Monday 20 September 2010
Dr. Judith Sayers Kekinusuqs
Executive in Residence, Faculty of Business, and Adjunct Professor of Law University of Victoria

The Constitution and New Relationship have recognized aboriginal title but what does that mean for government and businesses? The Supreme Court of Canada has said that governments must consult and accommodate First Nations where their rights would be impacted by development, but how does Shared Decision Making as introduced by the New Relationship affect this. New Initiatives are surfacing regarding Revenue Sharing for new projects but not past projects, is this true recognition? The challenge of retaining sacred sites, heritage and burial sites is one that is being encountered every day in the province, how does true recognition protect these sites and can shared decision making help? These questions will be explored during this lecture on the struggles First Nations face on a daily basis in their communities regarding the conflict of rights versus development.

Location: CORNETT BUILDING B235
Time: 11:30 am
Pricing: Free, all are welcome.
more info

MARINE NIGHT: Whales, satellites and cold lunches on the edge of Antarctica

Monday 27 September 2010
Charles Short
Integrated Land Management Bureau in BC

In 2007, Charles Short and a small group of researchers studied Antarctic killer whales and humpbacks, using satellite tags to track their movements and migratory behaviour. Prior to that he studied eastern Pacific Gray Whales off Vancouver Island. He will present aspects of both of these projects. These studies have helped biologists to understand the role of marine protected areas for wide ranging species such as whales. Everyone is welcome.

Location: FRASER BUILDING 159
Time: 7:30 pm
Pricing: Free, all are welcome.
more info

“The Pacific Salmon Commission revised its estimates, predicting 25 million sockeye are bound for the Fraser River this summer. That is more than double the early summer forecast, making it the best run since 1913.”

Especially since last year only 1 million salmon returned.

But Federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea noted that it doesn’t mean the salmon crisis is over…
read more here.

(Image source: The Globe and Mail)

Photo credit: AFP

WASHINGTON, DC – Obama Administration officials today (19 July 2010) released the Final Recommendations of the Ocean Policy Task Force, which would establish a National Policy for the Stewardship of the Ocean, Coasts, and Great Lakes (National Policy) and create a National Ocean Council (NOC) to strengthen ocean governance and coordination. The Final Recommendations prioritize actions for the NOC to pursue, and call for a flexible framework for coastal and marine spatial planning to address conservation, economic activity, user conflict, and sustainable use of the ocean, our coasts and the Great Lakes.

See the press release here.
See the full text of the National Policy for the Stewardship of the Ocean, Coasts, and Great Lakes here.

For more background you can also check out the recent Science policy paper by NOAA Administrator, Jane Lunchenco, and Council on Environmental Quality Chair, Nancy Sutley:
Proposed U.S. Policy for Ocean, Coast, and Great Lakes Stewardship.

View the 2007 workshop summary report here.

Also, visit our Marxan wikipage, for a number of resources including training updates, FAQs, peer-reviewed papers, and technical/NGO/government reports using Marxan, as well as an interactive version of the Marxan User Manual.

And please feel free to add comments to help us improve these documents!

For other decision support tool resources, clickhere.

Photo credit: Jodi Stark

Canada has the enormous task of managing three distinct oceans (Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific) and the longest coastline in the world. On 22-23 June 2010, at the request of Environment Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, PacMARA convened an expert workshop in Ottawa for planners and practitioners to explore good practices when making decisions about how we use, manage, and conserve Canada’s marine resources. The discussions were led by Jeff Ardron, a leader in conservation planning who is currently directing the High Seas Program for the Marine Conservation Biology Institute in Washington, D.C.

Managing our oceans in an ever-changing world, with so many dynamic variables requires on-going learning. Also, because marine conservation planning is still a new and evolving field of practice, it is important to continue to examine different tools, methods, and good practices.

Along these lines, PacMARA also organized a course to build capacity in one of the most important decision-support tools for conservation planning – Marxan. This course was held in Ottawa from 5-9 July 2010, and was taught by Lindsay Kircher, an expert in Marxan software from the University of Queensland, where it was developed. The week included a discussion for managers on the potential role that Marxan can play in recommending protected areas, a variety of hands-on technical and explanatory presentations, and a session to prepare the future Marxan trainers of Canada.

The federal departments and agencies, non-profits, industry, academia, communities, and First Nations working in the field of marine conservation and management can learn a lot from one another and have a great capacity to benefit from collaboration.  It is events such as these that offer opportunity for co-learning and hopefully will continue to take place in Canada.

This hands-on course will provide participants with the basic knowledge and skills necessary to use Marxan in a marine conservation planning exercise.

For more information, please see: Introduction to Marxan

If you are interested in a course, have your say about when and where you’d like it by clicking here.

And don’t forget to check out updates to the just released Version 2 of the Marxan Good Practices Handbook here!

-       While the BP oil spill is on everyone’s mind, the Enbridge Pipeline from Alberta’s tar sands is proposed to bring over half a million barrels of oil a day to Kitimat, where it will get loaded onto ships that will navigate through rough waters of BC’s central coast to make it’s way to overseas market.

-       After years of campaigning by environmental groups and deliberation by government, the 9000-year-old globally unique Glass Sponge Reefs are one step closer to protection as they have been formally identified as an area of interest for Marine Protected Areas status.

-       Gwaii Haanas National Marine Conservation Area on the southern end of the Queen Charlotte Islands was just approved by Parliament linking the environmental protection of the mountaintops of the national park to the to the surrounding seafloor, a first for Canada, and possibly the world.

-       The concept of the inclusion of food availability and quality (i.e. Salmon) and acoustic conditions in the definition of critical habitat of endangered killer whales is now in court, affecting the scope of the Species at Risk Recovery Strategies.

-       The Cohen Commission is now underway.  This is the inquiry into the decline of sockeye salmon on the Fraser River.

With so many different things happening concurrently, a few questions come to mind…

Are we being efficient in our decision-making?

Are these issues being treated as if they are independent of one another?

How is the big picture being addressed?

How can we implement a more integrated, ecosystem-based approach to management that would maximize environmental conservation, economic productivity and community health?

Can a process such as PNCIMA answer some of those questions?

What do you think?

Lecturer in Conservation Leadership

In Collaboration with the University of Cambridge as part of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative

UNEP-WCMC is a world leader in conservation data and information based in Cambridge. In collaboration with the University of Cambridge, and as part of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI), UNEPWCMC wishes to appoint a suitably qualified person to the new position of Lecturer in Conservation Leadership. Based equally at the offices of UNEP-WCMC and the Department of Geography, the Lecturer will help build and deliver a new MPhil in Conservation Leadership, and play a key role in developing the activities of the CCI, with a focus on leadership talent for the future in biodiversity conservation.

For more information visit: http://www.unep-wcmc.org/latenews/jobs/index.shtml

CIGNB would like to invite interested parties to submit proposals for papers / presentations that support this year’s conference theme “Surveying the Past, Mapping our Future”.  The theme was chosen in honour of the Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering, at the University of New Brunswick, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

They will be “Surveying the Past” as in 2010 and celebrating 50 years since the first offering of the degree in Surveying Engineering (now Geomatics Engineering) at UNB. They will be “Mapping our Future” as they also want to hear about the latest trends, ideas and technology across the breadth of geomatics that will enable us to have successful careers in the future.

Please see www.geomaticsatlantic.com for more information.

• Analyzes the role of geospatial data and information in ILM decision-making processes
• Identifies geospatial datasets used to support ILM decision-making processes and describes its transformation into meaningful information
• Identifies and prioritizes new geospatial data sets as needed to support and enhance ILM decision-making processes
• Identifies barriers to accessing, using and sharing key geospatial data sets
• Identifies opportunities for overcoming identified barriers

To view, please link to the Key Documents section of the GeoConnections web site.

To obtain further information, please contact info@geoconnections.com