VICTORY
Clayoquot Sound, Canada Truce
6/19/99
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE
There appears to have been a major breakthrough in the intractable
Clayoquot Sound temperate rainforest conservation efforts on the
Pacific coast of Canada. If indeed this agreement is everything made
out to be in the article, it represents a unique and compelling
example of win-win solutions to bioregional forest conservation
challenges. Congratulations to the thousands of activists that have
contributed to this campaign's years of persistent forest conservation
advocacy.
g.b.
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Natives, Enviros, MacMillan Bloedel Sign Clayoquot Truce
Source: Environment News Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: June 17, 1999
TOFINO, British Columbia, Canada, June 17, 1999 (ENS) - Natives,
environmentalists and forestry giant MacMillan Bloedel signed an
agreement late Wednesday likely to end 20 years of protests over the
huge original growth trees of Vancouver Island's Clayoquot Sound.
The deal will set aside most of Clayoquot Sound on the west coast of
Vancouver Island, preventing logging of the old growth trees.
MacMillan Bloedel (MB) says it will not log in any of the region's
unlogged valleys that are larger than 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres).
The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed by Iisaak Forest
Resources Ltd, a new forestry venture in Clayoquot Sound and
Greenpeace Canada, Greenpeace International, the Natural Resources
Defense Council, the Sierra Club of British Columbia and the Western
Canada Wilderness Committee.
Iisaak Forest Resources is 51 percent owned by the Central Region
First Nations of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council and 49 percent
owned by MacMillan Bloedel, Ltd.
The economic development of Clayoquot Sound will depend not on
clearcutting of the old trees, but on small scale logging, non-timber
forest products and the lucrative promise of eco-tourism.
The First Nations, environmental groups, and the MB representative for
Iisaak said in a statement Wednesday that the agreement is based on
"trust and understanding. It has no force of law."
The agreement states that the parties, "support First Nations in their
aspirations to fully participate in a diversified and sustainable
community economy and in their aspirations for ecologically sound
governance and management over their traditional territories."
The environmental groups, "support the emergence of a new model of
ecoforestry in Clayoquot Sound through marketing of timber certified
through an internationally recognized certification system."
Linda Coady of MacMillan Bloedel told ENS today, "It's been a long
journey with all the controversy. The challenge from our perspective
to design with other interests a new model, a non-industrial model
based on conservation objectives. Clearly the old industrial model
would not work in Clayoquot."
Coady said there is interest in these old trees as carbon sinks for
mitigating climate change. Non-timber products will include herbals,
florals and medicinals. Indian people have rights to forest resources
other than timber that are being upheld by the Canadian courts. First
Nations artists will create works that might be custom ordered,
possibly on the Internet.
What environmentalists brought to the table of value to MB is their
willingness to help market the new products. Coady says Iisaak Forest
Resources will pursue a premium price for these products. They will be
marketed on the basis that the continued existence of the old forests
depends on bringing in a profit to the new company.
MacMillan Bloedel is investing a lot, "millions of dollars to get this
off and running," said Coady. "There's lot of new technology and a
heavy research component. We're prepared to give it a couple of years.
But it has to be profitable," she said.
The environmental groups have waged a fierce battle against the
logging of the big trees in Clayoquot Sound in court, through
blockades and international boycotts since 1980 when Friends of
Clayoquot Sound was formed.
In 1955 the government of British Columbia granted MacMillan Bloedel a
perpetually-renewable Tree Farm License (TFL #44) with exclusive
rights to log in more than half of Clayoquot Sound. In 1956 logging
rights in almost all the rest of Clayoquot were granted to British
Columbia Forest Products, a deal that was fraught with bribes. The
Minister of Forests at the time ultimately went to jail for his
involvement.
This license was later sold to Fletcher Challenge and then, in 1992,
sold to International Forest Products. During the 1970s, clearcutting
in Clayoquot more than tripled over the initial rate of cut
established when the licenses were granted.
In 1984, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations declared Meares Island a Tribal
Park and, together with FOCS, mounted the first logging blockade in
Clayoquot Sound to stop MB logging of Meares.
Logging blockades and arrests of protesters continued through the
1990s. From July to November of 1993, Friends of Clayoquot Sound
maintained a blockade of MB logging operations at the Kennedy River
Bridge. Over 12,000 people came to the Friend's "Black Hole Peace
Camp," including two train-loads of activists from across Canada. Over
900 peaceful blockaders were arrested - the largest action of civil
disobedience in Canadian history.
Starting in July of 1993 Greenpeace International and the Washington,
DC based Natural Resources Defense Council mounted international
protests and launched market campaigns pointing to what they called
"consumer complicity in the purchase of wood products derived from the
clearcutting of ancient temperate rainforest."
Over the years, the Western Canada Wilderness Committee (WCWC)
published hundreds of thousands of educational papers, and starting in
1993 boardwalked long "witness" trails through pristine valleys with
volunteer labor. In September 1993, WCWC extracted Stumpy, a large red
cedar stump, from a Clayoquot clearcut, and sent it on a across North
America public awareness tour. Greenpeace borrowed Stumpy for a
similar tour of Europe.
In July 1996, First Nations hosted an stakeholder meeting to discuss a
resolution to the Clayoquot controversy. Prompted by First Nations'
request for peace in the Sound, during the fall of 1996
environmentalists decided to temporarily quiet down while pursuing a
solution - the development of a United Nations Biosphere Reserve
proposal for Clayoquot.
In January 1997, the Sheila Copps, federal Minister of Canadian
Heritage, said her government would support a Biosphere Reserve
solution if all stakeholders want it. That solution is still in
process.
The deal signed Wednesday, allows a renewal of logging free of road
blockades and international boycotts. The joint statement said, "It is
intended to create an example of sustainable development incorporating
aboriginal values and leadership that will draw the positive attention
of the world."