First Nations River-Wise Certification & River Branding Strategy:

An Interior BC Commercial Salmon Fishery Case Study

Howie Wright, Board Member and Producer (ONA)

Best Practices Network - Inland Salmon EO Fisheries

Strategy

1. Standards of Excellence

2. Sustainable fisheries objectives 3. Promote orderly trade and accountability

4. Standards through cooperative networking

5. Create quality management tools/systems

6. Employ business planning mentors 7. Cultivate fisheries, business plans, benefits

8. Build relevant products and markets 9. Rewards in the value chain

First Nations strategy was emerging from several common forum themes...

Northern Shuswap

Tribal Council

Tsilhqot’in National

Government

Xeni Gwet’in

Scowliltz First

Nation Sts’ailes

Okanagan Nation

Alliance

Siska Indian Band

An Inland Salmon Producers Association was born (network)

As-so-ci-a-tion: a group of people or organizations joined together for a purpose

Host UFFCA

Sustainability: “Fish are our most precious resource next to our children”

Chief Willie Charlie, Sts’ailes

Value: “We aspire to brand our catch with the value it deserves” Chief Andy Phillips, Scowlitz

Quality: “Our success comes from protecting the salmon, the products and qualities unique to our fisheries”

... a certification system intended to formalize and

communicate the heightened standards of social responsibility and

environmental awareness...

Chief Fred Sampson, Siska

• Natural ingredients, sustainable use, and food security (World Summit on Food Security)

• Sustainable fishing practices and sound management (UN Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries)

• Preservation and conservation of natural ecosystems, Biodiversity, traditional knowledge, innovations, equitable sharing (Convention on Biological Diversity)

• Respect traditional practices and rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples)

• Value of relationships between people and environment in achieving global peace through respect (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization )

Charter Values and linkages

Our shared vision is to promote truly responsible salmon fisheries – emphasizing River Wise Values

River Wise branding of Inland Salmon Fisheries

Vision Statement: To promote inland salmon fisheries, the river fishing cultures, and the high quality natural and wholesome food that is produced, as certifiably sustainable, healthy, and good value.

Networking Tools For River Wise Fisheries

• Charter for Responsible Trade • Sustainability Standards in river salmon fisheries • QVS Certification • Business Mantra supporting production collaborations

that are able to embrace small artisanal fisheries • ISPA services in logistics and traceability, product

branding and marketing, and local skills certification

Quality Control – Fishery to Plate …for best products and qualities from river salmon Fisheries

Values

…for best products and qualities from river salmon fisheries

RESPONSIBLE TRADE R E S P E C T | R E L E VA N C E | R E L AT I O N S

Sustainability

for best products and qualities from river salmon Fisheries

Harnessing market forces to advance responsible river fisheries for Pacific Salmon

River Wise Branding Supported Through Certification

Dave Moore, A/Coordinator ISPA

7-Years of River Wise ‘Best Practices’ • May 2005 – Looking beyond the mixed-stock fishery

(Fishery Reform) and first in-river “demonstration (EO) fisheries” begin

• February 2007 Siska – A Best Practices approach to new river fisheries

• July 2009 – In-river EO salmon fisheries legitimized in the IFMP

• October 2010 – Lower Fraser workshop on salmon monitoring and compliance in River EO fisheries meet coast-wide standards

• February 2010 Sts’ailes/intergovernment Traceability and producer business standards for collaborative production

• June 2010 – Siska – Quality Management Program’s first emerge

• January 2011 – Fraser River and Okanagan River CFE’s business plans

• April 2011 – Okanagan piloted marketing & distribution (Responsible Trade Agreement)

Methods and Standards for:

• Sustainable fishing plans (selective) • Landing and handling (supports branding attributes) • Quality Management Plans (food safety and optimizes qualities) • “Values” from inland fishery (good for fish, fishery and consumers) • Traceability (hand-in hand with branding and accountability)

Chains of Custody (River to Plate)

Harvest Regulation Chain • Sustainable fishing plans • Licenses/permits, designations • Catch, by-catch, effort, sampling etc. • Date, location Supply Chain

• QVS guarantee • Harvest date (s) • Origins of fishery

Quality Control Chain • Handling (care) • Freshness (shelf-life for fresh or frozen) • Cold chain (0 ͦ c – 4 ͦ c)

Traceability = unbroken chain of fish and data

Cold chain

Harvest

Handling

Processing

Quality Management Plans in fishery

Quality for best products and qualities from river salmon Fisheries

Temperature Logger

Temperature Logger

pH test Strips

Quality Monitoring and Validation Tools

• Systems for custody control

•Tote labels for manageability

•Clean, graded, wholesome

•Cold chain

Traceable thermometer

Values

for best products and qualities from river salmon fisheries

“River Wise” fisheries = represented by River Branding values at origin

• Provenance (origin of catch as identified in license?) • Appellation (what qualifies branding a river stock?) • Responsible(respects FSC fisheries priorities?) • Fair trade (is the competition on the shelf responsible?) - reflect sound community stewardship - fair return on value to fishers - 100 mile food needs

Sustainability

for sustainable river fisheries for salmon that protect a diversity of salmon stocks and responsible fisheries that depend upon them

Builds on Global/Regional Certification

• Builds upon MSC and Ocean Wise Eco-labelling

• QVS certification introduces marketing incentives for branding unique characteristics from each river fishery and their values

• Acknowledges the diversity and distinctiveness of Pacific salmon stocks and their needs

• Embraces the qualities of salmon unique to each river and stock of Pacific Salmon

• Like VQA in wines the Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) sets standards with growers that assures the consumer of quality production, content, varietal composition, appellation, and vintage.

...endorsed by Canada ...habitats are not permanently negatively altered or damaged as a result of the fishery

...minimizes impacts on non-target stocks

...monitoring and assessment programs ...considers needs of stocks...

...considers stakeholders objectives...

...provides a conservation oriented alternative...

...considers FSC fisheries and other First Nations objectives...

Traceability Platform (FishLog) Traced by IQMI AuthentiQ™

•River to Plate- data chain-of-custody •Producer-controlled meta-data •River-bank data collection (Tablets) •Secure remote data warehouse •Pick lists auto-complete forms in the field •Archives core data set, forms, licenses •Data and graphic representations & tools •Prescribed data “views” for processors, regulators and consumers

Market and Consumer Validation

This package contains guaranteed

wild Sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus

nerka), caught on 2011 August 30 at

Harrison Mills, British Columbia,

Canada by members of the Chehalis

and Scowlitz First Nations. 2010RTP1234567

Scanning this QR Code connects the user to a 34-second branded, traceability video at:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmctzgnqddg

The video can only be accessed through the bar code, or by navigating directly to this URL.

Scanning this QR Code generates a text message that reads:

“This code denotes wild Sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) caught on 2010 August 30 at Harrison Mills, British Columbia, Canada by members of the Chehalis and Scowlitz First Nations.”

A unique bar code is generated for each fishing day, for each species, location and fishing community.

Field contains traceability logo (top) and logos of the First Nations bands using this particular tail tag (bottom).

Field contains the same message that is encoded in the QR Code on the front of the tag, less the catch date. Also reminds the consumer that they may verify the message and catch date by scanning the QR Code.

Anatomy of a Tail Tag – Fresh sales consumer validation pilot (2010)

ISPA Case Study perspectives – why collaborate in production and branding?

Richard Bussanich, ISPA Marketing Lead