3Nations & British Columbia (3NBC) Collaborative Stewardship Forum (CSF) Update

BUILDING A COLLECTIVE APPROACH TO WILDLIFE STEWARDSHIP 3Nations & British Columbia Collaborative Stewardship

Forum Message

Prepared by Feddie Louie, 3Nations Society Co-chair and Linda Robertson, BC Government Co-chair.

It is increasingly clear that the complex issues we face in natural resource management today cannot be solved through the application of western scientific knowledge alone. Local and Indigenous knowledge and perspectives are essential to build our collective approach to wildlife stewardship in ways that can benefit all.

Members of the 3Nations BC (3NBC) Collaborative Stewardship Forum (CSF) include representatives from Taku River Tlingit (TRT), Tahltan, Kaska, 3Nations Society and the Province of British Columbia. The team recognizes the value that local and Indigenous perspectives bring to wildlife management. We recognize that having access to shared and trusted information gathered from multiple knowledge sources is the foundation for being able to make management decisions together.

Over the last three years, the 3NBC Forum has been working to support each of the 3Nations Guardian Programs to coordinate among each other and build capacity, provide eyes and ears on the ground, and conduct the surveys and research needed to better inform wildlife management. This year, due to the pandemic, the Province has provided bridge funding to allow 3NBC CSF to continue for one more year while a renewed mandate is being sought to continue Collaborative Stewardship Forums like 3NBC for the long term. 3NBC members have participated in the process of developing joint recommendations for a new mandate. Key among those recommendations is the need for long-term sustainable funding and the need to focus on how shared data collected through the forums can be used to inform decisions. While the work to secure a long-term mandate continues, so does the 3NBC collaborative work on wildlife inventory and assessment needed to inform better management decisions. In addition to the monitoring of licensed hunters and recreational land users, we are conducting wildlife surveys. This fall, Guardians are delivering community surveys to inform the development of community-based moose stewardship plans within the Atlin, Klappan, and Liard Basin moose populations.

Developing and testing methods for gathering and sharing data from all knowledge sources to inform evidence-based decisions that everyone can understand is a primary goal of the moose stewardship planning. This work to gather community knowledge and perspectives is critical to informing better management decisions going forward and is the foundation needed to move toward wildlife co-management.

The moose stewardship planning allows the Province and each of the 3Nations to experiment and learnby-doing. We hope the lessons learned here can be expanded and applied to other wildlife populations across the 3Nation collective territories in an everwidening approach to co-management.

This fall, each of the 3Nations is conducting community surveys through Guardian-led interviews, and online surveys. Participation in the survey is a great way to get involved and contribute to the work of the 3NBC Collaborative Stewardship Forum.