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MINAS BASIN WORKING GROUP MINUTES 2000
Notes for Minas Basin Working Group
Meeting Participants: Graham Daborn (chair), Tom Young, Glanville Travis, Arthur Bull, Maxine Westhead, Mary Desroches, Holly MacDonald, Tim Hall, Jon Percy Introduction/Call to order Review of agenda from last meeting (Wednesday, January 19th, 2000) Update of Biosphere reserve proposal:(Tom Young) Tom explained that the Biosphere Reserve proposal seeks to recognize the BoF as a special environment. The BoF Product Club is a partnership initiative with government and industry representatives in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, along with Canadian Tourism Commission; undertakes research to provide a baseline evaluation of the existing market and an analysis of market opportunities. It is also loosely affiliated with BoFEP via the Ecotourism Working Group. Initial funding for the Biosphere project came from the Product Club. The UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Program involves recognition of special areas as models for sustainable development. The Fundy proposal was first launched in June 1999 as joint undertaking by the Ecotourism Committee of BoFEP and Sustainability Committee of the Fundy Product Club. A discussion paper on the biosphere reserve has been produced. For more info on the Biosphere Reserve Concept check the Canadian Biosphere Reserve association Website: http://www.cbra-acrb.ca/english/default.htm The biosphere reserve has to be based around a conservation region that is protected; or includes pockets of protected areas - such as Fundy National Park. We really need to develop an inventory of all the other protected areas in the Fundy Region, including National and provincial parks, wildlife conservation areas etc. The first presentation of the proposal was made to the ecotourism WG in first week in April and was based on the discussion paper [Get copy for BoFEP Website Ecotourism WG section] Looked at the preliminary objectives. General agreement that it was a worthwhile project to move on (CWS expressed some concern about impacts on waterfowl that might result from increasing ecotourism). The group is in touch with the Canadian Biosphere Reserve Association (part of Parks Canada?) This is the group that would formally nominate a reserve to UNESCO. They seem to be quite keen on this project (there is also another Biosphere reserve proposal for the area around Keji Park). There has been an overwhelmingly positive response to the proposal from the CBRA. The group[p has been looking for additional funding to carry the project forward. Three applications for funding were submitted: 1) Canadian Rural Partnership Agreement, 2) New Brunswick Environmental Trust Fund - committed $25K to project 3) NS Department of Fisheries may contribute a matching $25K. Parks Canada has to reexamine its mandate for National Parks according to recent reports - the biosphere reserve program could be a way for them to expand their programs to wider areas. There are also reports of new resources for Parks Canada in the Nmaritimes that will enable more effective management of Park areas. Application process for Biosphere Reserve: The Reserve isn't a conservation area per se, but is usually established around an existing conservation area; involvement in the process is strictly voluntary; Biosphere reserves are only established if that is what the community in the region wants; thus there is a need to involve all the key stakeholder groups in the process. It is important to prepare an information framework for the project so that everyone clearly knows what a Biosphere Reserve is and what it will involve. It involves a lengthy consultation process with as a wide a public as possible. Need to look at what broad resource management mechanisms are now in place - for managing resources and ecosystems - and what are the opportunities for public involvement. What are the channels for community input and participation. Arthur pointed out that at present no overall management; a hodgepodge of jurisdictional responsibilities (e.g. herring managed from one set of regulations, oil and gas by another set) there is no overall management scheme that involves communities. Bay of Fundy Fisheries Council (BOFFC) is a community based management initiative involving 14 different fisheries groups. Need to involve such fisheries groups in process as well as municipal councils. Coastal Communities Network Project Update (Mary
DesRoches/Holly MacDonald) Update on Women's Comunity Economic Development
Network Marine Resource Centre Update (Arthur
Bull) Community Learning Network Project: to support direct learning opportunities, curriculum development, research, communication and networking.; looking at ways of networking widely dispersed participants. Marine resource Centre is "basically a set of tools" for use by various groups. One aspect of its work is outreach and conflict resolution. MRC offer to facilitate process that we are undertaking as a group - facilitate holding workshop; Have a facilitator to organize workshop; probably need a dedicated full day meeting on the subject. Biosphere reserve project: MRC to organize workshops sponsored by MRC, BoFEP and Product Club; workshops to be held in upper and lower bay areas. Develop a listing of the various groups that should initially be involved in the process. For the Minas Basin component of the project need to develop a resource inventory and list of areas that need to be worked on. We also need to get a sense of the communities' priorities. Update on Coastal Zone Canada 2000 Youth Forum
