BATTLE FOR THE ANCIENT RAINFORESTS
More than 90% of the world's ancient temperate rainforest has
been destroyed. One- quarter of what's left is in British
Columbia. The 262,000 ha Clayoquot Sound area is likely the
world's largest remaining tract of low-elevation ancient temperate
rainforest. Over 500,000 tourists come to the region each year to
walk the beaches, whale-watch, kayak the pristine inlets, and hike
the ancient temperate rainforest trails.
The Nuu-chah-nulth people (currently 43% of the permanent
residents of Clayoquot Sound) have sustainably occupied the region
for over 5,000 years. Their ownership of the land has never been
extinguished by treaty or court. They, like other residents, rely
on fishing and mariculture. In the 1950's the provincial
government approved several "Tree Farm" licenses, giving away the
right to cut the timber in Clayoquot Sound (the Forest Minister at
the same went to jail for accepting a bribe for one of these
licenses, but the license was never revoked!) Since the 1960's
almost 25% of Clayoquot Sound has been clearcut logged. The
logging has left hillsides bare and wrecked salmon streams. A
government audit on Vancouver Island showed 60% of salmon streams
had been damaged by logging. 30% suffered total loss of salmon
habitat. A Canadian government report states that all of B.C.'s
coastal commercial old growth will be gone in 15 years.
Less than 3% of the old growth forests on Vancouver Island are
protected. Of over 100 large (over 5,000 ha) primary and secondary
watersheds, only 9 are still pristine. Five of these are in
Clayoquot Sound. Until this year only one had been protected (the
Moyeha, in Strathcona Park). Clayoquot Valley is one of the
Sound's 5 large pristine watersheds.
There is a long history of people fighting to preserve Clayoquot
Sound's wilderness, beginning in the early 1980's with the fight
to save Meares Island--the backdrop to Tofino. In 1984 the
Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations declared Meares Island a Tribal Park.
First Nations people and the Friends of Clayoquot Sound have
mounted many blockades, beginning with one on Meares in 1984. The
Wilderness Committee has featured Clayoquot in its Endangered
Wilderness Calendars, mounted public events, and published
posters, two books, and over 300,000 copies of newspapers which
were distributed to politicians, the media and public in its
campaign to mobilize action to protect Clayoquot Sound.
Local environmentalists and First Nations participated for over a
decade in a variety of public planning processes for Clayoquot
Sound. Trust in government and forest industry giants has been
eroded through:
"talk and log" -- logging permits being issued for pristine
areas while discussions over their ultimate land use was
discussed.
flagrant disregard for commitments to "new logging" by
industry. The "model logging" planned for Tofino Creek
resulted in illegal trespass by MacMillan Bloedel which
built a logging road without permit and logged in a planned
biodiversity corridor.
suppression of information. A report commissioned by one
planning team which revealed that, if Clayoquot's forests
were left intact, more money and jobs would be made in the
region through eco-tourism than by logging, was never tabled
because pro-logging representatives on the team objected to
its contents.
When the New Democratic Party (NDP) came to power in B.C. in 1991
they promised no more valley by valley land use decisions. They
established the Commission on Resources and the Environment (CORE)
to more reasonably handle land use conflicts on a regional basis.
The Wilderness Committee lead the campaign to have Clayoquot Sound
included in the Vancouver Island CORE process, on the assumption
that, when considering conservation options for an Island which
has destroyed over 100 major watersheds, it would make sense to
protect all five of Clayoquot's pristine valleys.
The NDP government refused to include Clayoquot in CORE. On April
13, 1993, it made its "final" Clayoquot decision: to protect one
more of Clayoquot's pristine watersheds (the Megin) and allow
two-thirds (including 3 of the 5 large pristine watersheds) of
Clayoquot Sound to be logged.
The NDP decision actually means:
83.5 % of the "commercial" forest is slated for logging
Industry interests were catered to. The pristine Sydney
River valley was given
to International Forest Products to log; the pristine
Clayoquot Valley to MacMillan Bloedel.
The AAC for Clayoquot Sound was supposed to be reduced from
900,000 to 600,000 cubic metres but the AAC was only at
540,000 m3 last year and 777,000 the year before!
