Session Six concludes with a Keynote Address that provides a global perspective on the conservation of migratory species, delivered by the Executive Secretary of the CMS, followed by a robust discussion of projections and pathways.
This panel focuses on the socio-economic and cultural significance of American eels. The discussion covers an overview of eel fisheries, socio-economic uses, international eel markets, dominance of Asian aquaculture, and the role of the American eel for aquaculture seed stock and for the consumption market. (Full publication)
OceanCanada investigators joined researchers from around the world to explore integrated ocean, coastal, lake and watershed management at the 2016 CoastalZone Conference in Toronto, June 12-16.
The second OceanCanada Partnership conference was held in Vancouver from May 24-27 on the beautiful grounds of the University of British Columbia. The conference brought together more than 60 researchers, students and post-doctoral fellows, advisory board members, community and institutional partners to take stock of our activities and work towards an integrated research agenda. Through a series of panels and group discussions, round tables and workshops, the conference delegates identified the emerging threats, challenges, and opportunities facing Canada’s oceans and coastal communities, and began the difficult task of synthesizing research priorities.
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Canada’s Oceans, Coasts and Coastal Communities Ocean Canada (oceancanada.org) is a cross-country research partnership dedicated to building resilient and sustainable oceans on all Canadian coasts and to supporting coastal communities as they respond to rapid and uncertain environmental changes. Its research synthesizes social, cultural, economic and environmental knowledge about oceans and coasts nationally. The three main aims of Ocean Canada are to take stock of what we know about Canada’s oceans, build scenarios for the possible futures that await our coastal-ocean regions, and create a national dialogue and shared vision for Canada’s oceans.
The University of Ottawa’s Centre for Law, Technology and Society (CLTS), Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC), and Carleton University’s Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre (GCRC) propose a licensing scheme available to traditional knowledge holders. The scheme aims to assist traditional knowledge holders communicate their expectations for appropriate use of their knowledge to all end users.
Inuit living in the Canadian Arctic have undergone rapid societal changes in the last half century, including moving into permanent settlements, the introduction of formal education, participation in the wage-economy, mechanization of hunting and travel, and increased consumption of store-bought foods. Despite these changes, country foods—locally harvested fish and wildlife—continue to be important in the lives of many Inuit for food security. However, fewer people are hunting full-time and some households are without an active hunter, limiting their access to country foods. This shift has increased reliance on processed foods purchased at the store to meet their daily food needs. These foods are often expensive, less nutritious, highly processed to endure long shelf lives, and less desirable than country foods. An entry point to strengthen Inuit food security is to support the acquisition of culturally-appropriate country foods through subsistence hunting and fishing. This entails supporting the transmission of environmental knowledge and land skills important for subsistence among generations, providing harvesters with necessary resources, and securing reliable cold storage in communities (e.g. community freezers) to preserve country foods during increasingly warmer summer months.
Despite broad recognition of the value of social sciences and increasingly vocal calls for better engagement with the human element of conservation, the conservation social sciences remain misunderstood and underutilized in practice. The conservation social sciences can provide unique and important contributions to society’s understanding of the relationships between humans and nature and to improving conservation practice and outcomes. There are 4 barriers—ideological, institutional, knowledge, and capacity—to meaningful integration of the social sciences into conservation. We provide practical guidance on overcoming these barriers to mainstream the social sciences in conservation science, practice, and policy. Broadly, we recommend fostering knowledge on the scope and contributions of the social sciences to conservation, including social scientists from the inception of interdisciplinary research projects, incorporating social science research and insights during all stages of conservation planning and implementation, building social science capacity at all scales in conservation organizations and agencies, and promoting engagement with the social sciences in and through global conservation policy-influencing organizations. Conservation social scientists, too, need to be willing to engage with natural science knowledge and to communicate insights and recommendations clearly. We urge the conservation community to move beyond superficial engagement with the conservation social sciences. A more inclusive and integrative conservation science—one that includes the natural and social sciences—will enable more ecologically effective and socially just conservation. Better collaboration among social scientists, natural scientists, practitioners, and policy makers will facilitate a renewed and more robust conservation. Mainstreaming the conservation social sciences will facilitate the uptake of the full range of insights and contributions from these fields into conservation policy and practice.
Greetings and welcome to the Spring 2016 edition of the OceanCanada Newsletter! In this edition you’ll find updates from across the partnership, an interview with advisory board chair Rosemary Ommer, profiles of OCP investigators, students, and post-doctoral fellows, and an interactive map of HQP developed by Evan Andrews (University of Waterloo).