Globe & Mail: B.C. Indigenous conservation plan gets private backing
Celina Starnes of the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance stands under an old-growth Western redcedar near Kanaka Bar Indian Band, home to the T’eqt’aqtn’mux, in British Columbia this past Sept. 21. PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAFAL GERSZAK/THE GLOBE AND MAIL
Below is a new Globe and Mail article about the Nature-Based Solutions Foundation's purchase of potentially the most diverse old-growth forest on private land in BC—with both dry-adapted old-growth Ponderosa pine and wet-adapted western redcedar growing side-by-side—to be given back to the Kanaka Bar Indian Band (located south of Lytton) with a conservation covenant. It also features the Kanaka Bar Band's Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) proposal, which is also receiving support from the Foundation. The IPCA would protect about 350 square kilometres of land in their territory, including 125 square kilometers of old-growth forest.
The Nature-Based Solutions Foundation (NBSF) is working in partnership with the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance (EEA) and Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) to support the Kanaka Bar Band’s protected area plan, including by providing them with key funding. This is happening as part of our larger Old-Growth Solutions Initiative to help fill other key funding gaps across BC to protect old-growth forests.
Some excerpts:
B.C. Indigenous conservation plan gets private backing
Article by Justine Hunter. Originally published in the Globe and Mail on October 10, 2022.
Battered by climate disasters, community at Kanaka Bar looks to protect old growth forest and restore ecosystems in a way that supports the First Nation’s self-sufficiency initiatives and sustainable economic development
Overhanging a riverbank in the Fraser Canyon, an ancient Western redcedar shows signs of harvesting by past generations of the T’eqt’aqtn’mux people. The gnarled tree is growing in one of the rarest and most endangered old-growth forests in British Columbia, and a newly sealed land deal has secured its protection. But for the surrounding forest, there is no certainty.
The Kanaka Bar Indian Band – also known as the T’eqt’aqtn’mux – is proposing an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area to preserve its ancient connection to these lands, and to protect a rich pocket of biodiversity for the planet. In the southern canyon, along the Fraser River, the province’s wet coastal and dry interior zones meet, allowing an unusual variety of species to mingle.
While logging companies have cleared large swaths of old growth in the traditional territories of the T’eqt’aqtn’mux, evidence of this First Nation’s sustainable harvesting practices is still found in living trees that did not fall to commercial logging: Researchers have confirmed that branches and bark strips have been harvested here from select cedar trees since the early 18th century, or even before then.
But the protected area plan awaits the support of Ottawa and Victoria – approval that is caught in a protracted negotiation between the two levels of government over old-growth protection.
The objective of the proposed Indigenous protected area fits into a larger aim shared by the federal government.
Canada has made international commitments to protect 30 per cent of its lands and waters by 2030.
British Columbia, which boasts the greatest amount of biodiversity in the country, also has interests that align with the Kanaka Bar proposal: The provincial government has pledged to suspend logging in one-third of B.C.’s remaining’s old-growth forests to protect irreplaceable ecosystems that are disappearing under intensive forestry – but to do that with Indigenous consent, which has been slow to garner.
The Kanaka Bar proposals would hit the sweet spot for both governments: Kanaka Bar intends to protect and restore rare ecosystems in a way that supports the First Nation’s self-sufficiency initiatives and sustainable economic development.
The federal and B.C. governments are in protracted negotiations to reach a nature agreement that would include permanent old-growth protection.
However, the two sides remain at odds over funding, and which forests would be set aside. The federal government has offered $50-million specifically for B.C. old growth, a figure that the province dismissed as far too little. Ottawa, meanwhile, is awaiting the matching commitment from the province.
Steven Guilbeault, the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change, toured an old-growth forest in B.C. on Sept. 1, using the visit as a backdrop to press the provincial government to reach an accord. “We will continue collaborating with the province to get a good deal to protect B.C.’s beloved nature,” he said in a statement at that time.
Patrick Michell, former chief of the Kanaka Bar Indian Band, was instrumental in launching the proposed T’eqt’aqtn Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area.
His community has been buying up private lands when they become available, rather than waiting for the Crown to give them their land back. Their vision for climate resiliency does not include commercial logging of old growth.
“We want to keep the old growth, keep the carbon in the ground,” he said. “For us to have an economy for the next 100 years, we need to invest in something more sustainable and resilient.”
The only firm commitment to the Kanaka Bar conservation plan to date has come from a fledgling environmental non-profit, which bought a piece of private land to gift to the community.
The property known locally as Old Man Jack’s is a tiny parcel, a little more than three hectares, which was scooped up for just under $100,000. It is dwarfed by the more ambitious Kanaka Bar proposal to set aside a large chunk of the southern Fraser Canyon in the First Nation’s traditional territories, including roughly 125 square kilometres of old-growth forests. But it is a concrete start.
Old Man Jack’s property, purchased by the Nature-Based Solutions Foundation, is a showcase for the region, with its unusual mix of coastal and interior species: Ponderosa pine, Interior Douglas fir, Western redcedar, Bigleaf maple, all growing together. “This is peak biodiversity – as multicultural as you can get in a B.C. forest,” said Ken Wu, co-founder of the foundation, as he pointed out one of the largest Interior Douglas firs in the country.
Mr. Wu started campaigning for B.C.’s old-growth forests more than two decades ago. The foundation was created last year to raise money to purchase endangered ecosystems, sidestepping the conflict that has marked many campaigns against old-growth logging.
“Protests are important at times,” Mr. Wu said, “but to actually save old-growth forests, it is vital to ensure First Nations have the financial resources in order to realize their conservation visions,” he said. Many First Nations rely on forestry for revenue and jobs – and he said the provincial and federal governments need to bring substantial funding to the table to create viable alternatives.
“There’s no path to actually protect old-growth forests on the ground in British Columbia by going around First Nations communities and leadership,” Mr. Wu said.
The T’eqt’aqtn Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area would help the entire Fraser Canyon’s climate resiliency, said Sean O’Rourke, the Kanaka Bar lands manager, because healthy ecosystems are the region’s best defence against natural disasters.
But it also aims to protect the T’eqt’aqtn’mux’s archeological sites. Mr. O’Rourke pointed across the Fraser River to the remains of a stone-constructed fishing weir, disrupted by placer miners looking for gold. The rainstorms last November uncovered a petroglyph that is believed to be at least 8,000 years old. It was damaged when treasure hunters removed a piece of it with a jackhammer.
“These connections to the past and connections to the old way of life, that’s a finite thing,” Mr. O’Rourke said. “Once you damage something like that, you’re never going to get it back.”
Read the full article here:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/british-columbia/article-kanaka-bar-old-growth-forest/