Ecosystem Based Management - BC's Central and North Coast
EBM Defined
At its core, ecosystem based management (EBM) is an integrated approach to natural resource management that seeks to sustain ecosystem health and resiliency while supporting the sustainable human use of ecosystem goods and services. With respect to implementation on the North and Central Coast of BC, EBM has been formally defined as:
An adaptive approach to managing human activities that seeks to ensure the coexistence of healthy, fully functioning ecosystems and human communities. The intent is to maintain those spatial and temporal characteristics and processes of whole ecosystems such that component species and ecological processes can be sustained and human well-being can be improved.
The specific conditions that were required to be met as a basis for confirming the implementation of EBM on the Central and North Coast are provided here.
In keeping with the need for an integrated approach to achieving EBM, work on the Central and North Coast has expanded beyond land use zoning to include:
- The formal establishment of a Government to Government management relationship with Nanwakolas Council, the Coastal First Nations and the Tsimshian Stewardship Committee.
- The creation of new legislation to enable unique approaches to conservation management in the form of Biodiversity, Mining, Tourism areas (BMTAs);
- The creation of programs to support increased diversity and stability in the local economy including the $120 million Coast Opportunity Fund;
- The establishment of 117 new conservancies, which raise the amount of parkland to 1.8 million hectares or nearly 30% of the Plan Area.
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The establishment of legal direction, in the form of Land Use Objectives, for forestry practices.
The March 2009 announcement of the establishment of ecosystem based management (EBM) across British Columbia's North and Central Coast regions represented the culmination of 14 years of intensive, complex, and ultimately consensus based land and resource management planning process involving the Province of BC, area First Nations, and representatives of forest licensees, the environmental conservation sector and local communities. Over this period, the decision-making process has moved through different phases. To learn more about these earlier stages in the process, please review the following background material:
- Search
- FrontCounter BC
- GeoBC BC's Geographic Gateway
- Crown Land Management
- First Nations Initiatives Division
1-877-855-3222
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Outside North America, please call ++1-604-586-4400
FrontCounter BC is a one stop service for clients of provincial natural resource ministries and agencies. Staff can help you with the licenses and permits you need to start or expand a business related to mining, forestry, agriculture, water, land, aquaculture and many others.
Virtual FrontCounter BC gives clients the ability to apply on-line for authorizations. You can update the application you are working on, attach maps and documents to your application, submit and pay for your application and track your online applications.
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GeoBC’s products and services enable citizens, clients and partners to discover, view, download, analyze, integrate and create geographic data to support their business activities.The Gateway proivdes a window to data and information sources managed by various ministries and agencies in the natural resource sector.
The allocation and management of Crown land and coastal marine resources plays a key role in expanding and diversifying the economy, sustaining environmental values, and promoting the health and well-being of all British Columbians.
ILMB administers, allocates, adjudicates, documents and manages Crown land tenures for a number of land programs. As well, ILMB is responsible for promoting adventure tourism, coordinating permitting processes for clean energy projects, creating opportunities to develop and market some Crown land parcels, and developing and implementing land and coastal marine plans and agreements.
Click here for more information on Crown Land Management
In 2008, the BC Government committed to improving consultation and respectful engagement with First Nations. Benefits of this work—to government, First Nations, proponents, and the public—include enhancing meaningful government-to-government relations with First Nations, creating a positive investment climate by providing certainty and predictability, and reducing the heavy consultation workload for all parties.
The First Nations Initiatives Division (FNID), a division of the Integrated Land Management Bureau, is leading a shift in business to the “Virtual integration” of aboriginal relations. Virtual Integration is a government initiative to implement common, policies, procedures and tools across all the natural resource agencies. FNID works with all Natural Resource Agencies to deliver Virtual Integration through two main business lines:
- Coordinating interagency consultation with First Nations, comprising i) an aligned policy framework, ii) regional economic development priority setting, including shared business planning and resource sharing, and iii) coordinating multi-authorization project consultation.
- Negotiating strategic agreements with First Nations that will improve the Province’s investment climate, reduce the consultation volume for all parties, create enduring forums for government-to-government engagement and achieve the goals of the Transformative Change Accord.
http://www.newrelationship.gov.bc.ca/agreements_and_leg/trans_change_accord.html
