Cooperative Resource Management Institute (CRMI)

The Cooperative Resource Management Institute (CRMI) houses personnel from governmental and non-governmental natural resource management and extension agencies. It addresses challenging multidisciplinary issues in resource management by providing an environment where agency personnel who deal with forestry, fisheries, and wildlife can work on a daily basis with SFU faculty, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and research associates. The Institute thus produces many benefits. The university gains support from a greater concentration of expertise in resource management on campus and from new opportunities for multidisciplinary, collaborative research programs. Agencies are helped by engaging SFU researchers in projects that are directly applicable to the agencies’ needs but that otherwise might not be investigated.

The Cooperative Resource Management Institute currently houses staff from two agencies. First, the Salmon Assessment and Freshwater Ecosystem Division of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) conducts research on (a) designing experiments and developing databases pertaining to ecological processes in lakes, rivers, and streams in western Canada, including those affecting conservation status of fishes, (b) examining the effects of natural and anthropogenic activities in watersheds that provide habitat for fishery resources, (c) developing partnerships with resource stakeholders and research agencies in order to enhance experimental opportunities and communicate research information to communities, and (d) communicating investigative findings and research skills to the international science community through publications, conferences, student supervision, and lectures. Second, the Cooperative Resource Management Institute also includes FORREX (the Forum for Research Extension in Natural Resources). FORREX is a non-governmental organization that seeks to foster sustainable ecosystems and stable, vibrant communities by improving natural resource decision making through research and extension work. FORREX produces several publications, including an on-line journal, runs workshops on critical management issues, and engages in a variety of other research and extension activities with a broad range of partners. Currently there are two FORREX staff positions based on campus.