An introduction to Twenty years of Canada’s Wild Salmon Policy: reflections on the past and a guide for the future

This Special Collection marks the twentieth anniversary of the WSP and provides a timely evaluation of its legacy, implementation, and future relevance. The papers in the collection examine the scientific foundations and practice of CU-based assessment and monitoring, the development and application of benchmarks to characterize status, governance and co-management advances with First Nations, and case studies that illuminate both progress and persistent barriers to fulfilling the Policy’s intent. The anniversary comes at a pivotal moment. Many salmon populations remain in decline (PSF 2025); Indigenous food, social, and ceremonial fisheries are too often unmet (Reid et al. 2022); fisheries opportunities and associated livelihoods have substantially contracted (Walters et al. 2019); and climate change is increasingly an existential pressure that interacts with accelerating land use and cumulative watershed impacts (Moore and Schindler 2022). However, some CUs have demonstrated resilience or recovery under targeted management actions, improved monitoring, or favourable environmental conditions. These contrasting trajectories underscore the importance of maintaining diverse salmon responses to ecological change, and reinforce the WSP’s central premise that conserving biological diversity is foundational to long-term resilience.