Agreement resolves much conflict with B.C. government, Haida leader says
Nearly half the Queen Charlotte Islands-Haida Gwaii is to be protected in a land-use agreement signed Wednesday that the Haida say will end the "industrial juggernaut" of large-scale logging on the islands.
The agreement, a first step in the broader Haida goal of achieving greater control over the archipelago’s resources, was signed at a ceremony in Vancouver by Premier Gordon Campbell and Guujaaw, president of the Council of the Haida Nation.
With Campbell at his side, Guujaaw, who uses his traditional Haida name, declared that excessive logging has been stopped on the islands.
One of the plan’s key features is to establish 254,000 hectares of new protected areas, bringing the total protected area on the islands up to about 50 per cent of the land. Further, the annual logging harvest is to be cut back by 40 per cent to 800,000 cubic metres of timber from 1.3 million.
"While we have fought governments of every stripe over the years, every one of them had to deal with the same juggernaut of industry that had been put in place, in the same way as we did," Guujaaw said. "To be able to find a way through this, and to stop it and actually reverse it in one place is quite a major step for all of us who have been involved."
The Haida leader said that with the logging issue resolved, much of the conflict with government is on the wane.
"Our people are quite clear that our first objective is to look after those things that gave us life. We think we have come a long way in doing that but also in doing so, we have created a place where we can deal fairly and straightly with the provincial government . . . basically the Crown, without conflict. We have taken a lot of the conflict, set it aside and figured out a way to deal with the tough issues."
In a later interview, Guujaaw indicated that the negotiations that resulted in the agreement have set a new course for settling disputes which, up until now, have ended up in court.
He said the main points of conflict between the Haida and the Crown have been land-use issues, specifically where logging is going to take place and how much.
"We have taken care of a lot of those at one time [through Wednesday’s agreement], so the issues of title and jurisdiction and how we are going to move ahead from here are suddenly open."
Campbell described the agreement as a first step in reconciliation.
"It’s not the end of the journey. It’s the beginning of a journey that will hopefully be a journey built on mutual recognition, respect built on reconciliation and embraces one of the old Haida sayings: Everything depends on everything else."
Campbell praised the Haida leaders, saying they have been "relentless" in pursuing their goals of restoring their power over the land.
In an interview, Ian Gill, executive director of Ecotrust Canada, who has worked with the Haida on resource-mapping issues, said the Haida have the skill and ability to make complex land-use decisions without dependency on government agencies.
"They can do forestry planning, they can do fisheries planning, they can do energy planning just as well as anybody. That’s the real key. The success of this will be that it isn’t just the Haida getting some money or getting some land from the government and then coming back to the government and saying, ‘Okay, now you have to help us figure it out.’ They can figure it out themselves. That’s the huge quantum leap that’s happened on the coast in the last four or five years.
"It breaks the dependency and that whole cycle where they are not beholden to government any more."
The conflict between the province and the Haida had its beginning in modern times in the 1970s when major forest companies with their Victoria-granted logging licences, began harvesting the islands’ old-growth forests in earnest. As recently as 10 years ago they were harvesting two million cubic metres a year of timber and exporting it in giant self-loading barges to mills in southern B.C.
Logging is to be cut back to 800,000 cubic metres a year, which includes 120,000 cubic metres a year in a yet-to-be-established Haida licence.
Logging will take place on a 500,000-hectare working forest land base under the guidelines of ecosystem-based management, which puts the onus on logging companies to leave in place all the elements of the original eco-system after they have removed the timber.
Agriculture and Lands Minister Pat Bell said in an interview that the province has begun discussions with the forest licensees regarding adjustments to their timber allocations. Compensation and reallocating tenures is on the table, he said.
Dave Lewis, executive director of the Truck Loggers Association, whose 500 members do most of the logging on the coast, said how well the agreement works out for the industry is up to Victoria.
"We have been working very closely with first nations to assist them in being successful in our industry. We see them as an integral part of our industry going forward. But if our industry is to survive, we definitely need to see a clear, articulate vision from government as to where it thinks it should go, because right now we don’t see much of a vision long-term.
"Until we see how this is handled, how it washes out, it’s very hard to say whether this is a positive or a negative."
Bell also said that future talks with the Haida are to deal with establishing a sustainable economy on the islands, including a long-term income stream. He said the islands are being viewed as a single economic unit, a clear indication of the government’s direction in turning more power over to the Haida.
How the revenue stream is to be created will be the subject of continuing talks, he said.
"There needs to be an opportunity where the islands can generate incremental income and invest it in a way that really builds the long-term economy, and it may be different for each community."
ghamilton@png.canwest.com