(Maxine westhead) Other Business - Future steps for Minas Basin Project We need to prepare an inventory of all activities that are going on now in the region. Question about original concept of Minas basin Project Working Group - has the scope changed now? What is relation going to be between the Minas Basin WG and the Ecotourism WG which is pushing the Biosphere reserve concept. Coastal Communities Network involvement: already undertaking activities and initiatives to bring communities on side to the Biosphere reserve concept. Hold another Minas Basin WG meeting early in October after the BoFEP AGM in September. Adjournment Notes for Minas Basin Working Group
Meeting
The Chair noted that this meeting's principal focus is on the Bay of Fundy Biosphere Reserve proposal (BRP) and the possibility of a Minas Basin component of the project. Planning for the Minas Basin Project is well advanced, but has not yet obtained the funding needed to implement it. It is possible that some funding could be obtained if it were linked with the Biosphere Reserve Project. We need to explore the possibilities for integrating the two projects. Tom Young gave a brief overview of the Biosphere Reserve concept and the proposal for Fundy. The Minas Basin Project seems to fit closely with what the BRP is trying to accomplish. The initial impetus for the BRP was with regards to enhancing ecotourism; but broadened with recognition of need to protect critical natural resources in the region. This led to the idea of the Biosphere Reserve as a framework for sustainability. It is thus expanding from a strictly ecotourism project to include broader aspects of natural conservation. The tourism industry still wants to be a participant, but not necessarily the dominant participant. Biosphere Reserve concept involves some basic standards:
The role of BRs has changed so that sustainability of communities is becoming one of the central concerns. The geographic scope for the Fundy project is open at this point; but there is a question as to how big it could be without losing touch with the local communities. It is possible that there could be several core areas within the BR; the structure is not rigid. If the project is to go Bay of Fundy wide then it needs to be more inclusive, with more representatives from NB for example. At present we are mainly looking at the possible role of a Minas Basin component in the overall project. Andy Cameron pointed out that at present 39 government agencies are involved in preparing for a sustainable communities project in St. Marys Bay and Annapolis Basin area. (Workshops planned for 8-9th November in the Annapolis-Digby area to get some initial community input). Tim Hall is the Federal co-chair for the team in the area. There is a problem in how do you craft it to present to communities; the selling job by government will be difficult because communities haven't yet been involved and may feel that the project is being imposed from the outside. Thus far, the government agencies have been primarily engaged in their own capacity building exercise ("getting their act together") before approaching the communities. There has been no fundamental program development yet; the communities themselves will participate in identifying the projects to be undertaken. The sustainable communities initiative has already identified two initial nodes for their project (Annapolis Basin and St. Marys Bay); may be possible to eventually bring Minas Basin and Chignecto Bay into this process as a way of getting provincial and federal agencies support for the project. Perhaps the BRP could somehow be associated with this ongoing sustainable communities process. The key to success of these projects is finding champions in the communities to support and sell the projects. The bay of Fundy wide Project might be too large to tackle right off; may be preferable to break it into smaller components to start with; the Minas Basin component might be a doable first step. What are the conservation benefits of the BRP? The main focus of the conservation efforts is in the core areas. The core areas may be difficult to identify; especially as "thou shalt not do anything in the core area". Ideally the core area should include not just the marine zone, but the coastal transition area and the associated watershed area. Most of the protection regimes thus far have focussed on terrestrial systems. In developing the proposal need to consider not just the Bay of Fundy, but also the associated watersheds. The original Minas Basin project proposal largely focussed on the marine zone, but if it is to be part of the BRP it also needs to include communities and relevant land areas. Andy Cameron referred to paper by Munju Ravindra presented at the recent CZC2000 conference concerning the possibility of applying the BR concept to the Bay of Fundy as a source of useful information. The BR concept provides a structure for people to work together for sustainably using the ecosystem. The project would have to be sensitive to the needs of a variety of different communities. Question as to utility of core