Weaving a Watershed Economy

By: Alan Shapiro

Through the wide windows of the Fraser River Discovery Centre in New Westminster, British Columbia, visitors can look out at an industrial section of the Fraser River, where on any given day tugboats pull log booms downriver, container ships unload goods at port terminals, and dredgers clear sediment to keep channels clear for navigation. The museum display boldly announces the Fraser as a thriving, working waterscape that plays a vital role in shaping Canada’s economy.

These visible signs of industrial activity, alongside many forms of water infrastructure — municipal, agricultural, hydroelectric — are how we’ve come to think of water as an economic driver in BC and elsewhere across Canada. Venture upstream to the protected Raush River (a tributary of the Fraser) or stroll through the restored urban watershed of Bowker Creek in Victoria, and thoughts of economy give way to nature and conservation. 

This perceived divide between conservation and economy is a relic of the past, one that is increasingly at odds with the realities that communities in BC face, from the impacts of climate change to evolving global economic trends.

It’s time to reimagine the role that watersheds play as economic engines, both in the province and beyond.

BC’s Watershed Economy

Across BC, the watershed sector is a significant driver of employment and economic development. The sector encompasses activities that directly support the maintenance, restoration, and improvement of healthy watersheds. According to a recent analysis, the watershed sector supports 47,900 direct jobs and contributes $5 billion to the province’s GDP. Watershed sector jobs range widely, from boots on the ground wetland restoration and water monitoring to the design and construction of urban water infrastructure. They even venture into the high tech, with emerging technologies supporting data collection, asset management, and water reuse. 

Figure: Subsectors of the BC watershed sector and reliant economic activities (credit: Working for Watersheds).

So how do we bridge the concept of “watershed economy” into the mainstream? An emerging collaboration between industry, government, Indigenous communities, and non-profit organizations is looking to do just that.  

Since 2021, the Working for Watersheds (W4W) initiative has brought together hundreds of people and organizations with an interest in the watershed sector to identify common goals and opportunities, mapping for the first time the contribution of watersheds as drivers of BC’s economy and employment. In 2023, the coalition published its Roadmap, which lays out a strategic vision for how we grow and develop BC’s watershed sector over the next 5–10 years.

W4W and its network organizations work closely with the provincial government and its newly formed Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship. The province has demonstrated a strong commitment to investing in watersheds since 2020, with $57 million invested in watershed projects through the Healthy Watersheds Initiative and Indigenous Watersheds Initiative, and an unprecedented $100 million invested in 2023 to launch a new Watershed Security Fund, established through a collaboration between the province and the BC First Nations Water Table. 

Moving Beyond Water as a Resource

From the early days of agricultural expansion and mineral exploration by settlers across BC, water was seen as a resource to be tapped and a force to be tamed. This colonial lens on water management, coupled with progressively more ambitious engineering works, led to the extensive modification of landscapes and river systems. Upon its completion in 1968, for instance, the Bennett Dam on the Peace River created Williston Lake, the largest artificial lake in North America, which stands out as a distinctive feature on any modern map of BC.

Conservation and restoration movements have gained significant momentum in the intervening decades, driving toward Canada’s current goal of protecting 30% of lands and waters by 2030. But the question of sustainable economic development — how to responsibly steward our watersheds while providing long-term employment for people and prosperity for communities — remains an area of active discussion. 

Conservation-based economic models are gradually gaining momentum, from sustainable forestry to eco-tourism. On the West Coast, much of this work has been led by First Nations, protecting lands and waters, from Gwaii Haanas to the Great Bear Rainforest, while generating opportunities for people and communities. 

In 2016, Heiltsuk Tribal Council partnered with Vancouver Island University and North Island College to develop an Indigenous Ecotourism Training Program, a seven-month program for students from coastal First Nations. The program blends classroom and hands-on training in stewardship and tourism to prepare Indigenous people for careers in the conservation economy.

Beyond tourism, a groundbreaking partnership between 17 First Nations, the Government of Canada, and the Province of BC, led to the recent creation of the Great Bear Sea Project Finance for Permanence (PFP), establishing a co-governed model for conservation to support community-led economic development, long-term funding for Indigenous Guardian programs, and stewardship initiatives, including in Marine Protected Areas. The Great Bear Sea PFP will bring $335 million in new investment to coastal BC to conserve a globally significant marine ecosystem, while bolstering sustainable marine-based economies and creating thousands of jobs. 

Taking Care of Business

Beyond the leadership of First Nations and communities, what role can businesses play in the sustainable transition? Many sectors and organizations remain firmly grounded in the corporate social responsibility paradigm, where environmental investments remain outside the core business and fall into the category of “giving back.” But a new generation of companies is bringing nature and climate into the boardroom, embedding them firmly within its business model. 

As John Elkington, a leading authority on sustainable development, aptly reflects in his recent book Green Swans: The Coming Boom In Regenerative Capitalism: “How can we create multitrillion-dollar-per-year market opportunities by 2030? One answer: by meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs]. These are a set of 17 ambitious goals and 169 related targets championed by the United Nations. In effect, the first crowd-sourced global market research study.” Water cuts across numerous SDGs — including life on land, life below water, climate action, and sustainable cities — but the spotlight centres on SDG 6, achieving clean water and sanitation for all.

A number of purpose-focused organizations highlighted in this issue of Make The World Better Magazine are helping to advance that goal. Another business worth mentioning is Permalution, an innovative Québec-based social enterprise working to develop cloud and fog water forecasting and harvesting technologies to supplement municipal water sources. The company has deployed projects in agriculture, wildfire mitigation, and climate adaptation, with a core focus on government utility services and humanitarian development.

Permalution makes no promises of exponential growth through fog harvesting. Instead, it aims to deploy affordable, modular systems to support communities around the world for whom water scarcity, amplified by the impacts of climate change, remains a critical need. The result? A business model built around advancing multiple SDGs without generating adverse environmental impacts in the process. 

To unlock the potential of watersheds as economic engines, we must connect pieces of the puzzle that have long been isolated: environmental health, prosperity of people and communities, and sustainable economic development. Put these pieces together and the divide between environment and economy falls away, yielding to a more holistic vision of watersheds as the connecting tissue for a thriving economy.

Alan Shapiro is the Principal at environmental consultancy Shapiro & Company and an advisor for Working for Watersheds, a collaborative initiative of industry, government, Indigenous communities, and non-profit organizations working to protect and restore healthy watersheds across British Columbia.

This story was featured in the Make The World Better Magazine: