Building a Foundation for the Southern BC Marine Spatial Planning Program

'Building a Foundation for the Southern BC Marine Spatial Planning Program'. On the south coast of British Columbia (BC), impacts from climate change, pollution from industrial and urban development, and effects of resource extraction are impacting species and their habitat, affecting food security and cultural vitality for Indigenous peoples, and impacting employment in traditional coastal sectors such as fisheries and forestry. Marine spatial planning (MSP) is widely considered a viable strategy for balancing economic development and conservation, recognizing and considering cumulative impacts, and managing conflicts amongst uses. However, given the social and economic complexities of the south coast of BC, developing and implementing MSP requires a solid foundation of knowledge, governance, and decision support tools from which to build a marine spatial plan. This presentation would bring together practitioners from agencies and ministries working on foundational elements of MSP in the southern coast of BC, including the Salish Sea. Topics covered would include a summary of early efforts: to build a marine atlas ('gathering what we know'); to advance preliminary governance planning ('setting the stage for working collaboratively'; and to develop elements of a draft framework for the Southern BC MSP program ('getting ready'). This session would provide a forum for sharing ideas toward future planning phases that is robust yet responsive to the variety of issues and contexts of the Salish Sea. This presentation would be of particular interest to other jurisdictions and practitioners who are working on spatial planning processes, and/or the development of marine plans and policy in regions of high social and economic complexity.