areas as we already have reserve areas designated in the region. The more important aspect may be the added buffer areas that would surround the existing reserve core areas ("cluster core"). One could draw a polygon around the several core areas to define the extent of the buffer area. Communities would then explore ways of sustainably using the resources in these buffer areas. Regarding the support for the BoF BR proposal - Fundy National Park is committed to the project and the Fundy Model Forest group has also expressed interest. It was noted that there are already 3 Biosphere Reserve proposals in the works in NS region. What is the status of these existing proposals and how would a new Fundy project interfere with or complement these? Some of the others are not moving forward at this point and could be running into trouble. The Keji - Queens County proposals have been combined and the resulting SW Nova Biosphere Reserve Association (based in Caledonia) is moving ahead with their proposal. They have received some HRDC and Federal Species at Risk funding to advance the proposal. Canada now has 8 Biosphere Reserves.; there were two successful nominations in 1999. The national association is interested in moving ahead with more at a measured pace. Two more are being considered for this year. There is a gap in Atlantic Canada in the Biosphere Reserve network, so there is considerable interest in having quality nominations from the region. Tom Young is meeting tomorrow with Chignecto Bay groups interested in BRP. A needed step is to develop a comprehensive list of representative interests who may wish to be involved in advancing the project. Presently there is an advisory committee involved in developing the proposal; this may need to evolve into a broader Steering Committee with representatives from the various regional groups participating and that could act as a coordinating body. Concern expressed that the endangered species link may be weak in the upper Bay area; already too many people are trying to tie their projects to the endangered species program in order to secure funding; may not be a good approach in upper Bay. Graham suggested that there s a need to convene a broader meeting of all the interest groups involved in the upper Bay of Fundy area. It was suggested that we might launch a parallel process with the Minas Basin and Chignecto Bay serving as two complementary and manageable entities working towards the same general goals. Pointed out that the level at which change happens is at the individual community level (particularly the small community level) rather than at the meta community (e.g. Minas Basin community). We need to identify the already established leaders in these communities and bring them together to discuss issues and develop proposals. Local champions are the key to making things happen; governments won't make it work; local people will make it work. BoFEP already serves as link for the BoF Science community, but it also needs to involve broader communities and other interest groups. At present we need to evolve the Minas Basin group in order to increase the interest groups represented in the process. Suggestion that we consider a travelling road show to go to the major communities in the Minas Basin region. We also should develop list of at least 5 key players in each of these communities. Perhaps someone from the Canadian Biosphere Reserve association could also participate in the process as a resource person. We need to be careful; not to duplicate or conflict with the Coastal Communities Network (CCN) program which has also been going out to communities in the area. We must be careful not to confuse people or fragment the messages of the various groups such as CCN, BoFEP, Minas Basin Project etc. There is a need to carefully coordinate the presentations in the communities. The CCN has plans to do community presentations in the fall; perhaps we could include information about the BR proposal as a component of their meetings. These meetings would serve as a means of identifying key people interested in pushing process forward locally. Should emphasize that BRP would provide communities with access to expertise in sustainable living and sustainable production; not only national, but also international expertise, since the Biosphere Reserve Program is really a large international network sharing information and expertise. Is it possible that there are other mechanisms for accomplishing the same goals? The BR concept may not be the most appropriate approach. It would be useful to have an information package that presented the BR concept and the arguments pro and con in a concise form. We really need such an information package in order to present the concept clearly to communities. It should be a flexible package that allows community input to the evolving planning document. We should also arrange meetings with town councils and identify key political leaders who should be involved in process. Question as to difference between World Heritage sites (WHS) and Biosphere reserves. Both are UN programs. WHS protects and celebrates historical or natural heritage features; while BR has more of a focus on conservation and sustainable use. Develop a print piece on the Biosphere Reserve concept for distribution (Tim Hall and Lief Helmer expressed interest in being involved in this). It