BC Regional Adaptation Collaborative Program

The climate in British Columbia is changing. Public and private sector leaders are now seeing the need to assess climate change impacts and begin planning for adaptation at the regional and local level to protect communities, safeguard economic activity, and sustain environmental health.

Backing these efforts is the BC Regional Adaptation Collaborative (BC RAC) program, which is one of a number of similar collaborations across the country within Natural Resource Canada’s national program. BC RAC aims to strengthen regional capacity and increase action to advance adaptation planning and implementation in local governments, First Nations governments, and the natural resource sector. BC RAC covers several key focus areas related to adaptation, including:

• Community Adaptation
• Water Allocation and Use
• Coastal Flood Management
• Mining Sector Adaptation
• Energy Sector Adaptation

What are we doing?

BC RAC focuses on engagement, education, and capacity-building. We work to bring together different orders of government, the private sector, the non-profit sector and the academic community to advance adaptation. Our current program activities include:

Local Community Capacity Building

We are engaging local communities across British Columbia through targeted capacity building and knowledge transfer with the aim to advance adaptation planning and implementation. In the current Phase 3 of BC RAC, we are focusing on communities in the northern and central regions of BC. Engagement activities include in-person training workshops and support in accessing tools, resources, and funding opportunities.

Creating Learning Resources

BC RAC builds and supports a province-wide community of practice on adaptation through regular online engagement and education. We host a free webinar series on adaptation, which highlights case studies, tools, and plans. We also offer resources through our Retooling website, which is an online portal of the top learning tools, guides and resources targeted at BC local governments, First Nations, and the natural resource industry. As part of Retooling, we send out a quarterly newsletter with updates on adaptation news, events, and emerging tools. Subscribe for our newsletter!

Climate Risk Network

A number of organizations in BC are providing support to their members in implementing future climate risk into planning and decisions. BC RAC initiated the BC Climate Risk Network (CRN) in September 2015, which is a collaborative of these organizations. The CRN helps increase awareness of climate adaptation activities among its members, strengthens relationships between the academic community and government organizations, and strategically develops new activities to address gaps in adaptation programming.

Want to find out more?

To learn more about BC RAC, contact:

Jim Vanderwal, Senior Program Manager
Fraser Basin Council
T: (604) 897-5350 | E: 

Eliana Chia, Program Coordinator
Fraser Basin Council

T: (604) 488-5377 | E: