A Home for Collaboration, a Foundation for Governance in the Lower Fraser
Since its inception in 2010, the Lower Fraser Fisheries Alliance (LFFA) has worked to strengthen collaboration among Lower Fraser First Nations and advance a more coordinated approach to fisheries management across the region. Over the years, LFFA has expanded its role in advancing First Nations leadership, building capacity, and supporting the stewardship of fisheries and aquatic resources throughout the Lower Fraser.
Growing Beyond Its Current Space
As LFFA’s work has expanded, so has its team and the need for a space that can accommodate its growing role. LFFA currently operates from facilities within Sumas First Nation, where staff space is nearing capacity and meeting areas are increasingly limited for bringing together staff, leadership, member Nations and non-Indigenous partners.
A dedicated LFFA campus would provide the space and infrastructure needed to support this continued growth, creating a permanent home where LFFA can bring people together, strengthen its operations and expand its work for years to come.
To help address this need, the Indigenous Stewardship Fund (ISF) stepped in to support LFFA’s vision for a dedicated space. With funding from ISF, LFFA advanced the planning and design of the Lower Fraser Centre of Excellence, an important step toward bringing the vision into a tangible, investment-ready project.
This early-stage work can often be difficult to fund through conventional funding sources. By supporting the development of architectural plans and 3D renderings, ISF helped LFFA clearly communicate its vision, strengthen the project’s readiness, and provide prospective partners and funders with something tangible to rally around.
A vision for the future Lower Fraser Centre of Excellence. (Photo Credit: LFFA)
If you are interested in supporting LFFA in bringing the Lower Fraser Centre of Excellence from vision to construction, please contact Murray Ned at murray.ned@lffa.ca to explore opportunities to get involved.
Alongside planning for the Centre of Excellence, the project also supported LFFA’s work to strengthen coordination and governance across the Lower Fraser watershed. This included the development of a Lower Fraser Watershed Governance and Management Regime.LFFA created visual representations to show how Lower Fraser First Nations, federal and provincial governments, and other partners are involved in water, fish and fisheries management. By making these complex relationships easier to understand, the visuals help show how partners can work together more effectively across the Lower Fraser to align interests and prioritize the protection of the watershed.
Bringing partners together for Lower Fraser fisheries management. (Photo Credit: LFFA)
As part of this work, LFFA also developed a series of watershed maps to show the many jurisdictions, boundaries, and governments involved in decisions around land, water, and resource management across the Lower Fraser. Together, these maps provide a clearer picture of the complex management landscape.
Lower Fraser watersheds and jurisdictions. (Photo Credit: LFFA)
By supporting both governance work and the planning of future infrastructure, ISF’s flexible funding helped LFFA advance interconnected priorities that build its long-term stewardship capacity.
Together, these efforts are helping strengthen how fisheries and watersheds are managed across the Lower Fraser, with First Nations playing a central role in shaping decisions that affect their lands, waters and resources.
The Indigenous Stewardship Fund (ISF) works in close partnership with the First Nations Fisheries Council (FNFC), which serves as a frontline organization for collaboration with First Nations across British Columbia. FNFC leads relationship-building and engagement with more than 200 First Nations across the province, listening to and identifying Nations’ interests, priorities and perspectives. ISF complements this work by serving as the funding mechanism that helps turn those relationships and priorities into action. Together, FNFC and ISF ensure that the leadership, needs and priorities of BC First Nations are met with flexible and accessible resources that support Indigenous-led stewardship, habitat protection and long-term environmental resilience.
