Great Bear Rainforest Research Initiatives

The Great Bear Rainforest is of great interest to researchers from around the world. While the majority of studies involve the biology and geography of the region, considerable research is also conducted with First Nations around their culture, traditions, history, language and environmental stewardship.

Other studies have centered around the socio-economics of resource management, ecotourism, public relations and ecosystem-based management practices.

The Hakai Institute

The Hakai Institute is a scientific institution that conducts long-term environmental research on the coastal margins of B.C ranging from archaeology to oceanography to ecology to mapping. The Institute—operated by the non-profit Tula Foundation—includes it’s own faculty, staff, and research equipment, as well as a considerable network of affiliated faculty and other collaborators at universities, government agencies, and First Nations.

Their flagship research station is located at the southern end of the Great Bear Rainforest in Pruth Bay on Calvert Island. The northern portion of Calvert Island and the surrounding area is part of the Hakai Luxvbalis Conservancy, the largest marine reserve on B.C.’s coast. The southern half of the island is a protected area known as the Calvert Island Conservancy.

Raincoast Applied Conservation Science Lab at the University of Victoria

The ACS lab at UVic is a team of applied and multidisciplinary conservation scholars dedicated to conceptually interesting and acutely applied research for the benefit of natural and human systems. A special geographic focus is in the Indigenous territories within what is now known as the Great Bear Rainforest on British Columbia’s central coast, though our goal is that insights and applications gained here can have a global reach.

The aim is to conduct "science inspired by nature, people, and place". We confront important and urgent problems and opportunities, often identified by the Indigenous Nations with which we partner.

For more information see the Applied Conservation Science Lab.

Central Coast Indigenous Resource Alliance- Keepers of the Coast

Keepers of the Coast takes a close look at how the Kitasoo/Xai’Xais, Heiltsuk, Nuxalk, and Wuikinuxv Nations are stewarding their marine territories.

The central coast of British Columbia is one of the most spectacular and biologically rich places left on the planet – where ancient temperate rainforest intertwines with the living Pacific. The Heiltsuk, Kitasoo/Xai’Xais, Nuxalk and Wuikinuxv who have inhabited the central coast for thousands of years have joined forces, forming the Central Coast Indigenous Resource Alliance, otherwise known as CCIRA. Keepers of the Coast explores how the Nations are using a combination of traditional knowledge and science to inform marine plans that uphold our indigenous laws and steward our marine resources in a manner that sustains our cultures and ensures intact ecosystems, healthy communities and local sustainable economies, now and into the future.

For more information visit Central Coast Indigenous Resource Alliance.