Kanaka Bar Band: zuminstm e tmíxʷ kt ƛ̓əq̓ƛ̓áq̓tn̓ Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA)
Help us raise $500,000 in critical long-term sustainable economic development and stewardship funding for Kanaka’s Indigenous Protected Area.
This funding is critical for ensuring that Kanaka can manage their IPCA over the long term by supporting things like Indigenous guardians programs, stewardship and restoration initiatives, and new jobs and business opportunities rooted in resilient conservation-based economies that thrive with nature.
The Initiative
The Kanaka Bar Indian Band (ƛ̓əq̓ƛ̓áq̓tn̓mx), a Nlaka’pamux First Nation located about a three-hour drive from Vancouver, is developing their 320-square km zuminstm e tmíxʷ kt ƛ̓əq̓ƛ̓áq̓tn̓ (which means “we care for the lands of T’eqt’aqtn”) Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA). Once complete, the IPCA will protect around 98% of their unceded territory.
As part of the Old-Growth Solutions Initiative (OGSI), we are working to provide Kanaka Bar with the key support, from start to finish, to develop and establish this IPCA, which will encompass around 120-square km of some of BC’s rarest old growth—an area larger than the city of Vancouver!
This project will play a catalytic role in our broader provincial efforts to protect endangered old-growth forests in BC through the OGSI because it will serve as an end-to-end, scalable conservation financing model that can be replicated in other communities.
Our Support
To date, we have provided critical support to the community by funding capacity for land-use planning, supporting stewardship initiatives and jobs, establishing Kanaka Bar’s IPCA interim stewardship fund, funding legal needs linked to their protected area, and providing in-kind support. We also purchased private land containing rare and diverse old-growth forests, alongside important cultural and archeological sites, to give back to the community with a conservation covenant attached.
Looking Ahead
Through the Old-Growth Solutions Initiative (OGSI), we will complete the final phase of our conservation financing collaboration by fulfilling our $500,000 funding pledge to Kanaka Bar. These funds will support the community’s long-term stewardship and management of the Crown lands within their IPCA while helping them develop a resilient and diversified economy that thrives with nature. We will also help the community purchase additional ecologically and culturally significant private lands as part of their greater conservation vision.
Ecology & Archeology
The region also contains 42 species at-risk, including the imperiled Stein/Nahatlatch population of grizzly bears, which is considered to be among the most genetically isolated populations of grizzlies in North America. A new protected area here would be contiguous with the adjacent Stein Valley Nlaka’pamux Heritage Park to the north and near the Mehatl Creek and Nahatlatch Provincial Parks to the west and south. This ecological connectivity is vital for maintaining viable populations of animals and plants, especially wide-ranging megafauna such as the grizzly bear.
In addition, the proposed IPCA hosts numerous archeological sites, including one of the oldest petroglyphs in all of Canada.
The proposed IPCA will support Kanaka Bar’s millennia-long connection to their unceded lands, which are located in a rich pocket for biodiversity in one of the most ecologically diverse regions in the province. The area encompasses a transition zone from wet coastal rainforests to dry interior ecosystems, where one can find a diversity of old-growth trees, including ponderosa pine, western redcedar, white and Engelmann spruce, whitebark pine, and the largest documented interior Douglas-fir trees in Canada. This IPCA project also includes a core section of the Interior Douglas-fir (IDF) zone—the least protected ecosystem in BC.
The varied habitats range from valley bottom to mountain top, and from rainforest to dry savannah, hosting a wide variety of charismatic wildlife, including mountain goats, tailed frogs, and rubber boas (Canada’s only boa!).
Make a donation.
Please donate today to leave a lasting legacy for one of the most diverse regions in all of BC. Your donation is critical for helping ensure that this IPCA vision becomes a reality.
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Note: 9% of funds raised are used to support operations, unless otherwise specified.