Moving From Words to Action:
Successful Strategies for Conservation
Presentation to the Haig-Brown Symposium on Wild salmon
Jamie Alley, Director
Oceans and Marine Fisheries Branch
BC Ministry of Environment
An Inspiration
A river is water in its loveliest form;
rivers have life and sound and
movement and infinity of variation,
rivers are veins of the earth through
which the life blood returns to the
heart.
A river is never quite silent; it can
never, of its very nature, be quite still; it
is never quite the same from one day to
the next. It has its own life and beauty,
and the creatures that it nourishes are
alive and beautiful also.
Roderick Haig-Brown, “To Know a River” from A River Never Sleeps, 1944
Best Fisheries Management
“Lead the world in best environmental
management with ….the best fisheries
management bar none.”
Great Goals for a Golden Decade, 2005
What Are the Real Culprits?
Round up the usual suspects
 The conventional wisdom of the
past - the 4 H’s:
 Harvesting
 Hydro
 Habitat
 Hatcheries
BRITISH COLUMBIA SALMON CATCH
Cumulative five year moving means
120,000
TONNES
100,000
80,000
60,000
20,000
SOCKEYE
PINK
CHUM
COHO
CHINOOK
2005
1990
1975
1960
1945
1930
1915
1900
1885
0
1870
TITLE
40,000
STEELHEAD
Annual total British Columbia catch of salmon,
1870 to 2005, cumulated by species and
presented as moving means by five, centred on
the third year. Steelhead indistinguishable
B.C. Commercial Catch and Spawning Escapement
2.0
1.2
Commercial Catch
Spawners
0.8
0.4
(year)
20
00
19
96
19
92
19
88
19
84
19
80
19
76
19
68
19
64
0.0
19
60
TITLE
Index Values (4-year average)
1.6
What Are the Real Culprits?
Round up the usual suspects
 Today’s conventional wisdom (in addition to
the 4 H’s):
 Climate change
 Ocean productivity
 Water flows
 Illegal poaching
 Sea lice
 Poor governance
 Globalization and materialism
 What will tomorrow’s conventional wisdom be?
How is the Province Doing?
Round up the usual suspects
 Auditor Generals’ Report 2004 – Assess the effectiveness
of provincial programs to sustain wild salmon.
 Need to have a clear vision
 Be more active in protecting and restoring habitat
 Potential impacts of aquaculture being addressed but
need more knowledge
 Better evaluation and public reporting
 Government’s response:
 Agree on need for shared vision – WSP will help
 Continuous improvement on habitat protection and
Living Rivers Trust Fund ($21M) for restoration
 Establish Pacific Salmon Forum under Hon John
Fraser with 3 year mandate and $5M to provide advice
on securing wild salmon
 New performance measures in Service Plans
Who should decide?
From Advice to Collaboration to Co-Management
Words to Action
 Science and management is getting much better but we
haven’t changed either the culture or the governance
structures (enough)
 Integrating fish production with fish harvesting in an
ecosystem-based management process
 start with the ecosystem – fix any issues
 match harvesting to the ecosystem
 Water to Plate – integrating market needs
 What does the market want?
 How do we maximize value?
 The salmon fishery of the future:
 protecting and restoring the ecosystem
 provide broad social and community benefits
Spatial Scales of Governance
Addressing governance at various scales
International
National
Fisheries Governance
Mechanism
Regional Transboundary
Provincial
Regional
Local
Legal Dimensions of Governance
“Hard” vs. “Soft” Governance
Hard Governance
– Statutory laws and
regulations
– Permits and licenses
– Treaties
– Legal delegation
agreements
– Judicial Inquiries
– Enforcement
– Prison terms
Soft Governance
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
MOUs and LOUs
Policy Round Tables
Advisory processes
Guidelines and BMPs
Traditions and values
Voluntary agreements
Task Forces
Moral suasion
Education
Fisheries Governance Models
Governance Arrangements
Continuum of Governance Arrangements
Who should decide?
From Advice to Collaboration to Co-Management
Words to Action
 Science and management is getting much better but we
haven’t changed either the culture or the governance
structures (enough)
 Integrating fish production with fish harvesting in an
ecosystem-based management process
 start with the ecosystem – fix any issues
 match harvesting to the ecosystem
 Water to Plate – integrating market needs
 What does the market want?
 How do we maximize value?
 The salmon fishery of the future:
 protecting and restoring the ecosystem
 provide broad social and community benefits
An Inspiration
A river is water in its loveliest form;
rivers have life and sound and
movement and infinity of variation,
rivers are veins of the earth through
which the life blood returns to the
heart.
A river is never quite silent; it can
never, of its very nature, be quite still; it
is never quite the same from one day to
the next. It has its own life and beauty,
and the creatures that it nourishes are
alive and beautiful also.
Roderick Haig-Brown, “To Know a River” from A River Never Sleeps, 1944