VICTORY
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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Clayoquot
Sound, Canada Truce
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
http://forests.org/ -- Forest
Conservation Archives
http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest
Conservation
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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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."
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