MARINE PROTECTION
For the past two decades, CFN member Nations and other First Nations have been working collaboratively with federal and provincial governments in long-term planning to advance conservation and ecosystem-based management throughout the North Pacific Coast.
Planners are engaged in an unprecedented effort to create a Marine Protected Areas (MPA) network that would protect the region’s ecosystems and abundant marine life, including salmon, eulachon, herring and other culturally important species, while ensuring a variety of resource uses and activities that sustain coastal livelihoods.
Led by 17 First Nations, Canada and BC, the Northern Shelf Bioregion MPA network planning effort is breaking new ground in terms of Indigenous co-governance. The MPAs will protect marine biological diversity, including some threatened and ecologically significant species and habitats, as well as First Nations’ cultural priorities and traditional harvesting uses.