2022-2023 IMPACT REPORT

ples and the revitalization of strong, living Indigenous laws, consistent with the UN Declaration on the Rights We recognize the jurisdiction and laws of Indigenous of Indigenous Peoples and calls to action such as those peoples who have actively governed their territories for of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. [...] The Research of The Law Foundation of BC, the inherent rights of Indigenous Foundation educates the public the fund has allowed individuals, peoples, and to promote mean- about environmental law issues and community groups and Indigenous ingful public participation in envi- advocates on behalf of individuals nations to hire lawyers to help them ronmental decision-making. [...] * RELAW is a joint program of the West Coast Environmental Law Association and the West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation Photo: Jaspar Garratt (Unsplash) CREATING A BLUEPRINT FOR THE COAST In 2019, West Coast and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS BC) started the Blueprint for the Coast campaign, calling on Brit- ish Columbia to adopt a coastal protection strategy and law. [...] Yet the deeper we go into this work, with our partners and colleagues at the Emergency Planning Secretariat, the Living Dike Roundtable, and now the Lower Fraser Floodplains Coalition, the more it becomes apparent that the wet and dry cycles of water in the landscape are all part of the same whole – even if existing provincial and federal laws have failed to make that connection. [...] PROTECTING THE COAST AND OCEAN: A GUIDE TO MARINE CONSERVATION LAW IN BRITISH COLUMBIA (June 2023) Originally published in 2020, our Guide to Marine Conservation Law in BC is a comprehensive resource that covers the wide array of legal tools available to Indigenous, federal, provincial and local governments to protect the coast and ocean in BC.