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Oswald, David Nicholas

University of British Columbia

Coastal zones are complex environments positioned at the intersection of land and marine systems where multi-scale interactions between different environmental components present distinct challenges for managing socio-economic activity. These environments provide several valuable ecosystem services that are beneficial to society, and have historically been important for social, economic, and cultural development. Despite the wide array of benefits provided by coastal ecosystem services, typically only a small proportion of them are considered in policy and development decisions, nor is their total economic value assessed. There are also many policies and regulations that apply to only distinct components of coastal zones and are implemented individually without consideration of their interactions, nor do they consider different values and knowledge systems. There is a profound need for a framework for coastal zone management that connects these different dimensions – ecosystem services, economic valuation, socio-cultural values, knowledge systems, and governance processes. This thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach to environmental, socio-cultural, economic, and historical aspects of coastal zone management in BC coastal nations. BC coastal nations were chosen based on their diverse biophysical environments and the unique challenges of First Nations natural resource rights and colonialization. This thesis outlines the rationale for a new systematic framework utilizing an ecosystem approach which incorporates economic valuation. The framework is explained in terms of its application in Haida Gwaii, as an example of a BC coastal nation, but is intended to be generally applicable. The main contributions: (a) provide a mechanism for incorporating differential values and knowledge systems in coastal zone management decisions; (b) present a framework through which multiple different ecosystem services can be assessed in the coastal zone; (c) incorporate different economic valuation methods for ecosystem services to economically account for externalities; (d) create a systematic framework for coastal zone management that incorporates ecosystem based management, different socio-cultural perspectives, economic valuation of ecosystem services, and socio-ecological dynamics. Adoption of more systematic and inclusive approaches to coastal zone management, as presented in this thesis, may result in more balanced development decisions, and could hopefully contribute to reconciliation in Canada and other countries which have a history of colonialization.

Text

2024-04-29

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/88097

Interdisciplinary Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/