is important that the print piece be fairly general about the concept and couched in terms of "could it work here?" It should be relatively short and very general. It should avoid giving the impression that everything has already been determined. It would be used to spark local interest and input into the project. Tom Young noted that there are already some funds available for producing such a communications package. Question regarding time line for project. There is no specific schedule for development of the application for BR status. It is hoped that we can bring the concept more fully into the public arena early in the New Year. An Ecotourism advisory meeting is planned for the end of October. It was suggested that a follow up meeting of the Minas Basin Working Group be scheduled fairly soon in order to continue the dialogue. Pat Hinch will contact people and arrange this. Adjourned
Notes for Minas Basin Working Group
Meeting
Foci of meeting: 1) review what has happened with the Minas Basin Project and define next steps for project (P. Hinch). 2) Update on UNESCO Biosphere Reserve proposal (H. Sears). 3) Update on Sustainable Communities Initiative (T. Hall). 1) Review of Millenium Fund Proposal for Minas Basin Project;
description and proposal; objectives. Peter W. noted that he has also used some relevant pieces pertaining to Marine Environmental Quality from the original proposal in a new proposal for funding from the Pew Foundation. However, this new proposal is not as "multipartner" as the original MB proposal. It focuses more on the science and research angle, while the original involved more community and socioeconomic aspects. If this is approved it would enable PW to work at ACER for about 2 days a week over three years on some important aspects of the Minas Basin Project that are also relevant to his project. The decision on the Pew funding will be made sometime in December. It was agreed that we can probably best move the overall MB project ahead if we can do it in a series of manageable chunks (such as the Pew initiative). Before revising the original MB proposal we need to look at the Pew proposal so that the two are complementary but not overlapping. It is hoped that we can also move some aspects of the project ahead by getting some of the original partners to continue to commit some of their In-kind contributions in the absence of major funding. One of the problems with MB project is getting information about resources to local decision making groups (planners and municipal entities etc.). There needs to be local government and community inputs to the process. This was one of the goals of the Coastal Communities group. We need to set in place a mechanism for helping people to address the issues that concern them. CEMP (Community Environmental Management Plan) is a tool to get these needed outcomes; an overall vision is important. CEMP is a living document and is never really finished. Next step: Noted that DNR and DFO are trying to combine their information into one uniform set of maps; there has been no recent activity in this area. Would it be possible to have DFO take their information out to community workshops and then have other groups contribute their information? (pointed out that this is not really DFO information as it has largely been contributed by the communities.) We should be getting the communities involved to get their input early rather than leaving it until later. Needs to be 2 components: 1) gather information in a form people can use and 2) engage communities in the process. Discussion about KARDS (Kings Annapolis Rural Development Society). This is a local CCN spin-off group involved in identifying important community issues. They are planning to have a series of citizens' forums for each of the issues identified (e.g. clean drinking water, loss of agricultural land etc.). CCN is still involved in the process as a supporter, but KARDS is the action oriented group. The MB project's area of interest encompasses the whole watershed and as a result involves larger and larger set of problems such as those being tackled by KARDS. Our main focus should still be on the marine and coastal areas while recognizing the links to the entire watersheds. The MB group should have an ongoing conversation with KARDS to consider our different and complementary approaches to many of the issues. Kards efforts are largely focused on Kings and Annapolis Counties. We should also be aware of the upper Bay of Fundy Project that the Fundy Fisheries Council has been pursuing. This arises from the FFC Writing the Rules Project and involves developing a community based approach to fisheries management. In spite of these other efforts there is still need for an upper Bay project of the type we are proposing., but it is important that we be aware of the initiatives being pursued by these other groups so that we don't overlap. We also need to consider the MIDI project and its activities in the Minas Basin area. A bit of work is needed to reconcile the activities of the different groups and ensure that they complement each other. It was suggested that the structures are not yet in place to use the information that we develop in the project; i.e. the community decision making processes are not yet in place; there is as yet no defined structure for coastal zone management. We need to articulate where we