provision of resources for fisheries and food production, logging
and wood production, and tourism, contributing from 17% to 56% of employment
income (depending on sub-region)—lower than it was in 1990, except in Upper
Mid Coast, where the contribution to employment income has risen. The largest
source of employment income is logging and wood production, apart from fisheries
and food production in the Outer Central Coast. The main cultural services
are provision of land for First Nations and non-aboriginal communities (fishing,
hunting, and plant gathering have both nutritional and cultural value in
local cuisines and as activities that express and affirm aboriginal and
rural lifestyles); raw materials for traditional arts, crafts, and medicines;
the sites of origin stories, crests, dances, legends, and names, as well
as traditional fishing, hunting, gathering, and dwelling places; and places
of artistic heritage and aesthetic and recreational value.
Conditions and Trends
Ecological integrity and ecosystem services: The supply of ecosystem
services depends on maintaining the ecological integrity of land, fresh
water, and marine ecosystems and the atmosphere. Ecological integrity is
medium poor, based on scores for ecosystem diversity, species and genetic
diversity, environmental quality, and provisioning and cultural services.
Declining populations of resource species and increasing risk to rare ecosystems
and species are the main signs of impaired ecological integrity. Although
the protected area system is already substantial, it does a poor job of
representing the region’s land and marine diversity, and in two subregions
is entirely inadequate. Declines in resource species have a direct impact
on economic and cultural services. Increasing risk to rare ecosystems and
species is evidence of damage to ecological integrity that may not affect
economic and cultural services but could impair supporting and regulating
services.
Human well-being: Human well-being is medium, based on scores for population
and health, wealth, knowledge and culture, and community. The main reasons
are: excessive population fluctuations, inadequate employment income, high
proportions of low-income households, weak economic foundations (poor access
to resources and limited business diversity), mediocre knowledge and education,
insecure access to cultural places, lack of power over decisions that affect
local livelihoods, low expectations of local governance, and social problems
manifested by a high proportion of deaths from self-destructive behavior
(drugs, alcohol, suicide) and high rates of domestic violence. Over the
past decade, most of these factors have worsened (notably population fluctuations,
employment income, low-income households, economic foundations), although
other conditions have improved (education levels and crime rates).
Drivers of change
The main human impacts on the ecosystem are uses of provisioning and
cultural services through harvest pressure and the introduction of exotic
species. These are driven by needs for sustenance and to earn a living,
a desire to make money, provincial revenue demands, and the pursuit of recreational
enjoyment—or, in general terms, people’s needs and wants. In turn, the needs
and wants which count the most depend on market powers and access to local
resources. Metropolitan populations dominate access to, and decisions on,
local resources. Local populations have a small share of the benefits from
local resources compared with the large share flowing to corporations outside
the region. Local populations do not drive change; change drives populations
into or out of the region, depending on whether the change is for good or
bad. The impacts of human drivers on the ecosystem may be dampened or intensified
by ecosystem drivers—the dynamics of populations and species, biogeoclimatic
processes, and disturbance regimes.
Responses
Six sets of responses are proposed:
- Increased ecological protection;
- Assured cultural security by guaranteeing access to places needed
for sustenance and protecting places needed for other values (such as
heritage and non-consumptive recreation);
- Improved economic development by concentrating on areas with the
highest potential for economic gain from timber, tourism, nonwood forest
products, fisheries, and minerals;
- Combined ecosystem and cultural conservation and economic development
through ecosystem-based management planning;
- Regular monitoring and periodic assessment of plan implementation,
together with a research program to fill major knowledge gaps and reduce
uncertainty;
- Better governance through new institutions and policy instruments,
including sub-regional decision-making bodies, an independent regional
science body, making EBM objectives legally binding, public and private
conservation financing, and an independent dispute resolution body.
Outputs
The CIT produced four EBM guides and six regional ands sub-regional analyses.
The former consisted of EBM Framework, EBM Planning Handbook, Hydroriparian
Planning Guide, and Scientific Basis of EBM; the latter included Ecosystem
Spatial Analysis, Ecosystem Trends Risk Assessment, Cultural Spatial Analysis,
Economic Gains Spatial Analysis, Well-being Assessment, and Policy and Institutional
Analysis.
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