Community Sustainability Auditing Project
   (Sustainable Communities Initiative)

Forestry-based communities face serious challenges to their viability and survival. To successfully adapt and innovate, forestry communities need information concerning both the nature of the challenges and the resources that are available to meet them. The objectives of the Community Sustainability Auditing (CSA) Project are to lay a foundation for understanding the nature and magnitude of the threats and opportunities influencing the sustainability of forestry-based communities; develop a method for identifying them in practice; and provide periodic audits to support assessments of policy, and policy revisions. The CSA is an indicator-based approach for assessing and monitoring a community's sustainability prospects - the state of the economy, the environment, and social well being in a community insofar as they relate to the community's long-term sustainability.

Environmental indicators for the province of British Columbia
   and the Yukon Territory of Canada
   (Environment Canada, Pacific and Yukon Region)

The initiative is based on long term monitoring data that Environment Canada collects and/or manages in the Pacific and Yukon region of Canada. It is to provide a pulse on the state of the environment for particular issues in a brief, concise and easily understood manner for communication to the general public. More specifically, the objective of this initiative is to measure the health and sustainability of the Pacific and Yukon Region ecosystems. The framework for this initiative is the pressure-state-response model and is also based on the approach used for the national indicator series to describe the state of the environment. Indicators for the Pacific and Yukon Regions are organized into the following categories: marine ecosystems, biodiversity, toxic contaminants, climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, and urban water use and wastewater treatment.

Environmental Trends in British Columbia
   (British Columbia Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks,
   Corporate Policy Branch, Canada)

The project objectives are to produce a set of key environmental indicators, focused mainly on providing status and trends on environmental issues to decision makers. The Framework for developing an indicator set is based on the pressure-state-response model. Information used in the report comes from municipal, provincial and federal sources. The most recent report is titled Environmental Trends in British Columbia 2000. It contains 15 key indicators of environmental health, focusing mostly on the 'state' of the environment. Indicators in the full set are: green economy, protected areas, solid waste, fine particulates, greenhouse gas emissions, effects of climate change in British Columbia, surface water quality, groundwater, water use, species at risk, forest species, wildlife populations, fish, toxic contaminants, and forest riparian ecosystems. Each key indicator is also accompanied by 2 to 3 supporting measures. The web site provides the data behind each indicator, a breakdown of the information at a local level, and background technical documents describing the methodology used.

Framework and Sustainability Indicators in
   the Fraser River Basin of British Columbia
   (Environment Canada (NCR), Environment Canada (PYR),
   BC Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks)

The project objectives are to select indicators of sustainability for the Fraser River and test the implementation of this preliminary set of indicators; and to further research and develop methods to link environmental sustainability indicators with social and economic indicators. The framework is guided by five broad sustainability goals for the Fraser River Basin. From the broad goals, issues were categorized according to the broad system that they address: ecological, economic, social and institutional. Furthermore, each issue area had three primary dimensions: present state of the system, intergenerational distribution and intragenerational distribution. Two conceptual assumptions of the approach that are different from many other indicator studies are: flexibility in the set of values, and decision-making using a process of 'procedural rationality.' Four main idealized criteria governed the selection of criteria: ability to aggregate meaningfully; availability of comprehensive annual time series; indicator linkage with a dimension of the issue selected; and the cost and accessibility of the data.

Georgia Basin Futures Project

The Georgia Basin Futures Project (GBFP) will address a worldwide dilemma that is central to the future of human societies and that lies at the core of sustainable development: how can we enhance human well being while protecting ecological health? The GBFP will study this global question regionally by producing and analyzing a series of alternative scenarios that could achieve sustainable conditions for the Georgia Basin by 2040.

Mackenzie River Basin

Dedicated to reporting on issues of ecosystem health, this study requires the cooperation of 7 jurisdictions. Emphasis is placed on the knowledge and participation of the First Nations.

Pacific Northwest Salmon Habitat Indicators
   (Pacific Northwest Environmental Indicators Work Group)

The Pacific Northwest Environmental Indicators Work Group is represented by Environment Canada (Pacific and Yukon Region); B.C. Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks; Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation; Idaho Division of Environmental Quality; Oregon Department of Environmental Quality; Washington Department of Ecology; and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (Region 10). It has produced a report on salmon habitat indicators: Toward "A Small but Powerful" Set of Regional Salmon Habitat Indicators for the Pacific Northwest.

State of Northern Yukon
   (Environment Canada, Pacific and Yukon Region)

The State of Northern Yukon has been produced as a Web document for use by the Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network (EMAN). In the Northern Yukon and adjacent jurisdictions, government agencies and co-management bodies are working to develop long-term monitoring within the range of the Porcupine Caribou Herd and Beaufort coastal and marine areas. Special focus has been placed on three issues: Development, contaminants, and climate change.

Yukon State of the Environment Report
   (Environment Canada, Pacific and Yukon Region)

The first Yukon State of the Environment Report presents a portrait of the Yukon environment, including baseline data, emerging environmental problems and cumulative effects. Annual reports will add to and refine this picture and help to monitor environmental change in the Canadian North. Information for this report comes from government and research reports and files, and from discussions with many Yukoners who have particular knowledge about aspects of the environment and human activities. First Nation elders provided a long-term view of the Yukon environment, its value and its sustainability.