By Sharmalene Mendis-Millard
Column

What are the major changes you are experiencing in this region?
What are you doing differently now because of those changes?
In other words, how are you adapting?
This study builds on previous research completed in 2004.
I will be holding public meetings at the end of February and doing interviews to hear your answers to all of the questions asked below.
Watch for a future advertisement of the public meetings, or contact me if you would like to talk one-on-one.
This region is facing tremendous social, political and economic change with ecological implications.
Climate change will add another layer of complexity.
In this context, it is important to examine the key factors that help increase the ability to face future change while ensuring the continuation and health of your communities.
There are many changes and events that have occurred here in the past five years.
For instance, we all know that Tofino experienced a water shortage in 2006 and low water levels in 2004.
Ucluelet has changed considerably since I was last here in 2003 with its transition to a tourist-based economy.
As one person recently said, “We have Tofino dreams.”
What questions and issues are raised by these changes?
For example, what are the implications for growth and development? Who is able to afford to live in this region? Who is moving away and why?
What is the water issue really about, to you? How and for whom is water used and conserved, and by whom?
Central Region First Nations people, how are changes affecting you?
What other changes are important to consider, and how do they impact your lives? How are you dealing with these changes?
What do all of these changes mean for the future of your communities?
These are big questions that are important for the first part of current research that compares the Clayoquot Sound biosphere reserve region to the Riding Mountain Biosphere Reserve in Manitoba that, in 1986, was the third site to be designated in Canada.
The second part of the current study asks the following questions:
What role(s) does the biosphere reserve designation play in this region?
In other words, what does the designation mean on the ground, right now?
How have things changed over the past 8 years?
What works well and why? What is the potential?
As of today, there are 529 biosphere reserves in 105 countries; Canada has 15. Clayoquot Sound was the seventh to be designated in 2000 along with Redberry Lake in Saskatchewan (eighth) and Mount Arrowsmith (ninth) on the other side of the Island.
There can be confusion as to what a biosphere reserve is because the term means different things.
When you say ‘biosphere reserve’, you could be referring to the following:
1. An international concept that has evolved since 1968 but is basically about integrating and encouraging conservation with sustainable development and livelihoods at a regional scale through increasing knowledge about our environment and ourselves (in other words, social-ecological systems).
2. A designation by the United Nations Cultural, Educational and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) that recognizes ecologically and culturally significant areas where people have worked on issues of conservation and sustainable human activities.
(Note: the designation itself is like an award and does not come with added or externally-imposed protection or regulations.)
3. A place that is part of a global network of other sites with the same basic mandate of forwarding conservation and sustainable development/livelihoods through research, education and training. The purpose of the network is to learn from one another about how to work toward a sustainable future.
4. A geographic area that is divided into zones: core protected areas, buffers and areas of cooperation.
(Your biosphere reserve has both terrestrial and marine areas. Existing legislation and authority over resources and use remain. The designation does not come with an extra layer of authority over resource conservation and use.)
5. Community groups that form because of the designation to forward the biosphere reserve mandate. The Clayoquot Biosphere Trust (CBT) and CBT Committees are the groups that have formed here.
The Riding Mountain biosphere reserve in Manitoba has a management committee that is comprised of representatives from the national park and the 15 rural municipalities that surround the park. It went through the Periodic Review process in 2000 and it was determined that the site merited continued membership in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves.
Want more? See the CBT website for an explanation of what a biosphere reserve is all about (http://www.clayoquotbiosphere.org/faq/index.php).
So why do this follow-up research?
Examining the intersection of the two parts of the research will help determine the benefits and drawbacks of this designation on the ability of people in the region to face uncertain futures and persist in the face of changes beyond local control.
As well, it is timely to assess the influence and activities associated with the Clayoquot Sound biosphere reserve designation.
This site has the largest amount of core funding provided to a Canadian biosphere reserve, will co-host the June 2008 Canadian Biosphere Reserves Association (CBRA) annual meeting along with Mount Arrowsmith, and will undergo a Periodic Review in 2010.
So - how has this region taken on the opportunity and challenge of demonstrating the UNESCO biosphere reserve concept?

To learn more or to share your views, please contact me at srmendis@fes.uwaterloo.ca or 519-998-3742 (cell). Please visit www.mendis-millard.ca