In December 2025, the Coastal Stewardship Network brought together Guardians and other stewardship staff from CFN member Nations for two days of collaboration focused on the Regional Monitoring System (RMS). Eight stewards joined in person in Vancouver, with another dozen participating via video conference from their respective Nations.
Led by Coastal Stewardship Network’s RMS team, the workshop was part of an ongoing evolution of the digital monitoring platform, which has been supporting Indigenous-led stewardship for over 15 years.
The meeting included practical elements, such as user training and troubleshooting, reviewing work done over the past year, and providing hands-on support for data management, as well as deeper conversations about how the RMS could be further enhanced.
Guardians and stewardship staff shared feedback on their day-to-day experiences with the current system, highlighting what works well and where improvements are needed. These practical insights from people who use the tools every day on the water and on the land are invaluable for shaping future development priorities.
As Guardian programs and the Nations’ Stewardship Offices continue to expand and assume increasingly sophisticated stewardship responsibilities, meetings like this ensure that technological tools evolve in lockstep with community needs—always under community direction and control.
The work continues, with CFN staff incorporating feedback from these sessions into future updates to the RMS and related training and support programs.
Beyond the technical improvements, the Vancouver gathering reinforced something more fundamental: the RMS remains what it has always been—a tool built by Nations, for Nations, to support their inherent responsibilities to care for their territories.
Want to learn more about the RMS?
Read the feature article, Technology for Stewardship and Sovereignty (pdf), published in the Journal of Ocean Technology, which details how the RMS advances both environmental stewardship and Indigenous rights.
