Funded by the

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Community-Based Research Case studies from a
large, interdisciplinary, bi-coastal, research
project
The Impact of Social and Environmental
Restructuring on Environmental and Human Health
in Canada.
Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the
Natural Science and Engineering Research Council
of Canada (NSERC), through the SSHRC Major
Collaborative Research Initiatives (MCRI)
program, with additional funding
from participating universities and partners in
government, business, non-governmental
organizations and First Nation groups.
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Coasts Under Stress is a five-year project that
started in April 2000, and is an unique
experiment in genuinely interdisciplinary
research

• complementary case studies on the east and west
  Coasts of Canada
• analysis of the long- and short-term impacts of
  socio-environmental restructuring
• 70 natural and social scientists and 167
  trainees working with local communities on the
  two coasts

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Social-Ecological Health
A human, community and environmental condition
that sustains quality of life (as considered
acceptable by any given community) and
environments and promotes resilience in response
in stressors.
Dolan, A.H., Taylor, M., Neis, B., Eyles, J.
Montevecchi, Ommer, R. Submitted. Restructuring
and health in Canadian coastal communities
Introducing a social-ecosystem model of health.
EcoHealth.
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Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Culture,
Nutrition and Health for the Gitgaat
Nation Nancy Turner - Environmental Studies,
University of Victoria

• The gathering and processing of edible seaweed
  (Porphyra abbottae) and other plant and animal
  resources, by the Gitgaat (Coast Tsimshian)
  Nation of Hartley Bay, B.C. is used as a case
  study.
• What is the importance of traditional food
  systems to the health and well-being of
  indigenous coastal communities?
• How is the knowledge about traditional foods
  acquired, and how have food systems changed over
  time?
• How have these changes affected peoples health?

• Film on the Gitgaat Seaweed and Halibut Camp at
  Kiel, Princess Royal Island
• Curriculum development integrating TEK into
  Hartley Bay School
• Gitgaat plant knowledge book for use in the
  community

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Youth and Education in Coastal BC Anne Marshall
and Carol Harris - Education, University of
Victoria
What are the life-career issues, supports,
barriers and challenges for youth in coastal
communities? What has helped and what will help
them to access the supports and address the
challenges?
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Sensory Biology of Fishes and Smoltification Craig
Hawryshyn, Shelby Temple - Biology, University
of Victoria
Not only to consider aquaculture problems
Smolt salt water tolerant
Parr not salt water tolerant

• Knowledge Transformation and Change Within
  Communities
• Wolff-Michael Roth - Education, University of
  Victoria
• but also to explore ways in which formal
  scientific knowledge, the insights of lab
  technicians and wisdom of local communities can
  be shared.
• Partners
• Kispiox River Hatchery, Gitsxan Watershed
  Authority, Gitsxan First Nation Robertson Creek
  Hatchery, DFO Target Marine Products

Release of alevins at the Robertson Creek Hatchery
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Back to the Future Tony Pitcher, Nigel Haggan,
et. al. - UBC Fisheries Centre
Integration of the traditional ecological
knowledge of fishing communities, information
from fishers and processors, historical,
archaeological and sediment core research to
re-construct systems as they might have been
prior to depletion by modern industrial
fishing. Information received in community
workshops, and interviews with large and small
scale fishers, First Nations. (BTF initiatives
in Strait of Georgia BC, Newfoundland, Brazil,
Gulf of Thailand, Hong Kong, North Sea.)

• Selected Partners
• Comparative Dynamics of Exploited Ecosystems in
  the Northwest Atlantic (DFO)
• Hecate Strait Ecosystem Project (DFO)
• Tsimshian Nation Tribal Council
• Haida Fisheries Program
• B.C. Aboriginal Fisheries Commission
• WWF, Prince Rupert
• Gitgaat First Nation
• City of Prince Rupert
• Haida Fisheries Program
• NW Maritime Institute

