Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program (FWCP) - Coastal Region

The FWCP was established to compensate for impacts to fish, wildlife, and their supporting habitat, resulting from the construction of existing BC Hydro dams. BC Hydro has water licence obligations in the Columbia and Peace regions, and has made voluntary commitments to address the impacts of dams in the Coastal Region. BC Hydro fulfills the applicable obligations through the work of the FWCP. The FWCP is funded annually by BC Hydro. The FWCP directs those funds towards projects that address priority actions across its three regions to fulfill its mission, and work towards its vision of thriving fish and wildlife populations in watersheds that are functioning and sustainable.

Each FWCP region has a set of action plans that identify the priority actions eligible for FWCP grants (see the action tables in each action plan). Proposed project must align with one or more priority action(s) in any of these regional action plans. (See https://fwcp.ca/action-plans/.) 

Two types of grants:

1. Seed Grants: Use the Seed Grant to grow your idea. Seed Grants are aimed at helping you explore the feasibility of your project idea and could be the first step towards developing a larger project. Project ideas must align with FWCP regional action plans. Seed Grants are intended to offset costs to fill information gaps, explore project feasibility, and prepare technical information to support a Large Grant application in a subsequent year. 
2. Large Grants: If you are ready to implement a proposed project that aligns with FWCP regional action plans, apply for a Large Grant.

There are five types of projects funded and the action plan tables identify priority actions by project type:

1. Research and information acquisition;
2. Habitat-based actions; 
3. Species-based actions;
4. Monitoring and evaluation; and
5. Land securement. 

For fish and wildlife project lists by region, and for a project map, see https://fwcp.ca/projectlists/.

The FWCP funds the following types of actions:

• Fund actions to create, restore, or otherwise improve the function of ecosystems that have been impacted by BC Hydro activities.
• Fund actions to create, restore, or otherwise improve the function of alternate ecosystems that provide a better opportunity for investment.
• Participate as a team member in species of interest planning.
• Fund specific management actions for species of interest as identified by recovery teams and action/implementation groups.
• Fund baseline inventory that contributes to the development of habitat- or species-based actions within action plans.
• Fund monitoring programs designed to measure the effectiveness of FWCP-funded habitat- and species-based actions.
• Contribute to all aspects of managing co-operatively managed conservation lands.

Estimated Total Program Funding: