Fall A FEMC2007

Multi-scale cross-cultural resource modeling

Andrew Fall, Gowlland Technologies Ltd, 220 Old Mossy Road, Victoria, BC, V9E 2A3, Canada, andrew@gowlland.ca

Central and northern coastal British Columbia contains a diversity of ecological, cultural and economic values. Broad scale strategic plans (e.g. the Central Coast land and resource management plan) have been largely agreed upon for this large area through multi-stakeholder processes. A number of coastal First Nations have embarked on a strategic planning process within their territories, called Detailed Strategic Planning (DSP), to examine a range of resource values in the context of the land-use agreements and to make recommendations to revise or augment strategic management direction.

Given the importance of forestry in this area, forest estate modelling is being used to help examine values that may be affected through time under various plan scenarios. For each alternative management regime, timber supply analysis can identify a sustainable harvest level. This poses a number of technical and communication challenges. We focus here on two key elements: multiple scales of reference and cross-cultural communication.
The appropriate scale for strategic planning and decision-making depends on agency and value. For timber values, planning foresters and forest companies view the area through a filter of timber supply areas and tree farm licenses. This is the scale at which annual allowable cut levels are set. Ecologists view the area through a filter of ecological units (ecoregion, biogeoclimatic zones and variants, site series). Identification of ecosystem types and wildlife habitat that may be at risk should be done from a perspective of the entire range of the ecosystem or species. First Nations view the area in terms of their cultural territory. These various scales overlap (e.g. timber supply areas usually include portions of multiple territories and biogeoclimatic variants). In addition, First Nations territories may overlap, leading to additional challenges to assess recommendations from multiple DSP processes.

Communication in the DSP processes requires concepts to be translated between technical, western worldviews and First Nations worldviews. Goals and objectives that may contribute to DSP recommendations may need to be translated into a form amenable to analysis, and analytical results must be translated to a form relevant for First Nations (e.g. a goal to maintain cultural cedar use may need to be cast in terms of risk to monumental cedar or artistic cedar supply). Each DSP process has an appointed chairperson who must gain insight into both worldviews.

An existing spatial timber supply model built within the SELES (Spatially Explicit Landscape Event Simulator) spatial modeling tool is being adapted to support the DSP process. We address the multiple-scale challenge by designing experiments and analyses at appropriate scales. To scale to a DSP territory, the timber supply contribution of each overlapping timber supply area or tree farm license must be clarified. Conversely, timber impacts arising from DSP recommendations need to be scaled back to timber supply area and tree farm license. We address the cross-cultural communication challenge by working closely with DSP chairs to help facilitate transfer of analytical information. Decision-support for the DSP process requires that information be provided at the appropriate scale and in a comprehensible form.