Governing sustainable coastal development: The promise and challenge of collaborative governance in Canadian coastal watersheds

Over the past three centuries, the story of Canada's coasts has turned from one of resource abundance to depletion, and from the establishment of new settlements to declining populations, economies, and ways of life in many coastal communities. This article explores the potential of collaborative governance for rerouting coastal development onto a more sustainable path. A cross‐case analysis of three coastal watershed governance examples demonstrates that the primary outcomes of these efforts to date have been building governance capacity and slowing—rather than reversing—social‐ecological decline. Challenges include resistance and rigidity within existing policy systems, rivalries and differing perspectives among actors, and cultures that favour exploitation over stewardship and specialization over integration. Leadership and relationships are key factors in achieving sought after outcomes and overcoming resistance to new approaches. Culture and commitment to place can be significant enablers, often personified in a small number of instrumental leaders who link actors across and within multiple scales. Learning and adaptation, and willingness and capacity to share knowledge, resources, responsibilities, and accountability are required if collaborative governance models are to advance sustainable coastal development and foster significant change.

Gouverner le développement durable du littoral : promesses et défis de la gouvernance collaborative dans les bassins hydrographiques côtiers canadiens

L'histoire du littoral canadien a changé de perspective au cours des trois derniers siècles : allant de l'abondance des ressources à l’épuisement, et de l’établissement de nouvelles colonies au déclin des populations, des conditions économiques et des modes de vie dans de nombreuses communautés côtières. L'objet de cet article est de poursuivre une exploration du potentiel de la gouvernance collaborative pour remettre le développement côtier sur une voie durable. Une analyse croisée de trois exemples de gouvernance côtière de bassins hydrographiques montre que les efforts déployés jusqu'à ce jour ont permis de renforcer la capacité de gouvernance et de freiner – plutôt que d'inverser – le déclin social et écologique. Les défis à relever incluent la résistance et la rigidité propres aux systèmes politiques actuels, les rivalités et les points de vue divergents entre acteurs, et les cultures axées sur l'exploitation plutôt que l'intendance et sur la spécialisation plutôt que l'intégration. Le leadership et le réseautage constituent des éléments essentiels pour atteindre les résultats escomptés et surmonter la résistance face aux nouvelles approches. La culture et l'attachement local peuvent servir de catalyseurs importants souvent incarnés par un groupe restreint de meneurs qui nouent des relations entre acteurs sur de multiples échelles d'intervention. Autant l'apprentissage et l'adaptation que la volonté et la capacité de partager les connaissances, les ressources, les responsabilités et la reddition de comptes sont nécessaires afin que les modèles de gouvernance collaborative puissent promouvoir le développement durable des zones côtières et produire un changement en profondeur.     

Inter‐Indigenous development aid: markets,corporations, and biases

The Canadian government and the Meadow Lake Tribal Council sponsored a forest extraction corporation in eastern Nicaragua that restructured 16 Miskitu and Mayangna villages and transformed local human‐environment interactions. The Central American aid project demonstrated paternalistic and interventionist tendencies and exposed biases in inter‐Indigenous aid that rendered it inseparable from conventional aid. This case encourages reflection on social and ecological impacts from the marketing of collective resources, the creation of Indigenous development corporations, and the decision‐making criteria and processes driving foreign aid. The case study demonstrates how foreign aid programs targeting Indigenous Peoples may actually thwart the self‐determination that they set out to encourage. Aid agencies and business partners, who had limited knowledge of local cultures and institutions, created externally defined rules that instigated resource conflicts and undermined the authority of customary leaders without resolving poverty or uneven development.     

