Towards a Brighter Fishing Future
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TOWARDS A BRIGHTER FISHING FUTURE: SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC INDICATORS TO MEASURE OUTCOMES OF THE T’AAQ-WIIHAK FISHERIES by ANNIE MERRITT B.A. & Sc., McGill University, 2009 A PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS (PLANNING) in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES School of Community and Regional Planning We accept this project as conforming to the required standard ...................................................... ..................................................... ..................................................... THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA August 2013 © Annie Evelyn Merritt, 2013 Acknowledgements I would like to express a very heartfelt thank you to community liaison Katie Beach, Professor Evelyn Pinkerton, and project supervisor Timothy McDaniels, all of whom provided me guidance at different stages along the way in writing this final project and preliminary papers. You each lent me different and very valuable perspectives which are woven throughout this report from beginning to end. I am also sincerely grateful to my second reader Don Hall and to all those members of the T’aaq-wiihak Nations who generously shared their insights and perspectives with me and who made this report possible. I hope that your orange T’aaq-wiihak flags will be flying on your fishing boats for many years to come! And to Ryan. For letting me talk to you about fisheries all the time and providing good chuckles when needed. ii Executive Summary This report has been written to support the efforts of the Ahousaht, Tla-o-qui-aht, Hesquiaht, Ehattesaht/Chinehkint, and Mowachaht/Muchalaht Nations to re-establish the T’aaq-wiihak fisheries, whereby the Nations’ fishers are granted permission to fish by their hereditary chief. The development of these fisheries has followed from the recognition of the Aboriginal rights of these Nuu-chah-nulth Nations to harvest and sell fish from their territories in the waters off of the West Coast of Vancouver Island (WCVI). The purpose of this document, which was prepared for the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, is to develop a set of social and economic indicators for monitoring the outcomes of the T’aaq- wiihak fisheries. In the near term, this indicator suite may be used to navigate ongoing negotiations surrounding the terms of the fishery. In the long-term, it may also be used by the T’aaq-wiihak Nations as a tool used for informing decision-making and management. To contribute towards the development of an indicator suite, this report answers the following questions: 1) what key community objectives are held by fishers, fishery managers, and other members of the T’aaq-wiihak Nations, and how can these be translated into locally suitable socio-economic indicators? 2) What are the best practices regarding the use of indicators for monitoring social and economic variables in the fishery indicator literature? An integrative approach is taken to indicator development, combining top-down, literature based methodologies with bottom-up, community-driven methodologies in order to arrive at a set of indicators that are cost-effective, theoretically sound, and consistent with T’aaq-wiihak Nation members’ values and priorities. iii Contents 1.0 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 2.0 Background and Context .............................................................................................................. 3 2.1 Community Profiles of the T’aaq-wiihak Nations ...................................................................... 3 2.1.1 Geography .............................................................................................................................. 3 2.1.2 Demographics ......................................................................................................................... 4 2.1.3 Governance............................................................................................................................. 6 2.2 Historic and present-day processes mediating Nuu-chah-nulth Fisheries access ....................... 7 2.2.1 Historical participation of the T’aaq-wiihak Nations in the WCVI fishery .................................. 7 2.2.2 Present Day Litigation and the T’aaq-wiihak Fisheries............................................................ 10 3.0 Indicator Use and Applicability in the Context of the T’aaq-wiihak Fisheries..................................... 14 3.1 Short-term indicator purpose....................................................................................................... 14 3.1.1 Use of Indicators in Public Education and Communication..................................................... 14 3.1.2 Use of Indicators in Court Proceedings .................................................................................. 15 3.2 Long-term Indicator Purpose ....................................................................................................... 17 4.0 Best Practices for the Use and Development of Social and Economic Indicators in Fisheries- Dependent Communities ....................................................................................................................... 17 5.0 T’aaq-wiihak Indicator Development: Methodology ................................................................... 19 5.1 Community-Based Objective Identification Process ...................................................................... 20 5.1.1 Interview Methodology ......................................................................................................... 20 5.1.2 Secondary Data Collection ..................................................................................................... 21 5.2 Literature-Based Criterion Identification Process ......................................................................... 21 6.0 T’aaq-wiihak Indicator Development: Results ................................................................................. 23 6.1 Community Objectives ................................................................................................................. 23 6.2 Literature-Based Criteria .............................................................................................................. 34 6.2.1 Fisheries Indicator Criteria..................................................................................................... 34 6.2.2 Community Well-Being Criteria ............................................................................................. 36 6.3 T’aaq-wiihak Fisheries Socio-economic System Scope .................................................................. 39 7.0 Recommended Framework for the T’aaq-wiihak Fisheries Indicators ............................................... 42 7.1 Short-term Indicator Framework.................................................................................................. 43 7.2 Mid- to Long-Term Indicator Framework ...................................................................................... 44 iv 7.2.1 Sustainable Fisheries Indicator Framework Description ......................................................... 45 7.2.2 Sustainable Fisheries Indicator Framework: Rationale for Use ............................................... 47 8.0 Recommended Indicators for Use in Measuring the Outcomes of the T’aaq-wiihak Fisheries ........... 48 8.1 Indicator Types Used.................................................................................................................... 48 7.1.1 Natural Measures.................................................................................................................. 49 8.1.2 Constructed Measures .......................................................................................................... 49 8.1.3 Proxy Measures .................................................................................................................... 50 8.2 Recommended Indicator Suite ..................................................................................................... 50 9.0 Data Collection Considerations ........................................................................................................ 56 9.1 Measuring Criteria for which Indicator Data are Not Yet Available ............................................... 56 9.1.1 Widely-Issued Surveys to Fishers and T’aaq-wiihak Nation Members .................................... 56 9.1.2 Structured Interviews Issued to Targeted Fisheries Experts ................................................... 57 9.2 Measuring Criteria for Which Indicator Data are Available ........................................................... 58 9.2.1 Existing Data Sources ............................................................................................................ 58 9.2.2. Addressing Limitations of Data ............................................................................................. 58 10.0 Next Steps ..................................................................................................................................... 59 10.1 Remaining Indicator Development Tasks .................................................................................... 59 10.2 Use of Targets and/or Baseline Data .......................................................................................... 60 10.3 Data Collection Partnerships .....................................................................................................