Assessing the global status of Pacific salmon
and new approaches for addressing threats
In collaboration with the IUCN World Conservation Union, the Wild Salmon
Center has embarked on an effort to describe the status of Pacific salmon
across their natural range. I will present our general approach for conducting
assessments and the key results for the completed assessment of sockeye
salmon. I will discuss critical measures that need to be taken to reverse current
trends of declining biodiversity, focusing on the significance of British Columbia.
This effort has been extremely time consuming and difficult, and I will describe
the many challenges we have faced, and will continue to face, to reach our
goal. I will also describe a major initiative to establish a network of whole river
basin protected areas for salmon as a measure to avoid future declines. Great
opportunities exist to establish these in the Russian Far East, a region full of
wild salmon rivers but also under significant threat from mineral extraction, oil
and gas development, poaching, and logging.
Biography:
Dr. Rand received his BA from Colgate University in Hamilton, New York in 1987, his M.S. and
Ph.D. from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in 1990/1994. He was a
postdoc at University of British Columbia during 1995-1997, and then held a faculty position in
the Department of Zoology at North Carolina State University during 1997-2003. Dr Rand has
been with the Wild Salmon Center in Portland, Oregon since 2003.
Ground Floor Lecture Hall, 2202 Main Mall, UBC
Tuesday October 2, 2007
12:00p.m.– 1:30P.M.
Aquatic Ecosystems Research Laboratory
2202 Main Mall, Room 120
Dr. Pete Rand
Senior Conservation Biologist & Acting Director,
State of the Salmon Program, Wild Salmon Center, Portland, OR