Salmon Returns Foundation Canada
We build the relationships, knowledge and trust needed to advance regenerative finance in service of healthy communities and ecosystems in Canada.
01 / Our Mission
Our mission is to move public and philanthropic resources, knowledge and relationships toward Indigenous-led and community-rooted stewardship.
Together with communities, we turn research, education, and shared learning into financing strategies that help communities move capital toward watershed restoration, climate resilience, and regenerative local economies.
02 / The Bioregion Is the Portfolio
The health of a bioregion cannot be separated into individual environmental, social or economic outcomes. Climate resilience, biodiversity, community wellbeing, cultural continuity, local economies, and community wealth reinforce one another because lasting value is created when the whole system gets stronger.
03 / Two Interconnected Programs
Climate resilience and biodiversity are inseparable. Through research, education, and shared learning, we work alongside communities to explore financing approaches that strengthen both while keeping ownership, authority, and benefit rooted in place.
Climate Resilience
How can communities finance resilience before disaster becomes loss?
We explore community-owned insurance and risk-sharing models, resilience bonds, and financing for healthy watersheds, strong local economies, and the work that reduces risk before disruption occurs.
Biodiversity
How can capital support stewardship while communities retain authority?
We explore biocultural and stewardship finance, community-owned structures, and new ways to recognize ecological, cultural, social, and health value on communities’ own terms.
04 / A Shared Approach
Before capital moves, communities need the space to ask better questions. We build the evidence, relationships, and shared understanding that help them decide what fits, who should govern it, and whether an idea should move forward.
Listen deeply to what communities need and are already building. Research emerging approaches that could expand what is possible.
Turn research into accessible tools and shared learning. Bring communities and partners together to exchange knowledge and explore new approaches.
Explore whether an idea fits local priorities and governance. Build the evidence communities need to decide what moves forward.
Communities are already leading the work to restore ecosystems, strengthen climate resilience, and build regenerative local economies. We create space for the research, shared learning, and early exploration that strengthen work already underway and allow new possibilities to take shape.
We begin with the place, its people, and their priorities. Together, we ask what fits here, who should govern it, who benefits, and what communities are ready to bring to life.
05 / From Ideas to Community Readiness
We begin by building trust, strengthening relationships, and investing in each community’s capacity to lead.
Together, we explore the challenge, the local context, and promising approaches.
Communities and capital providers learn across knowledge systems, examine their options, and understand the tradeoffs.
We assess whether an idea aligns with the community’s priorities, governance, capacity, and relationships.
With evidence, alignment, governance, and capacity in place, the community is equipped to decide what comes next.
06 / Our Initial Places of Learning
Our work in Canada begins in two regions that will serve as places of learning, partnership, and applied exploration. We work alongside First Nations, local business associations, regional governments, researchers, and other partners to explore community-owned and community-governed approaches to braided finance.
A consequential interior watershed where water governance, agriculture, hydropower, climate impacts, and salmon recovery converge. We are linking regenerative agriculture, watershed management, salmon restoration, and cultural revitalization into a whole-watershed finance approach.
A globally significant rainforest coastline where old-growth forests, rivers, and nearshore waters function as one living system. As First Nations regain stewardship authority and land rights, we support governance, stewardship capacity, and long-term finance pathways that can shift the regional economy from extraction toward regeneration.
07 / Team
Salmon Returns Foundation connects deep knowledge of place with expertise in community development, ecological research, and regenerative finance to help community-led possibilities take root and grow.
One bioregion. Two programs. A shared commitment.
We support the evidence, relationships, and shared learning that help communities define what matters, decide what fits, and keep ownership, agency, and benefit rooted where they belong.
Explore from the beginning
