Case Study: Management Strategies that consider climate change (Reading)
This reading activity focuses on an Okanagan case study of successful collaborative management of water systems for food and agricultural adaptation between several levels of government, NGOs, and community members on both sides of the Canad/USA border. Please read the following links and familiarize yourself with this collaborative model of fish revitalization and adaptation to climate change that serves to provide food security for Indigenous Peoples. The following links are published online and can easily be accessed. In order to help understand this initiative, the articles describe the positive effects of food security and food sovereignty such as the nutritional, cultural, resilience, adaptation, and revitalization of habitat and ecosystem function – components of food security as I described in my own doctoral work in Module One. It truly is a success story. Please note that topics from these 3 readings will be included in your Weekly Guided Reflections.
To read:
Okanagan Nation Fisheries: “Syilx/Okanagan diet quality positively impacted by increased food sovereignty says study”. Please read the following article paying close attention to nutrition for the Okanagan Syilx Peoples. The restoration of salmon has increased the nutritional impacts of eating traditional foods.
Okanagan Nation Alliance – “Harvest”. Found on the Okanagan Nation Alliance website, the following article discusses food sovereignty. The ONA’s ability to harvest its own sockeye salmon among several other types of fish is indicative of its own resilience, independence, strength, and autonomy in how it directs its land and water resources. This initiative is also important in habitat restoration which is conducive to climate change mitigation.
https://www.syilx.org/fisheries/harvest/
Okanagan Nation Alliance – “Okanagan Chinook Restoration Program”
Another example of collaborative fish restoration is the Chinook Salmon run which the ONA have been working on for the last 15 years. Pay special attention to the development between several key stakeholders that have all contributed to the funding of these projects. This initiative stands as a testament to the will of groups of people to effect positive change in the world.
https://www.syilx.org/projects/okanagan-chinook-restoration-program/
Augmented reading – not required reading.
https://www.syilx.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/2017-FAQ_OK-Chinook-Recovery-1.pdf
Extra Reading:
There are other important collaborations taking place and the following link is an example of one initiative here in BC which partners B.C.’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries; Ministry of Environment and Climate Change; Secwépemc Fisheries Commission; Okanagan Nation Alliance; and Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Funding is supplied through the British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund, a joint federal-provincial fund.