"New forestry regulations" which are supposed to govern
logging practices are not in place; new cutting permits for
Clayoquot Sound have already been approved.
Protected areas are only increased by an additional 18% of
the land base, including mostly bog, scrub and sub-alpine
forests.
The NDP decision protects the steep-walled lower Clayoquot River
valley and a karst plateau which drains into the valley from the
east. The lush forests of the mid and upper valley--where the
Wilderness Committee is building its Clayoquot Witness Trail--are
slated for logging and roadbuilding as early as next year!
The Hesquiaht, Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations, rightful
owners of Clayoquot Sound, oppose the provincial government's
April 13 decision. In an April 30th press release they state that
they "will do everything necessary to protect and manage their
chiefs' territories."
Tofino residents and businesspeople, Canadian environment groups
including the Wilderness Committee, Friends of Clayoquot Sound,
Sierra Club of Western Canada and Greenpeace, U.S. based
environment groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council
and Audubon Society and European environmentalists are all
fighting hard to reverse the government's clearcut Clayoquot Sound
decision.
To support the Wilderness Committee's Clayoquot Campaign,
including our Clayoquot Witness Trail and Meares Island
boardwalk trail projects, our Sutton Pass information kiosk,
our newspaper and poster publications, and slide-show trips
through Vancouver Island, the U.S., eastern Canada and
Europe, please contact: Western Canada Wilderness Committee
20 Water Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6B 1A4, Canada. Tel:(604)
683-8220. Fax:(604) 683-8229. Attention: Adriane Carr,
Clayoquot Campaign Co-ordinator.
OFFICIAL
SAVE CLAYOQUOT SOUND PETITION
To the House of Commons in Parliament Assembled, WE THE
UNDERSIGNED
CITIZENS,
availing ourselves of our ancient and inalienable right of
petition, in the certainty that your Honourable House will provide
a remedy, DO HUMBLY SHEWETH:
WHEREAS the Clayoquot Sound region surrounding Tofino, British
Columbia, midway on the west coast, open Pacific Ocean side of
Vancouver Island has five pristine, never-logged watersheds each
over 5,000 hectares in size, which comprise the largest
unfragmented, low- elevation, big-treed, wild, old growth
temperate rainforest left on Earth;
WHEREAS more than 75 percent of this 262,000 hectare region is
untouched by modern industrial activities and is believed to be
large enough, if left in its wild state, to conserve the
incredible complex natural biodiversity including the Roosevelt
elk, cougar and Vancouver Island wolf and other large mammals
which use this area as their home.
WHEREAS this region is Nuu-Chah-Nulth (NTC) traditional territory,
occupied by three NTC First Nations, the Hesquiat, Ahousaht, and
Tla-o-qui-aht, who have never ceded the land through treaty.
Currently First Nations people comprise 43 percent of the
permanent residents of the Clayoquot Sound region and they are
experiencing more than 70 percent unemployment.
WHEREAS multinational forest companies, who have provincially
granted cutting rights, have already transformed over 20 percent
of Clayoquot forests into industrial plantations and a recent
decision by the B.C. government opened up more than 70% of the
remaining forest of commercial value in Clayoquot to clearcut
logging which would fragment the area, damage the remaining
pristine salmon spawning streams, destroy the area's ecological
integrity and world renowned beauty, and negatively affect both
the native and non-native residents living there.
THEREFORE, WE THE UNDERSIGNED, ask the Prime Minister of Canada to
write to the Premier of British Columbia and request that the
three governments--Federal, Provincial and First Nations--enter
into negotiations regarding the termination of industrial logging
rights in Clayoquot Sound and the establishment of a protected
status for Clayoquot Sound such as a Federally gazetted Tribal
Park which would keep the area in its natural state until the
Nuu-Chah- Nulth "land claims" are justly settled through
negotiation and would provide for protection of the ancient forest
with all its biodiversity and establish co-management of the area
with the First Nations who hold aboriginal title and rights to the
land and sea.
And as in duty bound we, your petitioners, will ever pray.
Name (please print) Address (please include postal code)
Signature
Please return completed petitions to Western Canada Wilderness
Committee (WCWC), 20 Water St., Vancouver, BC V6B 1A4, Canada