CFN-GBI’s Coastal Stewardship Network provides programming and support to Coastal Guardian Watchmen, and the stewardship offices of the First Nations along BC’s North and Central Coast and Haida Gwaii.
We support local Guardian Watchmen teams within these communities, while encouraging a coordinated approach to First Nations stewardship across the broader coastal region.
To learn more about Coastal Guardian Watchmen and the history of the Coastal Stewardship Network, watch our video:
The Coastal Stewardship Network works directly with coastal communities to:
Learn more about our programs and the stewardship work of Coastal First Nations by downloading the Coastal Stewardship Network brochure (pdf).
For as long as settlements have existed along the Pacific Coast, First Nations people have cared for the region’s lush ecosystems and abundant wildlife.
Although separated by vast distances, towering mountains and deep waterways, these Nations share similar traditions and customs, and a responsibility to protect and manage the coastal ecosystems that sustain them.
For decades, First Nations’ governance of their own territories was disrupted or outlawed by colonial governments. Today, First Nations are taking back their governance role as managers of their resources and guardians of their territories.
In 2005, stewardship leaders from the North and Central Coast and Haida Gwaii agreed it was time to work together to form a collective presence on the coast. They wanted to create a standard training program and a collective monitoring system. As land and marine plans were finalized, they knew it would be most effective to work together to implement them and other sustainable resource management initiatives.
That initial plan for collaboration led to the creation of the Coastal Guardian Watchmen, a regional initiative that continues to monitor, steward and protect these coastal territories, and a collective vision for effective stewardship across the coast.
