MakeWay (formerly Tides Canada) is a public foundation that supports projects and partnerships focused on social and environmental change. MakeWay does this through providing funding, bringing together collaborators and supporting socially- and environmentally-focused projects on their shared platform. Recently, MakeWay sought to understand the state of community fisheries across the north in order to develop programming to support sustainable Northern and Indigenous livelihoods across the territories.

The PlanIt North research team engaged with a broad range of Northerners involved in community fisheries across the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut to build a picture of what community fisheries are struggling with, where they are thriving, and where future opportunities for growth exist. As part of the project, we spoke with small-scale fishermen and women, fisheries processors, Indigenous government organizations, resource boards, and federal and territorial fisheries managers to get a true sense of the complexity of the Northern community fishery ecosystem. What emerged was a detailed review of the existing community fisheries landscape, along with recommendations for how MakeWay can support community fisheries through their programs and platforms.

As part of the project, the PlanIt North design team was able to take the complex information emerging from the research and distill it into an accessible visual summary. The community fishery review report and summaries can be requested from MakeWay.