Skógræktarritið - 15.05.2001, Page 114

Columbia has been a supplier of
iumber, pulp and paper, minerals
and coal, oil and gas and fish -
essentially a Staples economy.
The book Our Common Future
(World Commission on Environ-
ment and Development 1987)
raised the concept of sustainable
development and led to a wide-
spread societal re-examination of
whether we were living sustain-
ably. Compounding the problem
of a rapidly growing global popu-
lation, were the challenges of
technological change, globalised
trade, cross-border investment
and trade protection. All of these
were occurring at a time of in-
creasing resource management
knowledge, changing social val-
ues and a slowly evolving political
position to supporting the con-
cept of sustainable development.
With these and other issues,
such as unsettled native land
claims, British Columbia saw an
increase in both the scale and
scope of resource-based conflict,
with a ‘war in the woods'
declared, in which the forestry
sector found itself at odds with a
number of First Nations, environ-
mental and other organisations.
The Peel Commission and
a new approach
Growing public concern over the
state of forests, the concentra-
tion of harvesting rights and pro-
cessing facilities in the hands of
the major forest companies and
a move by the government in
1989 to convert Forest Licenses
(volume-based tenures) into Tree
Farm Licenses (area-based
tenures) led to a strong public
backlash. As a result, the govern-
ment established the Forest
Resource Commission in 1989,
also known as the Peel Com-
mission, which was intended to
be permanent, but only lasted for
three years (Mitchell-Banks
1999).
The Peel Commission man-
aged to address a number of poi-
icy and legislation issues, and
recommended a number of
actions, including: integrated
land management forall users;
an increased level of co-ordinat-
ed land use planning; the need
for public participation and local
input in joint management deci-
sions; and wilderness (Peel
1991). The Land and Resource
Management Plan and Protected
Areas Strategy can be attributed
to recommendations stemming
from this commission.
Land and Resource
Management Plans
Across the province, an ongoing
series of LRMPs is being under-
taken. The LRMP boundaries
have been set to coincide with
those of the forest districts - and
are therefore administrative and
not necessarily determined by
physical or biogeographic fea-
tures. The intent of the LRMPs is
to determine land-use, incorpo-
rating the participation of a num-
ber of representative stakehold-
ers such as forestry, mining, agri-
culture, oil and gas, tourism, the
business sector, iabour, local
government, environmental and
other special interest groups as
well as First Nations govern-
ments (Land Use Coordination
Office 2000a). The provincial gov-
ernment then reviews and either
completely accepts the submit-
ted version or agrees to an
amended plan.
Protected Areas Strategy
British Columbia chose a 12%
target (total landbase) to estab-
lish protected areas, the figure
driven by the World Commission
on Environment and
Development's (also known as
the Brundtland Commission)
choice of this level of protection.
Protected areas are made up of
land and freshwater or marine
areas that are set aside to pro-
tect the province's diverse natur-
al, cultural heritage and recre-
ational values. Protected areas
are unalienable; the land and
resources may not be sold. They
are also areas in which no indus-
trial extraction or development is
permitted. No mining, logging,
hydro dams, or oil and gas devel-
opment will occur within protect-
ed areas (Land Use Coordination
Office 1998).
The November 2000 approval
of the Mackenzie LRMP led to
the 12% target being exceeded
(Land Use Coordination Office
2000b), and there are a number
of LRMPs underway or yet to be
started.
The Muskwa-Kechika
Management Area
The M-KMA can be considered a
'child' of three LRMPs: Fort
Nelson LRMP covering 9.8 mil-
lion ha (October 1997); Fort St.
iohn LRMP covering 4.6 million
ha (October 1997); and the
Mackenzie LRMP covering 6.4
million ha (November 2000).
Each of these three LRMP
processes essentially carved
areas of special significance that
were in turn amalgamated to cre-
ate the M-KMA (Land Use
Coordination Office 1997a,
1997b, 2000c).
The 6.3 million ha Muskwa-
Kechika Management Area is
unique within Canada and
indeed the world. it is an area of
incredible beauty that has been
inhabited by First Nations for
millennia and has been the
home, workplace and recreation-
al area for local residents and
international visitors for over a
century. The M-KMA is one of the
few remaining large, intact and
almost unroaded wilderness
areas south of the 60th parallel. It
supports a diverse number of
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SKÓGRÆKTARRITIÐ 2001 l.tbl.