Meares Island Tribal Park – Communities united to save wilderness.
Clayoquot Sound—Off-Limits to CORE
In April of 1993, the BC government decided to exclude from CORE's regional planning process Clayoquot Sound- the largest tract of remaining wild ancient temperate rainforest left on Vancouver Island and the largest low-elevation big treed tract of primary temperate rainforest left on earth. Instead, it opted for a forest industry-backed land use plan that mainly protected forests of low commercial value and opened up two-thirds of the remaining wilderness to clearcut logging.
This brought a storm of protest, including over 800 citizens arrested and jailed for symbolically blockading a logging road in a so-far unsuccessful attempt to get the decision revisited.
The effort to save more of Vancouver Island's old growth forest continues to grow because Clayoquot has become a test case for change. If a sustainable path of development cannot be found for this special region, which still has much of its rich natural endowment of resources still intact, there is not much hope for the rest of Vancouver Island, Canada or the rest of the world.
Because of the Harcourt Clayoquot "compromise" decision, WCWC and some other groups, including the Friends of Clayoquot Sound, did not participate in the Vancouver Island CORE process. We believed that the BC government, in denying CORE a chance to study the entire Island, and in making a back room deal with the unions and the forest industry instead of ending the "valley by valley" fight for wilderness preservation, demonstrated its inability to create a protected area system that truly protected biodiversity.
Since making its Clayoquot Sound decision, the Provincial government has taken great pains to quell opposition to it. Harcourt's main strategy involved setting up planning teams, including a "Scientific Panel" that is to recommend logging standards for the proposed Integrated Use Areas (logging zones). Whether or not the scientists on this panel recommend a reduction in the "logging zones" to help preserve Clayoquot's fisheries and biodiversity and selection rather than clearcut logging for the already fragmented parts of Clayoquot Sound remains to be seen.
Ancient redcedar on Meares Island.
Forced to recognize that it had not consulted the First Nations of Clayoquot, it then proceeded to enter into "Nation to Nation" negotiations with the First Nations, culminating in an Interim Agreement that gives them veto power over new developments in their aboriginal lands. If the government is acting in goood faith, this could be the first step to a justly negotiated treaty settlement with the First Nations. But the creation of a consultative land use process does not necessarily bring about the increased preservation needed to protect wild salmon runs and maintain wild biodiversity.
The waters are muddied around the Clayoquot decision today, but this does not alter the fact that two big forest companies still have control of the vast majority of the forest there, that the existing preservation is inadequate to protect biodiversity over the long run and that clearcut logging is still the method of logging being used there.
To further the cause of protecting more of Clayoquot Sound, and ensure that Clayoquot becomes a working model of truly sustainable land use, WCWC is working to get the Federal government immediately involved. To this end, WCWC will be publishing in April an information newspaper specifically on this region and the continuing efforts to save Clayoquot's ancient rainforest from clearcut logging.
