Community-based Ecosystem Monitoring in British Columbia
A Survey and Recommendations for Extension
Description:... Patrick Yarnell, an environmental planning and management consultant from Vancouver, had the right combination of knowledge and expertise for the project, and was contracted in the fall of 2001 to research and write a preliminary report to submit to the Board. [...] To successfully engage the public, a government must understand the motivations of volunteers; to provide quality data, volunteers must understand the requirements of a structured monitoring program; and, to facilitate the sharing of knowledge, an extension organization must understand the relationships and gaps between the needs of decision makers, NGOs, and volunteers. [...] In their study of the participation of public stewardship and advocacy groups in the protection of fish habitat, Rosenau and Angelo (2001) profiled three groups: the Alouette River Management Society (ARMS), the Pitt River and Area Watershed Network (PRAWN), and the Burnaby Lake System Project (BLSP). [...] The Ecosystem Monitoring and Assessment Network and the Canadian Nature Federation have similar partnerships and programs for WormWatch (with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada) and IceWatch (with the Meteorological Service of Canada and Laval University). [...] The CDC maintains a Biological and Conservation Data System of occurrence records, and produces reports of the occurrence and rarity (global and provincial) of species.
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