What are your monitoring priorities?

You may have to deal with a strong desire to monitor “everything”. To make your monitoring program manageable and meaningful, try to work with leaders, staff and the community to prioritize an area of focus.

To begin, you may want to consider initiating monitoring activities that will enable you to build the confidence and capacity of your guardians. Find the balance between what information is desired and what is realistic given budgets, experience levels, or technical skills.

Over time, build on your success and expand your monitoring efforts and technical complexity.

Where appropriate, seek out existing community-based monitoring protocols that have already been developed and tested. Many of these protocols are designed to be straightforward, user-friendly, and cost effective. Visit the Coastal First Nations website to learn more about the Regional Monitoring System.

Setting Priorities: Evolving Coastal First Nations Regional Monitoring

When community members decided to focus monitoring efforts on regional issues important to them, instead of those of outside agencies, they were able to establish a successful monitoring program among coastal First Nations in BC.