Cumulative effects are changes in the environment caused by multiple interactions among human activities and natural processes that accumulate over years, across land and seascapes.

There is broad consensus in Canada and beyond that the assessment and management of cumulative effects are not currently effective for the protection of biodiversity, including the inclusion of local and indigenous perspectives. This is largely because the cumulative effects assessment (CEA) process proponent-drive and on a project-by-project basis and does not effectively assess or mitigate the accumulated or future predicted impacts at a regional scale. In addition, CEA generally fails to respect and incorporate Indigenous values or knowledge offered during assessment processes with western science. Collectively, these tensions have led to conflict in the planning and management of various land and marine use activities in Canada and beyond.

Learning from this context, our goal with this work is to offer a process that is inclusive, holistic, and built on a foundation of Indigenous values and knowledge. Conservation Decision Lab postdoctoral fellows Dr. Megan Adams and Dr. Viv Tulloch are the lead researchers in this collaboration. Dr. Stephanie Avery-Gomm is our lead collaborator from Environment and Climate Change Canada, who are increasingly engaging in regional cumulative effects assessments across the country.

"Our communities have always taken into consideration how different things interact to impact our ability to govern our lands and waters. This is what cumulative effects research does. We want our stewardship decisions to consider the past, present, and future consequences of natural and man-made processes."

– Jenn Walkus. Elected Councillor for the Wuikinuxv Nation.

Planning for the future, informed by the past

The Central Coast Cumulative Effects Project is an invited collaboration of the Kitasoo Xai'xais, Nuxalk, and Wuikinuxv Nations in the region of the Central Coast of what is now known as British Columbia, Canada. Nations in the region face decisions on the management of land and marine use in their territories, against a backdrop of pressures of climate change, growing habitat fragmentation, depleted fish populations, and proposed large energy and mining projects. There is consensus that in order to understand ecological consequences of future land and marine use, decision-makers need broader understanding of the cumulative effects on key species present in the region to date.

Goals and objectives of the Central Coast Cumulative Effects Project

Our goal is to provide a regional cumulative effects assessment that is driven by local values and knowledge, to support decision-making in the management of adverse consequences of cumulative effects, now and into the next 25 years.

In this project, we ask how cumulative effects of past and present pressures impact the health of species across land and sea, where 'health' is the ability of a species to be self-sustaining and fulfill its ecological and cultural roles. Our team focused on valued species (or groups of species)from the coast that each collaborating Nation prioritized for management–Pacific salmon, old growth forest, grizzly and black bears, Dungeness crabs, Pacific herring, marbled murrelets, and rhinoceros auklets.
Our objective is to produce visual, spatial, and written summaries of pressures acting on each species in the region, as well as predictions of how each species will respond to cumulative effects under various development scenarios into the future. Our work can inform ongoing land and marine use decisions by the Nations, as well as provide a baseline assessment of cumulative effects on certain species in the region should a larger development and assessment process be proposed.

An accessible approach to assessing consequences of cumulative effects

Through a series of semi-structured interviews and workshops, we worked with Indigenous knowledge holders, scientists with regional expertise, and various stakeholders to:

1) develop indicators of species health
2) identify pressures acting on those species
3) elicit predictions of how species health respond to cumulative effects.

Our hope is that our approach is not only accessible to a diverse range of knowledge holders, but also conveys our respect for their time and knowledge about the lands and waters of the Central Coast. We used a combination of oral, written, and visual communication tools to make our elicitation process accessible across a wide array of knowledge holders. We worked with artists Briony Penn and Leya Tess Anderson, videographer Alex Harris, and facilitators from Indigenous-owned Alderhill Inc to develop our engagement materials, ensuring they were beautiful and clearly communicated.In particular, we use video and illustrations in our workshop materials to communicate various states of species health and different land and marine use scenarios possible in the region. Briony Penn, who illustrated our workshop materials, also provided graphical notetaking during workshops.

Funding and Support

Our work here is funded by the Conservation Decisions Lab and environment and Climate Change Canada with the goal of supporting Indigenous stewardship in the region, growing both Indigenous and crown governments' understanding of cumulative effects on key species, and providing an assessment for the region should a major resource extraction project be proposed.

We are grateful to various colleagues from communities, Nation Stewardship departments, the Central Coast Indigenous Resource Alliance, universities, and provincial and federal biologists who have provided input along the way.