Collections of the Provincial Museum of Victoria, British Columbia

Evaluating Evidence-informed Decision-making in the Management and Conservation of British Columbia’s Fish and Wildlife Resources

“…I find this in this case despite claims that decisions from statutory decision-makers in BC are grounded using an evidence-based standard (Government of British Columbia 2017;Artelle et al 2018a). Like others have found (e.g., Smith et al 2017;Nguyen et al 2018;Kadykalo et al 2020), mobilizing knowledge in support of wildlife management and conservation is, in parliamentary governments at least, limited by a decrease in research capacity (time, staff, and financial resources) and institutional knowledge. A recent history of austerity at the federal and provincial levels of government is in part, likely culpable (Smith et al 2017;Westwood et al 2017).…”

“…Like others have found (e.g., Smith et al 2017;Nguyen et al 2018;Kadykalo et al 2020), mobilizing knowledge in support of wildlife management and conservation is, in parliamentary governments at least, limited by a decrease in research capacity (time, staff, and financial resources) and institutional knowledge. A recent history of austerity at the federal and provincial levels of government is in part, likely culpable (Smith et al 2017;Westwood et al 2017). This may partially explain why many parliamentary government respondents attributed the heavy use of local knowledge to identifying blind spots, providing warning signs of potential crises, thus informing adaptive management.…”

“…They found that in a survey of 403 provincial government scientists the majority (71%) said they had witnessed a decrease in research capacity in their ministry and/or branch over the course of their tenure in BC government; and 68% believed that there are insufficient resources to effectively fill their branch or ministerial mandate. Smith et al (2017) also determined that 57% of government scientists believed that public service cuts compromise the government's ability to use the best available evidence in decision-making, and that 49% believed political interference has compromised their ability to develop laws, policies and programs based on evidence. In 2020, E4D updated this investigation with a survey of 1235 scientific professionals in the BC public service and found the outlook on science integrity had not improved (Heer & Girling 2020).…”

“…For example, cuts to the public service in BC have resulted in much of the public interest science normally done by the province outsourced to "qualified professionals" hired by industry and project proponents with little to no oversight (Smith et al 2017) -putting into question the role of evidence in the public's interest. Concerning the evidence itself, it cannot be simply assumed that there is a dearth of knowledge and that generation of more knowledge, regardless of type is better, benefitting decision-makers in wildlife management and conservation.…”

“…Indeed, these challenges have already been well-documented in this study area, the province of BC in Canada. For example, a survey of 403 provincial government scientists found the majority (71%) said they had witnessed a decrease in research capacity in their ministry and/or branch over the course of their tenure in BC government; and 68% believe that there are insufficient resources to effectively fill their branch or ministerial mandate (Smith et al 2017). It is also telling that 57%…”