Connection to the land and ocean has guided the Ahousaht people throughout their history and that bond is now at the root of a new sustainable economic development plan for the First Nation whose territory spans the heart of the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

Under the first phase of the plan, announced Thursday, there will be no mining or industrial logging in Ahousaht traditional territory and about 80 per cent of almost 171,000 hectares will be set aside as cultural and natural areas “to conserve biological diversity, natural landscapes and wilderness and to provide to Ahousaht continued spiritual, cultural and sustenance use.”

During recent years there has been controversy in Ahousaht territory over a proposed open pit copper mine on Catface Mountain on Flores Island and over old-growth logging, which was halted after Ahousaht hereditary chiefs declared a moratorium in 2015.

Another source of dissention has been salmon farms, which have operated in the area for several decades and employ Ahousaht members, and there will be community discussions before any decision is made on their future, hereditary Chief Maquinna Lewis George said at the announcement in Tofino.

The plan says no uses will be allowed that undermine community food fish resources.

“The economic sustainability of our community must be underpinned by sustainable marine and land use planning and that is where we are starting today,” Maquinna said.

The land use vision is the culmination of two years of community work led by the Maaqutusiis Hahoutlhee Stewardship Society, which represents the Ahousaht hereditary chiefs, with technical support from The Nature Conservancy, which has committed to raise a stewardship endowment fund to help implement the land use vision.

“This is the largest leap forward in old-growth forest conservation in over two decades on Vancouver Island,” Ken Wu, executive director of Ancient Forest Alliance, told DeSmog Canada.

The Ahousaht First Nation has more old-growth forests in their traditional territory — both in terms of percentage and in terms of remaining hectares — than any First Nation band on B.C.’s southern coast, he said.

“Their plan raises the bar for conservation across Vancouver Island…where only about 20 per cent of the remaining old-growth forests still stand.” 

Nature Conservancy executive director Hadley Archer said the plan is “a blueprint for a sustainable future rooted in sacred cultural values and protective of a globally significant ecosystem.”

This #FirstNation Just Banned Industrial Logging and Mining from #VancouverIsland Territory https://t.co/kQO0KVOPpS #bcpoli #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/w0EoyWC0X6

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) January 28, 2017

Ahousaht, which has about 2,000 members with one-third living on reserve, also received a financial boost last summer when Premier Christy Clark announced $1.25 million in economic development funds for the community over the next five years.

Hereditary Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo said the vision of a more diversified, sustainable local economy, with development of tourism opportunities and community forestry reaffirms traditional teachings that the Ahousaht people are inextricably linked to the natural world.

“This bold vision brings certainty to the future of old-growth forests and ensures functioning marine and aquatic ecosystems into the next millennia. It is a proud day to be Ahousaht,” he said.

The plan divides the territory into seven land use management areas that are designed to protect Ahousaht cultural and heritage resources, maintain and enhance the Ahousaht way of life, protect and maintain biological diversity and natural environments and provide community development opportunities.

Possible activities in the different zones include community infrastructure construction, light industrial development, run-of-river hydro-electric development, tourism and hospitality development, silviculture, food and community timber harvesting.

The plan is being applauded by environmental groups who praised Ahousaht leaders for taking a principled stand to protect their territory.

The land use visions “steps up to meet the environmental and social imperatives of the 21st century with solutions for rainforest conservation and community benefits within their famous territory, located in one of the most beautiful and ecologically rich landscapes in the world,” said Valerie Langer of Stand.earth.

Nuu-chah-nulth political scientist Eli Enns, North American regional coordinator for the Indigenous Peoples and Community Conserved Territories and Areas Consortium, said the agreement is part of a pattern of hereditary chiefs working for sustainable use of their territories.

The Ahousaht people always managed their territory in a sustainable fashion, but, in recent decades the community faced the frustration of seeing the decline of the fisheries and forestry sectors because of reckless decisions made by the provincial government, Enns said.

There was also the irritation of being left out of the booming tourism industry in other parts of Clayoquot Sound, such as Tofino, he said.

“A lot of the emotion of the last 15 to 20 years has been because of trying to transition, but also it has been a call for support,” Enns said, pointing out that many community members continue to struggle with the fallout from residential schools.

