The Saltwater Network
is a coalition of community-based organizations around the
Gulf of Maine that works to support community based management
and conservation in the Gulf.
Over the last ten years, many fishermen’s organizations,
local conservation groups and other community groups around
the Gulf of Maine region have adopted community-based management
as a response to the economic, social and environmental crisis
that has been brought on by overfishing, privatization and
overexploitation of non-renewable resources.
Like the upwelling process that circulates nutrient throughout
the water, Saltwater Network aims to distribute the human,
economic, educational and social “nutrients” among
the communities of the Gulf of Maine, in support of community-based
management.
Arthur Bull, director of this unique network, shares the story
of the Saltwater Network.
 Arthur
Bull is the Executive Director of the Saltwater Network, and
an Associate Staff Member of the Bay of Fundy Marine Resource
Centre. He is also the Past Chair of Nova Scotia’s Coastal
Communities Network, the Co-Director of the Rural Communities
Impacting Policy project, and the Chair of the Digby Neck
Community Development Association. He has been a director
with The Western Valley Development Authority, The Bay of
Fundy Ecosystem Project, The Nova Scotia Coastal and Rural
Community Foundation, and is a member of the North Atlantic
Right Whale Recovery Team. In the recent past he has worked
with inshore fishermen in the capacity of Executive Director
of the Fundy Fixed Gear Council, and President of the Bay
of Fundy Inshore Fishermen's Association. Before working with
the fisheries groups, he worked in community-based adult literacy
field in Ontario for 15 years. Arthur is also a professional
musician and a published poet. He lives on Digby Neck in the
Bay of Fundy region of Nova Scotia.
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The
Saltwater Network
The Saltwater Network has been operational
for nearly three years. Arthur was working in the community
on revitalization efforts with local fishermen’s groups
and became President of the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s
Association, which was fighting against the quotas determined
by the fisheries ministry. The group wanted to work towards
community-based management and the idea of having a resource
centre emerged. Soon after the Bay of Fundy Resource Centre
was launched, staff realized that there was a centre Eastport,
Maine doing the same work.
The Upwelling Process
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The Saltwater Network
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Rather than work apart, the groups came together
to support community-based management of the fisheries in
the Gulf of Maine. With the support of the Kendall Foundation
in Boston, the Saltwater Network emerged with the intention
to support community based management through grantmaking,
convening, capacity building & learning opportunities.
The Network has a flat structure with no
office and minimal staff, choosing instead to work through
six Resource Centres located in the Gulf of Maine.
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Focus on Community-based Management
Community-based management can take all sorts
of forms precisely because it’s community-based, but
it’s based on the principle of local control. Fishermen
and communities take on the responsibility for the management
and stewardship of marine resources so that they are controlled
locally.
The people whose livelihood and futures depend
on those resources are the ones best suited to take care of
them. Community-based management is an exercise in democratic
self-governance in natural resource management.
For instance, the Fundy Fixed Gear Council
is a group of five counties in Nova Scotia who share common
water. The federal government assigned a quota to the area.
Once that quota was caught, the fisheries would have to shut
down. So the Council governs itself to maintain the area’s
fisheries. They have to be concerned with compliance, allocation
of the quota within the community, and have to be aware of
ongoing research regarding the eco system and its health.
The convergence of coastal CED & marine
management is at the heart of the Saltwater Network and is
actually, the Network’s first principle. Members of
the Network believe that the health of our coastal communities,
and the health of marine ecosystems, are inextricably connected.
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Membership through Participation
The Saltwater Network is not a membership
organization. Organizations and individuals become part of
the network through participation.
This is where collaboration plays a role.
Because the Network is not structured in a traditional way
(i.e. with a board, staff, and an institutional structure),
it has become a distributed network based on collaboration
framework agreements.
The partners develop those agreements at
the beginning of their relationship. It’s not bureaucratic;
it’s all based on dialogue.
For example, if the Saltwater Network decides
to provide a grant to an emerging organization, they do not
simply write a cheque. The intent is to help build capacity,
and so they develop an agreement with the organization that
takes evaluation, objectives, etc. into account.
The collaborative network works under the
give-get principle within a spirit of mutuality.
The Network places a great deal of emphasis
on evaluation with the intent of creating a learning, as well
as an action, network. A key learning thus far is that a linear,
outcomes-focused evaluation approach does not work for movements
of social change and innovation.
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The Upwelling Process – Achieving
Impact
The hope of the Saltwater Network is that
community-based marine management will be strengthened and
sustained in the Gulf of Maine, becoming a feature in the
life of the communities in the region.
Members of the Network are working for a
future for the region that includes vibrant coastal communities
and healthy ecosystems.
The Network also hopes to encourage policy
changes; to shift the system so that communities can play
a role in the management of local resources and ecosystems,
because they believe that community based management is a
sustainable and equitable way to create new wealth from the
sea.
The Network is beginning feel like it is
part of movement. As they connect with marine communities
on the West Coast and also in Asia, they sense a forward momentum,
a shift towards community-based management.
Like the upwelling process that circulates nutrient throughout
the water, Saltwater Network aims to distribute the human,
economic, educational and social “nutrients” among
the communities of the Gulf of Maine, in support of community-based
management.
Back to top.
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