MaPP marine coordination team members Charlie Short (Province of B.C.) and John Bones (Nanwakolas Council) represented MaPP at the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference in Seattle from April 30-May 2, 2014. MaPP science advisor Jo Smith and indicators consultant Andrew Day joined them to present on three topics:
- A collaborative approach to systematic marine protected area network planning in British Columbia.
- Implementing ecosystem-based management in Canada’s Pacific: developing a marine zoning framework.
- Marine protected area design for the North Pacific Coast, Canada.
About the conference Short said, “I was amazed at the amount of restoration research and rehabilitation the Salish Sea ecosystem is undergoing – something we just don’t see in the North Coast of B.C. It reinforced some of the reasons why we do comprehensive resource planning – to avoid costly restoration and remediation efforts in the future.”
Bones observed that in addition to contributing topic-specific presentations, the MaPP initiative reinforced the uniqueness of the MaPP governance structure. “MaPP is such a comprehensive and all-encompassing ecosystem-based management process that it brought a new model of coordinated effort to conference participants,” he said.