Forests And Oceans For The Future

Restoration of a degraded system requires changing the behaviour of the keystone species which caused the degradation. Rules addressing reciprocity, stewardship, peer monitoring and accountability need to be added to the discussion of complexity and ecosystem based management. Restoration of these important human relationships create social learning through information sharing and public knowledge, as was the case when Northwest Coast fisheries supported a resilient system for more than 2,000 years. Unfortunately, several key assumptions remain unexamined with the currently popular proposals to reform ocean systems. These proposals retain beliefs in the efficacy of private top down authority, and the separation between society and nature. Although such fundamental changes in mind sets are difficult to achieve, crises may provide and opportunity for radical change.

Dr. Davidson-Hunt spoke about his path from a plant scientist to an ethnoecologist. From this he discussed the importance of theory -both as empowering and as limiting. The talk concluded with a discussion of Davidson-Hunt's experiences work with and learning from indigenous peoples in North America.

Many hunting peoples conceive of hunting as a process of reciprocal exchange between hunters and other-than-human persons. To date, anthropologists have tended to view such accounts of hunting as symbolic/metaphorical. In this presentation Paul Nadasdy argues that our refusal to allow for the possibility that aboriginal accounts of hunting might be literally accurate as well has foreclosed important avenues of inquiry into the nature of human-animal relations.

Felice presents an ethnographic perspective of children as important actors in the ecological processes of landscape use, landscape management, and landscape interpretation over time. She argues that the ecological practice and knowledge construction of children represent a central locus for change and continuity in complex human ecosystems.

Dennis speaks about changes in management policy in the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the implications that these changes have had for commercial fishermen in BC