Fishing Down the Food Web
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Facilitating Use of Local, Traditional and
Western Scientific Knowledge in Policy
Development Kelly Bannister and Michael MGonigle
- POLIS Project on Ecological Governance,
University of Victoria
? What are the practical and institutional
barriers to incorporating local, traditional and
western scientific knowledge in environmental and
social policy? ? Can collaborative research
facilitate the incorporation of diverse knowledge
systems into environmental and social policy? ?
What kinds of institutional arrangements and
forums facilitate or impede collaborative
research and cross-cultural dialogue on
community-based environmental and social issues?
Exploration of models and creation of forums for
collaborative research and dialogue on
community-based issues are important components
of understanding community and ecosystem health,
and relevant to all CUS research.
http//www.polisproject.org http//web.uvic.ca/sc
ishops/
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Models of Collaborative Governance for
Sustainable Coastal Communities and
Ecosystems Kelly Vodden - Geography, Simon Fraser
University
How can new forms of coastal governance best be
characterized? How can governments and
communities best work together on new forms of
planning and decision-making towards
sustainability?
transfer significant management
responsibilities to the local level. alter
role of senior governments to supporting local
efforts and protecting broader societal interests.
Case studies in fisheries co-management /
collaborative development efforts and their
impact on community and ecological health
Indian Bay watershed/Kittiwake region Alert
Bay/northern Vancouver Island, BC Bras dOr
Lakes watershed, Cape Breton Nova Scotia.
Results policy recommendations for
improved and expanded sustainability initiatives
involving government-community collaboration
improved understanding of the concept of
government as enabler in efforts to achieve
community and ecological sustainability.
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Summary of CUS Results
When compared with national and provincial
statistics, people on both coasts have poorer
health status than that reported for Canada, BUT
stress levels are lower than those reported for
each province and for Canada (people in smaller
communities do tend to report lower stress),
despite recent severe negative experiences in
economic restructuring higher stress as a
result of job losses, a locally unresponsive EI
reviewing process reported poorer health,
limited health care shrinking educational
services poorer nutrition The fundamental
social cohesion in communities still holds, and
protects community and personal health, despite
all the difficulties people face. Lower stress,
both coasts, because of
strong social networks a strong sense of
safety, absence of traffic and pollution easy
access to wilderness areas, clean water and air
although people worry about financial situation
and the future of their communities, they somehow
put these concerns into perspective, which
translates into lower perceived stress levels.
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Implications for Policy

• Assessment of the current environmental, social
  and community health status of coastal
  communities
• Analysis of how things got to be the way they
  are now
• Policy suggestions for the future

Books in Preparation by the CUS Team
Coasts Under Stress Restructuring and
Social-Ecological Health in Coastal Communities.
R. E. Ommer, ed. (In prep. for McGill-Queens
Press) Resetting the Kitchen Table food
security, culture, health and resilience in
coastal communities. C. Parrish, N. J. Turner, S.
Solberg, eds. (In prep. for Island Press) Making
and Moving Knowledge. B. Neis and J. Lutz,
eds. Power and Restructuring Shaping Coastal
Communities and Environment. (ISER Books) P.
Sinclair and R. E. Ommer, eds. Voices on the
Edge. A community-focused book with quotes and
photographs Restructuring and Policy a
bi-coastal analysis. A policy book, with
recommendations, and references to the other
volumes.
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Community-based Research (CBR) Role in Building
Healthy Communities and Improving Applied
Scholarship
Research involving people, their health, and
their relationships with environment and
resources ultimately affects those being studied.

• For this reason alone, from an ethical
  standpoint, it is essential from that such
  research be community-based
• and that local people be informed and consulted
  about any research that involves and affects
  them.

People in local communities are most intimately
familiar with the problems and situations they
encounterfar more so than a researcher coming in
from outside.

• Academic researchers bring with them important
  knowledge and skills.
• The best research arrangement brings together
  local concerns and local knowledge with academic
  experience and expertise in situations of mutual
  respect and collaboration throughout all aspects
  of the research from its initial inception to its
  ultimate conclusion.

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Challenges in CBR

• Tends to take much longer than some other types
  of research

• to build relationships of trust and respect
• to develop research approaches and methods
  jointly and collaboratively
• to help support infrastructure building,
  training, education within communities
• to disseminate the results of research
  effectively

• Academic researchers need to consider themselves
  as part of a research team, in some cases, more
  like a facilitator and recorder
• Community needs to feel control and empowerment
  over the work

• Effective means to enact recommendations drawn
  from the research is necessary
• Requires significant and frequent travel and
  residence in communities, and this needs to be
  recognized by the University and granting
  agencies as an important and critical part of the
  research itself
• Resources to hire and train local people are
  needed

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Opportunities in CBR

• Collaboration with communities can lead to more
  appropriate and effective ways to address the
  complex, value-laden, contextual problems that
  are experienced at a local level.
• Working with local knowledge, and putting that
  knowledge to

• work in the research and policy realms, means
  developing new skills, including diplomacy and
  negotiation and a willingness to engage the
  other in a respectful manner over long periods
  of time
• Institutional innovations to facilitate research
  collaborations between communities and
  universities, such as the European science
  shops and

• the U.S. community research network models have
  existed elsewhere for decades
• In Canada community-university collaborations
  are occurring, but we need to continue to address
  problems of time limitations, project-specificity,
  and reliance on individual champions
• Fortunately, incentives to create these kinds of
  institutional arrangements in Canada are on the
  rise.

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Institutional Changes that would Facilitate CBR

• More opportunities for longer absences from the
  university (e.g. permission and funding for more
  teaching and administrative release)

• Funding and opportunity for community
• representatives and youth from communities to
  come to the university, and/or for
  community-based distance learning opportunities

• More administrative support for facilitating
  communications, organizing meetings, help with
  accounting, etc.
• More flexibility in expense claims (meals as
  in-kind contributions, gifts in lieu of
  honoraria)
• Granting agencies timing is geared towards
  short-term immediate results, not well suited to
  the slow-start, longer duration typical of CBR

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www.coastsunderstress.ca