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Location: One hundred kilometres out from the northern British Columbia coast lie the Queen Charlotte Islands, an isolated archipelago of several hundred islands large and small, about a million hectares (4,000 square miles) in size, perched on the edge of the continental shelf. For over ten thousand years, this has been the home of the Haida, a sea-faring nation of matrilineal clans, practicing a complex ownership system over cultural and material properties. They call it Haida Gwaii--'islands of the people'.
Participating Organizations
The Gowgaia Institute was established in 1994 to promote sustainability in the Haida Gwaii bioregion. Our goal is to protect and sustain all of the values and functions of the islands’ forests, and to adjust the governing management principles, economic structures, rate of harvest, and system of protected natural areas accordingly. We approach that goal through programs of community networking, resource analysis, map-making, communication, and participation in forest planning processes.
Gowgaia works by supporting community dialogue, by providing innovative ecological and economic analysis, publishing information-rich maps, and by addressing islanders' questions that government can't or won't answer: How much old growth forest is left? How much longer will it last? How much has been logged? What was all that wood worth? What is the state of salmon spawning streams throughout the island? And so on. One outcome has been a clear increase in public demand and readiness for change.
The organizations collaborating with us on the project are the Tlell Watershed Society and the Islands Community Stability Initiative. We have built strong, productive relationships with both over the past several years, and are pleased with the collaborative approach on this project.
The Tlell Watershed Society (TWS) is a grassroots environmental organization of mostly long time island residents who are dedicated to long term conservation of the Tlell River. They stand for no logging in the watershed until a comprehensive, community supported plan is prepared, based on adequate ecological information and sustainable management principles. TWS ahs undertaken studies of: forest habitat capability and suitability for the northern goshawk and marbled murrelet; a reconnaissance level fish and salmon habitat inventory; an independent hydrological assessment of the watershed; and various ecosystem monitoring projects.
The Islands Community Stability Initiative (ICSI) is a grassroots community organization, representing every elected regional, municipal and band council on the islands. Its mission is 'to express the collective will of the Islands people, to address social, economic and environmental issues resulting from resource extraction, and to participate in designing a future that will support a healthy environment and create a self-sustaining Islands economy.' ICSI established the Islands Forest Council (IFC) in late 1998, with a mandate to provide technical support for community involvement in ecosystem-based forestry planning, including larger scale strategic land use plans, logging development plans, and determining a sustainable rate of cut.
Background
After a century of modern enterprise, 163,000 hectares or 630 square miles of old growth forest have been logged. A hundred million cubic metres of logs, worth eight billion dollars, has been shipped away to southern mills, leaving behind not much more than loggers' wages and degraded ecosystems. If the trees were the size of telephone poles and laid end to end, they’d circle the planet 37 times--in the commodity market paradigm, the islands are deemed an exceptional 'fiber basket'.
A critical mass of the people who live here now understand that the industry and government's goal is to liquidate old growth forests (physically and financially), which is why trees are being logged more than twice as fast as they grow back. Local communities receive a tiny fraction of the fiscal benefit, inherit most of the environmental cost, and are left with a troubled, uncertain future. There is widespread concern for the well-being of the forests, the creatures that depend on them for habitat, and the economic prospects for our children.
Outcomes and Follow-up
In January 1999, the Gowgaia Institute launched the Tlell Legacy Project with the support and participation of people from government agencies, residents of the island's small rural communities, and local organization. Through the Legacy Project, we have engaged in a government-sponsored planning process for the Tlell River watershed, and have raised awareness of ecosystem-based planning to the point where it is becoming the supported norm by participants and local communities.
In Spring 2001, the Tlell Legacy project is scheduled to be completed. It will include a book, video, maps and web site. The government-sponsored Local Resource Use Plan is also scheduled to be completed by March 2001. Hopefully the two plans will have a lot in common. For further information on the Tlell Legacy Project, inquiries may be directed to Ms. Leslie Johnson, Executive Director of the Gowgaia Institute, P.O. Box 638, Queen Charlotte, British Columbia, V0T 1S0, Canada.
Successes
Perhaps the greatest success of the project has been the heightened awareness and understanding of the concepts of ecosystem-based planning. This process has helped pave the way for informed participation in the Timber Supply Review. People will be advocating area-based planning over a much larger landscape than just the Tlell instead of volume-driven Annual Allowable Cut calculations aimed at supplying the excess capacity of the mills down south.
Another success has been making other forest values besides timber visible and understandable. Choices are becoming much clearer. We were able to move the planning exercise away from abstract objectives to putting lines on maps and doing a spatial planning exercise. In the end, when it comes to implementing the plan, it will be much clearer to follow and open to less interpretation.
Lastly, community groups have formed a strong coalition advocating for changes in the way the forest service does business. They are actively engaged in comprehensive planning for the Tlell watershed and are looking to other areas to apply these principles.
Challenges
Our biggest obstacle has been working with the Forest Service. Whether it has been great time delays, staff turnovers and shortages, or bargaining in bad faith it has all made for a difficult process. The Forest Service is also big on controlling the process as well as every group in it. They do not want any other groups working independently on Tlell planning. We have been very honest with them, providing all our maps and analysis to the table, but we have also been very clear that we intend to complete our plan--with or without them.
Lessons Learned
We learned that we can do this work ourselves and adapt it to our own needs and circumstances. We had thought that we needed outside help from Silva Ecosystem Consultants, but we seem to be managing on our own. The longer time frame of the LRUP process has had the advantage of seeing numerous studies and inventories completed that have made our work richer. The up-coming decisions that must be made to complete the ecosystem-based plan will be based on solid information understood and supported by everyone.
There is great value in having a plan developed and produced locally, by and with local people. Too often in small rural areas outside experts are brought in, they consult, go away, and then come back with a plan. The plan often as not sits on a shelf because local people don't have ownership of it, aren't able to keep it current, or at worst, don't fully understand it. If it's produced locally, there will be a pride in the product, it will be relevant, understood and fought for.
Gowgaia Institute Society
Queen Charlotte, British Columbia, Canada
http://www.spruceroots.org/Gowgaia.html
For more information about this grant, please contact the CEC Secretariat.
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