The CIT operated under a joint Memorandum of Understanding between these parties. The purpose of the CIT was to provide independent information and analyses for the development and implementation of ecosystem-based management in the north and central coastal region of British Columbia, including Haida Gwaii/Queen Charlotte Islands. This information was intended to assist the sub regional Land and Resource Management Planning (LRMP) Central Coast and North Coast and Haida Gwaii/QCI land use planning tables and the several First Nations Land Use Planning (LUP) tables in developing practical recommendations to resolve land use and natural resource management issues.

The CIT worked with government technical planning teams on data acquisition and analysis in all three coastal areas to create regional-scale analyses and

EBM guidebooks that could help inform land use decision making and achieve a consistent approach to planning, management, and conservation at the sub regional, landscape, watershed, and site levels.

The CIT became operational in January 2002, and completed its work in March 2004. Its $3.3 million budget was funded by the provincial government (58%), environmental non-government organizations (18%), forest products companies (18%), and the federal government (6%).

• Benefits: The CIT brought independent science, informed by local and traditional knowledge, to British Columbia’s standard strategic land use planning model. It improved land use planning and development processes by providing:

• Regional context: The CIT analyses and assessments provided a regional context for evaluating the ecological, cultural, or economic importance of particular areas, and helped inform sub-regional, landscape, and site-level decision making.

• Ecosystem-based management : The CIT developed an approach to EBM based on ecosystem and human wellbeing. The CIT provided clear principles, goals and objectives; ecological management targets; implementation tools (including an EBM planning handbook); and procedural steps to guide the implementation of EBM in coastal British Columbia.

• Comprehensive, multidisciplinary analyses: Cultural and economic spatial analyses were undertaken together with an ecosystem spatial analysis to identify priority areas for all of these value sets (cultural, economic development, and biodiversity conservation).

• Wellbeing assessment: A wellbeing assessment measured environmental and socio-economic conditions and trends in the region to provide context for land use decisions and a baseline for monitoring implementation.

• Independence and international credibility: Particular care was taken to undertake independent and internationally credible analyses and assessments.

The CIT program was an ambitious undertaking of a size and complexity not previously attempted in British Columbia. It was conceived and initiated in the face of major challenges regarding timetables, data and funding. It was successful in meeting the first part of its mandate—developing independent information and analyses to support EBM in the north and central coastal region, including Haida Gwaii/Queen charlotte Islands—but fell short in its attempt to provide complete information to meet timetables for land use planning.

For more detailed info click here to view the Coast Information Team web site