The need for river management and stream restoration practices to integrate hydrogeomorphology

There is growing support amongst scientists worldwide about the need for a shift in river management approaches to include hydrogeomorphic processes. However, the degree to which these concepts are transferred to governmental agencies and practitioners varies widely. In Quebec, for example, many stream restoration projects are based on the (incorrect) assumption that river mobility and its inevitable consequences (bank erosion of meanders, presence of woody debris in the channel) are problematic for salmonids. This paper presents examples drawn from current guidelines on stream restoration for fish habitat in Quebec to demonstrate the need to improve the knowledge exchange among scientists and decision makers about the positive impact of river mobility and large wood dynamics on biodiversity. Our observations reveal that existing guidelines for stream restoration in Quebec need to be revised to better integrate hydrogeomorphic concepts and to no longer assume that maintaining rivers in a static state is beneficial for fish. Adopting the “freedom space for rivers” approach would likely result in improved habitat as it combines natural processes related to mobility, flooding, and riparian wetland connectivity to determine the minimal space around rivers where development should not be allowed, thus allowing river processes to be restored.     

Use of repeat house sales to measure changes since the early‐ or mid‐1980s in two inner‐city neighbourhoods in Windsor,Ontario

Changes in the prices of homes and the reasons for those changes may be more accurately predicted from repeat sales of the same homes after controlling for their changed attributes and differences in time between their sales and resales. This paper analyzes 346 of 583 sold houses in the Glengarry neighbourhood in Windsor, Ontario, that were sold more than once between 1981 and mid‐2017, and a corresponding 414 of 737 sold houses in the city's Wellington‐Crawford neighbourhood, sold more than once between 1986 and mid‐2017. After comparing types of resold homes with once‐sold ones, a repeat sales model predicts a first period of increasing annual percentage changes in resale prices compared to sale prices during the 1980s, followed by a second period of stagnation and possible decreases until 2011, and then increases during a third period after that. In addition, changes in resold homes’ attributes of the dwelling unit and neighbourhood are a second type of neighbourhood change in two inner‐city neighbourhoods during the past 30 or more years.     

Regionalizing global trade patterns, 1981–2001: application of a new method

This paper investigates the establishment of trading regions in the global economy at the national level using a measure of trade intensity and a regional assignment algorithm that generates economically meaningful trading regions. Although there is definite regionalization in the global economy with regard to international trade, there is no evidence of an increase in the concentration of that regionalization over time. The geography of international trade is incredibly dynamic, with change related to political, historical and economic forces. Overall, trading regions have relatively few members and are increasingly a set of geographically close countries.     

The spatial economy of North American trade fairs

Through a study of trade fairs, this article illustrates that relational approaches to economic geography are not limited to the sphere of economic and social relationships. These relationships are influenced by and, in turn, shape material realities, such as specific infrastructure and the labour market, in a reflexive manner. Trade fairs are “relational events” that bring together regional, national, and often international producers, users, suppliers, and other agents of a value chain or technology field for the purpose of exchanging knowledge about technological and market developments, building partnerships, and maintaining existing networks through learning by interaction and observation. However, these events are also situated in space and time, grounded in the contexts of particular industries, trade patterns, public and private investments, as well as the economic geographies of places. Focusing on North America, this article presents and analyzes data on the economic geography of trade fairs and their regional economic impact (number of events, exhibitors, attendees, exhibition space). It explores regional trade fair patterns and dynamic changes in major trade fair cities by emphasizing the role of history and industry context.     

Political economy,demography and development in Australia's Northern Territory

The Canadian ‘staples thesis’ literature has documented both the risks (in the tradition of Harold Innis) and the opportunities (in the tradition of W. A. Macintosh) inherent in economies that are dependent on the export of minimally processed natural resources. The key risk is that of retarded long‐term growth as a result of a lack of diversification and over‐dependence on foreign capital and markets. This article argues that the demographic consequences of staples approaches to development also make it difficult to achieve diversification. It profiles Australia's Northern Territory as an example of a mining‐dependent (fiscal) economy that demonstrates a particular demographic profile consistent with what might be expected of a resource frontier. The article argues, however, that restrictive demographic characteristics persist (high sex ratios, high population mobility, disadvantaged position of indigenous people and remote dwellers) even though mining has become an insignificant direct employer (less than one percent of the workforce) and the services sector drives the labour market. This persistence can be linked to the Territory and federal government expectations of economic development patterns in the region and the frontier mythology created around the Northern Territory. Addressing the demographic imbalance is a critical step towards realizing ambitions for economic diversification.     

