TRACEABILITY OF PRODUCT
Verified Environmental and Social Responsibility
Seafood traceability is critical to fisheries management and a requirement for many jurisdictions. Traceability can help deter illegal practices, verify environmental and social responsibility claims, and allow the public to support local, sustainable seafood producers.
Traceability is essential from a business perspective since large food importers worldwide demand high standards for traceability and information about the origins of food. It is also critically important to empower consumers to make well-informed decisions regarding the seafood they consume, including where it came from and how it was caught.
HOLISTIC FISHERIES MANAGEMENT
Honouring the Ecosystem
CNF shareholder Nations are committed to sustainable fisheries management throughout coastal territories. This is part of a broad, regional-scale commitment to sustainable marine planning that follows an ecosystem-based management (EBM) approach—an adaptive, holistic planning approach that considers the entire ecosystem.
The EBM approach supports healthy, intact ecosystems that coexist with vibrant, thriving human communities, a new term describing the same balanced approach practiced by coastal First Nations over thousands of years in these coastal territories.
As part of this commitment to sustainability, CNF shareholder Nations oversee many initiatives that aim to improve seafood traceability, including catch monitoring programs to better understand the fishing pressure on salmon, for example. Guardians and fisheries managers also conduct regular population surveys to improve understanding of fishing pressure on Dungeness crab, herring, and other species.
ANCIENT STEWARDS
Caring for Traditional Territories for Millennia
CNF shareholder Nations have an ancient and profound relationship with the coastal ecosystems of their territories. This relationship is not simply as communities of people who depend on healthy lands and waters, but as habitants of these coastal habitats, along with all other marine and terrestrial life. This is why the people here share a sacred responsibility to care for their coastal homelands. More than just a food source, harvesting marine life plays a significant role in the lives of community members, and seasonal food gathering is still a major part of daily life.
It is only through revitalization and recognition of the distinct legal and governance systems of the shareholder Nations, and true co-governance and co-management between the Nations and Canada, that the Nations will restore their original role as the stewards of their lands, water, and air.
The Fisheries Resources Reconciliation Agreement (FRRA) pursues the revitalization of sustainable fisheries while strengthening the signatory Nations’ governance and collaborative management of fisheries in their territories. It is a big step towards true partnership between signatory Nations and Canada.
