Recognition and use of indigenous knowledge in resource management can increase the information available about the resource and facilitate establishment of a larger management role for local resource users. This paper examines the use of indigenous knowledge in resource management using the case of knowledge of Pacific salmon {Oncorhynchus spp.) among the Upper St'at'imc, near Lillooet, British Columbia (B.C.). Salmon in the study area are currently managed by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). This system was established in the 1940s and overlays a traditional management system consisting of fishing site ownership, a well-defined system of access to sites, rules of conduct at fishing sites for the catching and processing of fish, and harvest restrictions. Recent DFO policy changes, signified by the Aboriginal Fisheries Strategy, indicate a movement toward a larger management role for First Nations. This study addresses what indigenous knowledge is available, how it compares to knowledge used by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and how indigenous knowledge can be used in modern salmon stock management. A literature review was supplemented by interviews with elders, young Upper St'at'imc leaders, and both DFO and non-DFO biologists. Current indigenous knowledge pertains to salmon stocks, habitat, and practices and philosophy. Indigenous knowledge can be primarily distinguished from western scientific knowledge on the basis of the following properties of the indigenous system: a greater amount of qualitative vs. quantitative information; an obvious recognition and discussion of anomalies; the perception of a wide range of variables in a region; the use of specific local technology; the development of analysis based on both observations over a medium-sized area and traditional ideologies; and differences in institutional arrangements for gathering knowledge. Differences between indigenous and western scientific knowledge are related to the requirement that DFO accumulate and process a large amount of information over a very large geographical area. Several barriers exist to using indigenous knowledge in modern resource management, including the fact that indigenous knowledge does not fit readily into established methods for gathering and analyzing data. Using indigenous knowledge may be facilitated by innovations at both the local and state levels.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-118).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1996. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [281]-303).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1996. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (pages [379]-438).

Recognition and use of indigenous knowledge in resource management can increase the information available about the resource and facilitate establishment of a larger management role for local resource users. This paper examines the use of indigenous knowledge in resource management using the case of knowledge of Pacific salmon {Oncorhynchus spp.) among the Upper St'at'imc, near Lillooet, British Columbia (B.C.). Salmon in the study area are currently managed by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). This system was established in the 1940s and overlays a traditional management system consisting of fishing site ownership, a well-defined system of access to sites, rules of conduct at fishing sites for the catching and processing of fish, and harvest restrictions. Recent DFO policy changes, signified by the Aboriginal Fisheries Strategy, indicate a movement toward a larger management role for First Nations. This study addresses what indigenous knowledge is available, how it compares to knowledge used by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and how indigenous knowledge can be used in modern salmon stock management. A literature review was supplemented by interviews with elders, young Upper St'at'imc leaders, and both DFO and non-DFO biologists. Current indigenous knowledge pertains to salmon stocks, habitat, and practices and philosophy. Indigenous knowledge can be primarily distinguished from western scientific knowledge on the basis of the following properties of the indigenous system: a greater amount of qualitative vs. quantitative information; an obvious recognition and discussion of anomalies; the perception of a wide range of variables in a region; the use of specific local technology; the development of analysis based on both observations over a medium-sized area and traditional ideologies; and differences in institutional arrangements for gathering knowledge. Differences between indigenous and western scientific knowledge are related to the requirement that DFO accumulate and process a large amount of information over a very large geographical area. Several barriers exist to using indigenous knowledge in modern resource management, including the fact that indigenous knowledge does not fit readily into established methods for gathering and analyzing data. Using indigenous knowledge may be facilitated by innovations at both the local and state levels. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

The relative abundance of coho salmon (Oncorhmchus kisutch) in the Kains island troll fishing area was computed, for the years 1943 to 1951 inclusive, on the basis of the average catch per boat per day each year. The resulting figures varied from a minimum of 75, pounds per boat per day in 1946 to a maximum of 231 pounds per boat per day in 1951. These yield per unit effort figures were then statistically compared with the average surface salinity, or average surface temperature, for various periods in the life history of the coho taken by the fishery in these years. It was found that a very high correlation (r = 0.85, p = 0.01 - 0.001) existed between the average "summer" salinity (June to September inclusive) and the poundage yield per unit effort during that same year. It is suggested that this correlation is explainable in terms of varying growth rates in different years, and by variations in the numbers of fish taken in these years, both of these factors being governed by the availability of food, as evidenced by surface salinity. / Science, Faculty of / Zoology, Department of / Graduate

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 263-281).