Indigenous peoples,local communities,and Payments for Ecosystem Services

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) programs are reshaping the governance of ecosystems and natural resources around the world. These programs often occur in spaces that are unceded, contested, or otherwise not legally recognized as Indigenous homelands, customary areas, and territories. Building on the discourses of Indigenous self‐determination, nationhood, and cultural responsibilities, this paper examines how PES programs produce unique outcomes for Indigenous peoples as ecosystem services providers. Our findings demonstrate and substantiate three themes that impact Indigenous ecosystem services providers uniquely: (1) the internationally recognized right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent for Indigenous peoples; (2) the reinforcement of settler colonial jurisdiction; and (3) mismatches between Indigenous knowledges and PES‐type approaches. The ways that PES programs run the risk of reifying and reducing Indigenous knowledges have not yet been adequately considered within current PES approaches. Our findings enable a conceptualization of PES as a new conservation tool within ongoing histories of land management and dispossession by settler colonial governments. We assess the strengths and challenges of PES programs as a departure from previous conservation modalities.     

Wetland assessment and impact mitigation decision support framework for linear development projects: The Louis Riel Trail,Highway 11 North project,Saskatchewan, Canada

Next to agriculture, road development is one of the most significant sources of stress to wetlands in Prairie Canada. However, there currently exists limited guidance for incorporating direct, indirect, and induced effects to wetlands in impact assessment and mitigation planning for small and often routine developments, including access roads or highway improvement initiatives. Based on the Louis Riel Trail, Highway 11 North twinning project in Saskatchewan, Canada, this article demonstrates a methodological approach and decision support framework for assessing and managing direct, indirect, and induced effects to wetlands from linear developments. No regulatory‐based environmental assessment was required for the highway project; effects were deemed to be insignificant under current wetland mitigation practices. However, our results show that 1115 ha of potentially affected wetlands are located within a 500 m impact zone on either side of the proposed highway. More than 50 percent of these wetlands are seasonal, less than 1 ha in size, and typically not included in mitigation planning. An expert‐based multi‐criteria evaluation of impact and mitigation options for wetlands in the study area indicated “no net loss” as a planning priority, and a preference for a spatially ambitious mitigation plan focused on direct, indirect, and potentially induced impacts. In practice, however, mitigation is often restrictive, focused on mitigating only direct impacts within the project's right‐of‐way, in this case less than 50 ha of wetlands, resulting in the potential for significant net loss of wetland habitat and function. If the risk to wetlands is to be given due consideration in project planning and development for roads and road improvement initiatives, then structured assessment methods and decision support frameworks should be sensitive to the time and resource constraints of small projects and screening‐type assessments. This requires also that wetland mitigation policies are developed and implementation plans formulated as part of project planning and assessment initiatives for linear developments.     

Canada‐United States interregional trade: quasi‐points and spatial change

Interregional trade between Canada and the United States has undergone significant change since the inception of free trade. However, the magnitude of that change for the different regions in Canada and the United States has not been properly identified because of a lack of an appropriate measure. This paper introduces the concept of a quasi‐point and employs a spatial point pattern test to measure the degree of change in the interregional trade of Canadian provinces and US states, with an emphasis of that change on Ontario. It is found that the degree of change in the interregional trade flows is related to the degree of change in the provincial tariff rates.     

Protecting aquatic ecosystems in heavily allocated river systems: the case of the Oldman River Basin,Alberta

Initiatives aimed at protecting aquatic ecosystems often prove difficult to implement—particularly in water‐stressed, semi‐arid regions where the demand for water for human consumption is high. This article reports on an investigation of the factors that shaped the development and implementation of policies for aquatic ecosystem protection in the Oldman River Basin (ORB), a crucial watershed in semi‐arid southern Alberta. The analysis reveals critical cultural and historical considerations that confront those attempting to protect and restore aquatic ecosystems in the ORB and highlights specific factors that influence implementation of measures to protect it. In addition to the most basic consideration—demand for water exceeds supplies—eight specific factors that influenced aquatic ecosystem protection in this region are identified and evaluated. These include (1) clarity of actors’ roles/ jurisdictional responsibilities; (2) communication; (3) definition of key terms; (4) funding and organizational capacity; (5) leadership; (6) legal standing; (7) data and monitoring; and (8) public education. We argue that while these factors are important, critical cultural and historical considerations that influence water policy in the province also must be addressed in any efforts to protect aquatic ecosystems in southern Alberta.     

