Executive Profile

Darcy Dobell is a strategist with over 30 years’ experience connecting and aligning ideas, people, and resources to achieve groundbreaking and lasting outcomes at the intersection of conservation, reconciliation, and economy. She brings expertise in policy, negotiations, facilitation, and strategic planning to guide complex initiatives that unite diverse partners to achieve shared goals.

Darcy has a long history supporting Indigenous-led conservation and Indigenous-Crown partnerships, with a particular focus on transforming laws, policies, and investment frameworks for healthy ecosystems and prosperous communities in BC and Canada. From helping to design and launch BC’s first Joint Stewardship Agreement in Clayoquot Sound in the early 1990s, to supporting the strategic alliances that led to the Great Bear Rainforest Agreements and the establishment of Coast Funds in the mid-2000s, to serving as a key architect and broker of the 2024 Great Bear Sea PFP, Darcy’s role as a trusted advisor to Indigenous leaders, Crown governments, philanthropic funders, industry stakeholders, and NGOs has shaped coastal and ocean conservation, sustainable development, and collaborative governance on the north Pacific coast and beyond.

Darcy’s professional background includes senior policy and leadership positions in governments and NGOs from local to global scales, as well as appointments to boards and advisory bodies including Coast Funds; Ocean Networks Canada; the BC Parks Foundation; Canopy; and the National Advisory Panel on Marine Protected Area Standards. Darcy currently runs her independent consulting business from the edge of the Salish Sea.

Highlights and passion projects

• As lead advisor to the Coast Solutions Task Group, served as primary architect and broker of the 2024 Great Bear Sea PFP agreements. This seascape-level conservation finance deal unites 17 First Nations and the governments of Canada and BC in groundbreaking collaborative governance agreements aimed at establishing the world’s most scientifically robust Indigenous-led network of Marine Protected Areas. The agreement also includes $335M CAD in public-private capital to support stewardship and community economic development that will deliver thousands of new jobs and billions of dollars in added value by growing a diverse, sustainable, conservation-based economy.

• As founding advisor to the Oceans Collaborative of Environment Funders Canada, helped launch Canada’s first ocean-focused funder collaborative; guided individual and aligned philanthropic investments and supported strategic grantmaking to strengthen Indigenous and community capacity and advance coastal and marine conservation across Canada.

• As advisor to North Pacific Coast First Nations and to the Marine Conservation Fund at Makeway, enabled and facilitated collaborative leadership among First Nations, federal and provincial governments, civil society, grantmakers, and industry to secure landmarks in oceans co-management on the BC coast, including Canada’s first bioregional marine spatial plans; first Oceans Reconciliation Framework Agreement between the Crown and Indigenous peoples; and Canada’s first seascape-level, science-based Marine Protected Area Network.

• As co-founder of the Raincoast Education Society, inspired and organized a group of interested citizens to build a sound, financially secure, and permanently-staffed community-based organization now in its third decade of delivering much-beloved education and interpretive programming about the natural and cultural history of Clayoquot Sound.

• Co-creator and co-producer of two delightful and admirable human beings (now young adults) and one off-grid home on the edge of the Salish Sea.

• Author of a number of books and articles for young people including The World of Sharks (2024) and The World of Whales (2020), as well as science articles for publications such as Hakai Magazine.