“I think the most important story here is resilience. People still know who they are and they still have their values,” he said.

Image: Old-growth forest in the Sydney Valley that will be protected within the Ahousaht Land Use Plan. Photo: TJ Watt via the Ancient Forest Alliance

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A new salmon farm in Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island was dismantled and hauled away this week after being occupied by members of Ahousaht First Nations and local supporters from Tofino.

“This is the very first salmon farm that’s pulled out of B.C. because of protesters,” said Alexandra Morton, an independent salmon research scientist who has documented the devastating impacts of salmon farms on wild salmon and other marine species. Morton was part of the two-week occupation.

Lennie John, an Ahousaht man, was the first to tie his boat to the floating fish pens in the long narrow channel near the eastern shore of Flores Island with its intact ancient cedar rainforest and many creeks supporting runs of wild salmon. This is also home of the Ahousaht First Nations. Cermaq, a Norwegian-based salmon farming company (recently purchased by the Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi) was granted permits this summer to install its 16th farm in Clayoquot Sound.

“We blocked Cermaq’s access and told them they were trespassing,” John, an Ahousaht tourism business owner, said.

“You wouldn’t want someone to come into your house and make a mess,” John told more than 100 people attending a Clayoquot Action event, called “Take a Stand for Wild Salmon,” in Tofino on Wednesday. Clayoquot Action is a local environmental organization.

John was soon joined by others who literally camped on the steel catwalks that frame large salmon net pens that can hold up to a million Atlantic salmon at a time when fully stocked. The group spent two weeks camped on the open water despite the very windy and wet weather the region is known for.

Occupation of Cermaq fish pen. Photo: Alexandra Morton.

“I’m tired of being told to keep quiet. A handful of warriors stopped this. Imagine what a Nation could do?” John said.

“We want to get rid of all the fish farms on our territory,” John Rampanen, a member of the Ahousaht First Nation, told DeSmog Canada. There have been serious declines in shellfish, salmon and herring since salmon farms appeared in the nation’s traditional territory around 1999.

According to Cermaq’s website there is an agreement with three chiefs of the Ahousaht First Nation that covers issues such as financial and social benefits and employment. However the nation’s traditional and elected leadership ended up supporting the occupiers, Rampanen said.

Salmon are the life-force that powers the ecology and economy of British Columbia, Morton said.

“We’d be fools beyond forgiveness if we cut this off for future generations,” she told the crowd at the Clayoquot Action event in Tofino.

Morton, among others, has published scientific reports and papers documenting the impacts of salmon aquaculture on B.C.’s wild Pacific salmon, which are in sharp decline almost everywhere farms are located.

With up to a million salmon jammed into small open-ocean enclosures, disease and parasites like sea lice are common, requiring chemical insecticides and antibiotics to keep the fish from dying. As young wild salmon pass underneath the pens they are showered by sea lice. A single louse can kill a young fish according to Morton’s studies.

Underwater ‘sound canons’ are used to keep seals away from the net pens but also drive away orcas and other whales because of the sound pollution, Morton added. Three or more kilograms of wild fish are required as feed to produce one kilo of salmon. The ocean bottoms under and around the open-ocean net pens are usually devoid of any life, buried under the excrement of up to a million salmon overhead.

Aquaculture is big business in B.C. with about 750 aquaculture operations producing salmon, other finfish and shellfish. The total harvested value was nearly $534 million in 2010, according to government statistics.

Last May a petition with more than 106,000 signatures called on B.C. Premier Christy Clark to place a moratorium on new farms. In July, Clark approved four new farms including the one near Flores Island. 

“Nothing has ever stopped these farms. Not science, lawsuits, protests or petitions. Now the blockade has stopped one. You have to put your body on the line,” Morton told DeSmog.

“We know salmon farming in the ocean is wrong. We have to do something,” Joe James Rampanen, another occupier, said.

There is widespread support for the occupiers within the Ahousaht First Nation and other communities. That support included those who have family working for Cermaq and other operators.

“They feel ashamed they’re involved but what choice do they have?” Rampanen told DeSmog.

The aquaculture industry could modify its practice of operating in pristine regions where wild salmon thrive. Rampanen said companies could raise their fish on dry land like the freshwater fish aquaculture industry does.

Image: Cermaq

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