The grizzly bears of Glendale Cove are the stars that draw international visitors to Knight Inlet Lodge. They are also the catalyst for one of the more than 100 successful First Nations businesses launched with the help of Coast Funds, an Indigenous-led conservation finance organization created through the 2006 Great Bear Rainforest agreements.

“It is 100 per cent First Nations owned and it opened up our eyes to opportunities beyond resource extraction and shone a light on the opportunities and benefits of ecotourism,” Dallas Smith, president of Nanwakolas Council and Knight Inlet Lodge, told The Narwhal.

The former fishing lodge was bought two years ago from Dean and Kathy Wyatt by Nanwakolas — representing the Da’naxda’xw Awaetlala, Mamalilikulla, Tlowitsis, Wei Wai Kum and K’omoks First Nations — with a $6-million investment from Coast Funds, which allocates funds across the Indigenous communities of the Great Bear Rainforest and Haida Gwaii.

“It was a fair chunk of change and one of the great things is it has shown First Nations can work together in ecotourism opportunities when we pool our assets and those of Coast Funds,” Smith said.

The success of the ecolodge can be measured in occupancy rates of 90 to 95 per cent, with the majority of visitors coming from markets such as Europe and Australia.

The Great Bear Rainforest covers 6.4 million hectares on British Columbia’s north and central coast — equivalent in size to Ireland. The land is home to 26 First Nations. The 2006 agreements outlined forest practices for the area, including protecting 70 per cent of old-growth forest.

Map: Coast Funds

Coast Funds was established with funding that came through First Nations’ reconciliation agreements with B.C. and Canada, in combination with funding raised through private donations.

In addition to financial help, Coast Funds has provided help with business management and scientific training so community members can learn more about the bears and other wildlife populations.

Knight Inlet Lodge now offers 13 wildlife viewing opportunities with seven bear viewing stands, an array of small boats that take visitors up spawning channels for a closer look at the bears and 52 wildlife cameras — down from 57 as five were destroyed by wolves or bears.

As much effort is put into bear monitoring and gaining a better understanding of bear life cycles, diet and migration routes as is put into offering a good experience for customers, Smith said.

“We make sure that we are not having an impact on bear health and there are not too many boats crowding into the same inlet. You are not even allowed to sneak a cookie into the boat,” Smith said.

Four Guardian Watchmen have been trained for Knight Inlet, with another three in training, and the monitoring program is a model for managing the surrounding territories. Indigenous-led guardian programs empower communities to manage ancestral lands according to traditional laws and values.

Guardian Watchmen are the eyes and ears on the lands and waters of the Great Bear Rainforest. Pictured here are members of the Coastal Stewardship Network — one of the first projects for which Coast Funds’ board approved funding. Photo: Alishia Boulette

Knight Inlet is an example of the achievements of the conservation finance funds, which promote community well-being and Indigenous-led sustainable development and stewardship, Brodie Guy, Coast Funds executive director, told The Narwhal.

Over the last decade, more than 1,000 permanent jobs have been created, 100 businesses have been developed or expanded and 14 regional monitoring and Guardian Watchmen programs, operating across 2.5 million hectares, have been created or expanded, according to a Coast Funds report released this week.

Funding approved for 353 projects has attracted more than $286 million in new investment to the region between 2008 and 2018 and every dollar spent by Coast Funds leverages three or four dollars, according to the report.

“We are demonstrating that conservation finance, led by Indigenous people, is the key to protecting the world’s most precious ecosystems, such as the Great Bear Rainforest and Haida Gwaii,” Guy said.

One key is that funding is allocated across the communities, rather than one big pot, so it avoids the gold rush mentality or competition between First Nations, Guy told The Narwhal.

“It’s completely up to the nation based on their vision for moving forward and their stewardship of the land and water in this period of — hopefully — decolonization,” he said.