are ultimately heading with this project. We need to clearly identify the scope and the mission. How will it all coalesce in the end? We have to be prepared to go into the communities and find out what their concerns are. It is important that we move ahead slowly on this without necessarily waiting for the big grant for the project. We want to set in place mechanisms that allow communities to protect their resources and sustainably use them. Our goal is to maintain and enhance the environmental resources of the Minas Basin. We need to develop a strategy that is much more holistic. We also need to mine the existing information to get it into a form that is more useable to the communities. Mission statement - "to maintain and enhance environmental quality in the Minas Basin and to allow for sustainable resource use by existing and future generations." Suggested diagram of the following three boxes linked together in a triangle - 1) information collation/augmentation, 2) engagement of community, 3) resource management decisions. We also need to get a sense of what all the diverse groups around the Bay are doing in this respect. Perhaps we need to engage a consultant to do an inventory of what is out there concerning this. AB also suggested that we also need to consider the learning needs of the communities regarding some of the resource issues. Action item: Collate the sources of relevant information that already exist. Actions: 2) Develop terms of reference for issues compilation proposal contract. (Peter W. Arthur B. and Tim H.) time line: 6 weeks; mid December; before Christmas. For future discussion: 2) Submission of relevant research proposals when opportunities occur e.g. effects of blood worm harvesting in intertidal communities. 3) Integrated natural resource mapping for the basin. 2) Update on UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Proposal. (Hillary Sears) The project summary update was distributed. Community communications have begun involving contacts with groups around the Bay. We are starting work with a couple of local areas - Minas Basin group and Chignecto Bay group. Presently we are trying to bring together interested people in the Chignecto Bay area. Plans for next couple of months focus on inviting stakeholder groups together to discuss the project sometime in December. In early September there was a meeting with staff of Fundy National Park. They are in support of the project and are drafting a letter of support. We have been in touch with Jim Birtch and Brian Craig of Canadian Biosphere Reserve association regarding their participation in the planned Biosphere reserve workshops or information sessions. A general question we are trying to address now is how to communicate project information to the general public. Ongoing initiatives to this end include: 1) An information folder is being developed 2) Public meetings are being planned, such as in Chignecto Bay area 3) Proactive media management is taking place to ensure a consistent message. 4) A web site is proposed to dispense information. We have to ensure that this is not something being imposed on people, but something that they can buy into if they wish. There is an opportunity to share experiences with biosphere reserves from other areas and other communities. A draft document on state of the major fisheries in the Bay of Fundy has been prepared for office use and portions of it could be used in the proposed communications material. We put in funding application CRP (Canadian Rural Partnerships), but this was turned down. However there was also a suggestion to apply again next year and received good feed back on how to improve application for next time. Perhaps we need to improve linkages to the Southwest Nova Biosphere Reserve Project group for mutual support. 3) Sustainable Communities Initiative (Tim Hall) Two pilot project areas: The project initially began with discussions by Federal and provincial partners. We are presently inviting municipal and aboriginal groups to table. We are trying to get various levels of government working together better. On November 8-9 there will be a workshop at Bear River to discuss what community means. Art Hansen will also talk on sustainability. This meeting primarily intended for field team members. A primary focus is to discuss how to engage communities and where to go next. Tim H. is Federal co-chair for the field team. We are presently looking for new provincial co-chair. Only government groups are represented on these field teams at the moment. The next step is deciding where we go from here in order to open process up to communities. It is important that we keep SCI aware of what is going on regarding the proposed project around the Minas Basin as this could be a possible next step expansion of the SCI process. Perhaps we should also identify what might be a comparable sustainable communities initiative program for the Minas Basin region - that could be ready to go ahead when the two initial pilot projects are completed. (It was noted that SCI is not a funding program per se but rather an empowering program that will enable communities to seek out needed funds.) It was noted that the SCI process is really a paradigm shift in government approach to communities rather than a new project per se. Meeting adjourned at 4:30 pm |
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