The state of climate change adaptation in Canada's protected areas sector

L’adaptation aux changements climatiques dans les réseaux d’aires protégées du Canada : état des lieux La Commission mondiale des aires protégées a récemment laissé entendre que les actions en faveur de la conservation sont vouées à l’échec, à moins que ces dernières tiennent compte des changements climatiques. Pour ce faire, les organismes chargés des aires protégées doivent dès maintenant s’assurer de l’intégration des changements climatiques dans les politiques, les cadres de planification et les modes de gestion. Le présent article rend compte des résultats d’une enquête réalisée conjointement par l’Université de Waterloo et le Conseil canadien des aires écologiques. Celle‐ci vise à dresser un état des lieux sur l’adaptation aux changements climatiques dans tout le réseau d’aires protégées du Canada qui relève du palier fédéral, provincial ou territorial. Il se dégage de l’analyse plusieurs constats importants. Tout d’abord, sur l’ensemble des organismes chargés des aires protégées que nous avons interrogés, les trois quarts ont déclaré que les changements climatiques ont déjà des effets visibles sur leur réseau d’aires protégées. Ensuite, 94 pour cent des participants à l’enquête estiment qu’au cours des vingt‐cinq prochaines années, l’enjeu des changements climatiques sera au c?ur de la politique et de la planification des aires protégées. Finalement, malgré la perception voulant que les changements climatiques exercent une pression croissante, la portée des mesures politiques, de planification, de gestion ou de recherche mises de l’avant par la plupart des organismes jusqu’à maintenant demeure limitée. Si 91 pour cent des organismes indiquent ne pas disposer des capacités nécessaires en ce moment pour réagir de façon optimale aux changements climatiques, l’enquête a permis de mettre en évidence un écart significatif entre la perception de la gravité des changements climatiques et la capacité des organismes chargés des aires protégées de s’adapter. La faiblesse du financement, une capacité d’action limitée, et un manque de compréhension des changements climatiques et de leurs répercussions réelles ou potentielles comptent parmi les difficultés auxquelles sont confrontés les organismes canadiens chargés des aires protégées. Il est impératif de les surmonter afin que ces organismes puissent exercer leurs mandats et être en mesure d’assumer leurs responsabilités concernant la protection et la biodiversité des aires, par exemple, la protection de l’intégrité du patrimoine naturel au Canada dans un contexte de changements climatiques accélérés.     

Hydrologic response of a small forested swamp complex,Seymour Valley,British Columbia

Wetlands are common in Coastal Western Hemlock forests yet the hydrologic processes that generate runoff from small swamps are not completely understood. Direct field observations, hydrologic, and electrical conductivity data were collected from a gently sloping forested swamp complex from July to November 2009. Swamps occupied depressions between raised mounds (0.1 to 3 m high) and were connected by an ephemeral creek. Runoff was controlled by antecedent moisture conditions and influenced by basin microtopography. Two hydrologic regimes occurred during the study period and different runoff processes dominated each regime. Runoff was generated by subsurface flow during dry antecedent conditions as swamps remained hydrologically disconnected from each other. Runoff was generated by surface outflow from hydrologically connected swamps during wet antecedent conditions as ponded water spilled out of the depressions. The forested swamp complex produced a faster but limited hydrologic response during dry antecedent conditions compared to a slower but greater hydrologic response during wet antecedent conditions. Stormwater runoff and runoff ratios were up to two orders of magnitude higher in wet conditions than during similarly sized events in dry conditions. These factors should be considered when designing monitoring programs or runoff models in forested swamps with significant microtopography. Field surveys and estimates of hydrologic inputs and outputs may be useful in predicting the potential hydrologic connectivity of isolated forested swamps.