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, new methods of preservation allowed Tay salmon to be sold on the London market for the entire fishing season. Such was the size and buoyancy of this market that it absorbed the entire produce of the Tay fisheries, though catches were at that time increasing due to the introduction of stake nets in the Firth. However, these beneficial developments created tensions among the participants in the fisheries. Stake nets took fish which would have ascended to the river, reducing the catches of river tacksmen and the rentals of river proprietors. An increasing number of tacksmen meant that management of the fisheries ceased, as formerly, to be in the hands of a single company and gave rise to more competitive exploitation of the existing salmon stock. A particular result of these developments was that all participants in the fisheries developed an abiding preoccupation with the threat of over-fishing. This was 'further enhanced by the introduction of stake nets on the coast after they were banned from the estuary, development of a series of stake net substitutes in the estuary, more efficient conventional methods of fishing at more stations, and a revival of poaching from mid-century onwards. The court case which led to stake nets being removed from the estuary formalised the animosity between the various proprietorial groups. Their subsequent adoption of entrenched positions eventually led to the tripartition of the Tay fisheries into estuarial, river and upper river factions. Successive inquiries and two Acts of Parliament failed to reconcile the enmities which were sustained by strongly held beliefs in property rights and the need to defend rental incomes. The impasse was ultimately resolved by a single company which, by doubling rental payments, was able to take all netting stations into its own hands and thus revive unified control of the Tay salmon fisheries.

This thesis explores the role for social work in addressing government policies that threaten the sustainability of small coastal communities. The response of government and industry to the globalization of trade and resource degradation is at odds with the needs of people. Utilizing a case study methodology the development and implementation of the Pacific Salmon Revitalization Plan is explored. This department of fisheries plan to rationalize the fishery was highly contested on the grounds that it took jobs out of small coastal communities. It was accused of benefiting the large fishing corporations and the urban based fishing fleet, which had the capital to profit from the plan. Concentrated opposition from coastal communities, fishers, advocacy groups and academics was unsuccessful in changing the plan. The assumptions of modernism - expert knowledge, scientific rationality and orthodox economics - as well as distorted communications, were postulated to be behind this lack of success. A post modern analysis suggests that a successful challenge to the plan would have incorporated the local knowledge of fishers and coastal communities within a process of fair and equitable public discourse aimed at reaching intersubjectively mediated understanding. For social work this demonstrates the need to work conjointly with communities and affected groups to identify the modernist assumptions on which policy decisions are based and develop locally derived alternatives to these assumptions. And most importantly, that the focus of social change efforts be on demanding a process for discussion and decision-making that ensures that the concerns of effected individuals will be fairly addressed.

The rapid 1980's development of the salmon farming industry in British Columbia has been called "a poorly defined experiment in a poorly understood coastal environment", and the main impetus behind it described as "the chaotic, bottom-line orientation" not only of the industry itself but also of relevant government policy. The purpose of this thesis is to elaborate on these themes by identifying and delineating the most significant reasoning models underlying government development policy; and to offer an evaluation of the policy's 'rationality'. Throughout the development of the industry, but particularly in the early stages, two major areas of uncertainty have been prevalent. First, detailed government policy towards salmon farming has been far from clear - an inarticulation that is characteristic of the philosophy of laissez faire, which was particularly influential in Canadian government policy in the early 1980's. Secondly, a variety of possible ecological impacts have been suspected from the outset. A heuristic approach, both for the basic method employed in the thesis and for the normative model set up to evaluate government policy, is advanced for addressing these different uncertainties. In order to identify relevant policy, it is hypothesized that systems of ideas expressed formally in 'core' models of neoconservative and neoclassical economics were particularly important policy influences. It is argued that the core concept of neoconservative theory (as defined) is the adaptive efficiency of the autonomous market. The theory's fundamental adaptive ideas - economic information 'discovery' by competitive trial-and-error selection, and consumer 'regulation' via the price system - are to be found in representative federal and provincial economic policy documents from the early 1980's, as well as in the occasional government elucidations of B.C. salmon farming policy (scattered in heterogeneous historical sources). An examination of (inferred) specific decisions relevant to ecological aspects of salmon farming reveals the influence of trial-and-error - deliberate omission of government planning - on early salmon farm siting policy; and the influence of the presumption of consumer 'sovereignty', which was assumed to obviate the need for government ecological regulation. The relevant core concept of neoclassical economics (as defined) is the rational model derived from the conception of homo economicus. The model and its derivations are visible in the same early 1980's economic policy documents, which outline public sector 'restraint' criteria, as well as in salmon farming policy elucidations. It is argued that the maximizing 'solution' prescribed by the model is without operational significance in complex, uncertain situations, where ostensible use of the formal technique may be to legitimate decisions taken on other grounds. The normative model set up to evaluate government policy is drawn from three sources: Friedrich Hayek's rationalization of the adaptive market process, C.S. Holling's prescriptions for "adaptive environmental assessment and management", and Herbert Simon's development of "procedural rationality". These models support the conclusion that acquisition of information by the agency that mediates actions and goals - which, in the case of ecological regulation, must be government - has major value as the basis of more rational decisions. But acquiring conclusive evidence by trial-and-error learning involves risk of serious error, particularly irreversible ecological harm, and it is rational to utilize the inconclusive evidence that is always available for making general predictions, in order to guide search and select lesser risks. Incorporating the important constraint of search costs - particularly significant in the economic recession of the early 1980's - the requirements for rational adaptation become minimal, procedural ones of 'reasonableness': lack of bias towards any class of information relevant to social welfare; lack of denial of uncertainties, and thus of development risks, in the complex and little-known salmon farming environment; and timely response to uncertainties subsequently, adequately resolved by experience. It is suggested that all three requirements were infringed by government policy towards salmon farming development. / Science, Faculty of / Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), Institute for / Graduate