Ecosystem-Based Management Indicators for a Marine Planning Process in BC\u27s North Coast - Marine Planning Partnership (MaPP)

The Marine Planning Partnership for the North Pacific Coast (MaPP) is a collaborative planning process for coastal and marine areas in the north coast of British Columbia, Canada. MaPP is a co-led partnership between the Province of British Columbia and First Nations governments, represented by the Coastal First Nations-Great Bear Initiative, the North Coast-Skeena First Nations Stewardship Society, and the Nanwakolas Council. Marine plans are being developed for four sub-regions: Haida Gwaii, North Coast, Central Coast, and Northern Vancouver Island. MaPP is using an ecosystem-based management (EBM) framework and developing indicators for ecological integrity, human well-being, and governance. This talk will briefly outline the methodology and present draft indicators for monitoring EBM in the North Pacific Coast of British Columbia. These indicators are forming the basis of a MaPP EBM Indicator Toolbox to monitor the regional frameworks and sub-regional plans including objectives and strategies for climate change adaptation, marine uses and activities, marine pollution, and marine protected areas. It is too early for us to present on the results of using the indicators because the marine planning process is still underway, however we will discuss the potential use of indicators in connection with our work to analyse the vulnerability of ecosystem types to marine stressors, as well as in the context of a draft cumulative effects assessment framework. Finally, we will briefly discuss ideas for implementation of a monitoring program for the indicators in the toolkit