"The Hawiih (Hereditary Chiefs) of the First Nations have the responsibility to preserve and protect their traditional territories and waters for generations which will follow."
- Interim Measures Agreement
CLAYOQUOT FIRST NATIONS AND BC GOVERNMENT SIGN INTERIM AGREEMENT
On March 19, 1994, in the village of Ahousat on Flores Island, the First Nations of the Central Region of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council and the Province of B.C. signed an historic two year Interim Measures Agreement.
This legal document sets out how decisions regarding resource development in Clayoquot Sound will be made until a treaty with the First Nations, who have aboriginal title to the region, is successfully negotiated. The federal government is expected to initiate these treaty negotiations in the very near future.
The B.C. government, embarrassed by First Nations' criticisms that they'd been left out of the infamous April 13 decision to clearcut in two-thirds of Clayoquot Sound (the B.C. Ombudsman later confirmed that government had indeed failed to consult with the First Nations), went to the negotiating table last winter to rectify this oversight. The resulting Interim Measures Agreement establishes a Central Region Board that gives the First Nations virtual veto power over resource management and land use planning within Clayoquot Sound.
The goals of the Agreement include:
Through a double majority vote system, First Nations' board members can reject development plans which don't meet their criteria for sustainability. The Central Region Board can choose to send a controversial decision to B.C. Cabinet for review. But if Cabinet refuses to support their decision, the issue ends up in a public debate between hereditary chiefs and members of Cabinet, which is not something that the B.C. government would relish.
The spirit of the Agreement, according to both the B.C. government and First Nations representatives who spoke at the ratification ceremonies, is not, however, to freeze all development but to work cooperatively towards truly sustainable land use. Conflicts, however, are bound to occur as the Central Region Board takes on its challenge of land use management, especially since the First Nations are on record supporting a ban on clearcut logging in Clayoquot Sound and have expressed enthusiasm for the ecosystem-based recommendations coming out of the Scientific Panel, which was set up to provide direction for new forestry in Clayoquot Sound.
The Wilderness Committee believes it is impossible to implement ecosystem-based forestry that will protect soils, water, fish and biodiversity and, at the same time, maintain the annual allowable cut of 600,000 cubic meters of wood, which the big company Tree Farm License (TFL) holders - MacMillan Bloedel and International Forest Products - are expecting out of Clayoquot. We believe that our only solution is to hold the federal government to its promise to provide greater protection in Clayoquot and demand that it provides the necessary resources to unencumber the land from current tenures. Then, the Central Region Board can take direction from nature, not industry cut level, in planning the protection and use of Clayoquot.
