The University of British Columbia, Okanagan, is partnering with the En’owkin Centre and the District of Peachland to co-lead the co-creation of a Framework for Governance of the sqʷʔa (Peachland Creek) Community Watershed (“Co-creating a Framework”), which serves as an extension of the meaningful work that was undertaken in the Syilx Knowledge and Governance activities of the Watershed Ecosystems Project (WEP).
This watershed illustrates the variety of complex socio-ecological challenges faced by multi-use, source (drinking) watersheds throughout the province, including the maintenance of a vibrant and resilient watershed ecosystem, while ensuring the provision of reliable and safe drinking water supplies amidst anthropogenic impacts from a variety of activities like forest harvest, recreation, cattle grazing, development and mining.
“Co-creating a Framework” would involve an extensive hydro-social community engagement process, where interest groups would be brought together through a facilitated six-part workshop series and other gatherings to better understand what co- governance practices would look like for this watershed. Additional objectives would be to identify and support initiatives that would help to restore Syilx people’s relationship with this unceded space, support Syilx leadership in water management, promote shared learning and meaningful relationship building, create a collective ‘vision’ for the watershed, and build community capacity in the form of an enduring co-governance structure for the watershed.