Spirit Bear Lodge in Klemtu sponsors the Súa youth cultural program to support cultural reconnection with Kitasoo/Xai’xais traditions. The lodge is owned-and-operated by the Kitasoo/Xai’xais Nation and employs 10 per cent of the local population. Photo: Súa youth cultural program

Fisheries technicians from Lax Kw’alaams Fisheries Stewardship program hold up a red rock crab while conducting Dungeness biosampling as part of surveys occurring year-round in Stumaun Bay and Big Bay. First Nations have conducted 222 species research and habitat restoration initiatives with support from Coast Funds. Photo: Lax Kw’alaams fisheries stewardship program.

Initiatives include more than 220 species research and habitat restoration programs, 71 projects involving access to traditional foods and 50 protecting cultural assets.

The larger projects range from a renovated grocery store in remote Rivers Inlet to a unique sustainable scallop project and, so far, of the more than 100 businesses started or expanded, only four have failed, Guy said.

Most are community owned and the low failure rate demonstrates the strategic, strong and smart leadership of First Nations applying for projects, he said.

“We are moving away from a totally extractive economy with publicly traded companies coming into the Great Bear Rainforest and Haida Gwaii and extracting value and leaving little value there,” Guy said, underlining that a new way of doing business has taken root.

“We are shifting from an extractive and exploitative model of development to one that has benefits for everyone. It’s not just Indigenous people that are benefitting. It’s everyone of the Central Coast,” he said.

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The federal government has committed $25 million over five years to funding Indigenous guardian programs.

The news, announced on Wednesday in the federal budget, marks the first time the government has ever financially supported the community-run programs, which work to monitor ancestral territories, enforce Indigenous laws, conduct scientific research and increase cultural knowledge. There are currently about 30 existing Indigenous Guardians programs across Canada.

However, the $25 million commitment represents only five per cent of what was requested by the Indigenous Leadership Initiative, which has been leading the charge to attain federal funding for 1,600 guardians and associated costs.

“This budget commitment acknowledges the leadership of Indigenous Peoples in determining the future of our lands,”said Ovide Mercredi, a senior advisor with the Indigenous Leadership Initiative.

While the investment will not enable new guardian programs to be established immediately, the seed funding will help develop a national network and prepare indigenous nations and communities to launch their own indigenous guardians programs, according to a press release from the Indigenous Leadership Initiative.

“Indigenous Guardians programs strengthen our communities,” said Valérie Courtois, the director of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative. “They create jobs, lower crime rates and improve public health. But most importantly, they inspire our young people. They connect them to the land and their elders. They give them professional training tied to their language and culture. That offers hope that can combat the despair so many Indigenous youth feel today.”

A recent study of Indigenous Guardians programs in the Northwest Territories found that every dollar invested in the programs generated $2.50 in social, economic and environmental value. Sustained federal funding would increase the value to $3.70.

“A critical driver behind Indigenous communities having authority to manage lands and waters is having active and fulsome on-the-ground programs such as Indigenous guardians: really having the boots on the ground, the eyes and ears there to monitor and protect and manage their lands and territories,” says Claire Hutton, community conservation and leadership advisor at TNC Canada, an affiliate of The Nature Conservancy

Provincial and Federal Enforcement Lacking in Many Regions

Douglas Neasloss, chief councillor of the Kitasoo/Xaixais Nation on British Columbia’s Central Coast, recalls conditions in his nation’s territory some two decades.

“We saw so many illegal activities,” he says. “Everything from illegal poaching of abalone — which was our food that was wiped out almost 20 years ago — to illegal forestry, to a lot of different types of illegal fisheries, to illegal hunting.”

Yet Neasloss says they would only see BC Parks once or twice in a “good year,” and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans even less than that. The Great Bear Rainforest spans over 100,000 square kilometres — with his nation’s ancestral territory making up some 5,000 square kilometres of that — which means that vast areas were effectively unmonitored.

That’s where the idea of the “guardian watchmen” came in, following the lead of the Innu in Labrador, which first established a program in the early 1990s.

In 2005, the Coastal Guardian Watchmen Network was created. There are now watchmen programs in eight coastal communities — including Old Massett (Haida), Bella Bella (Heiltsuk) and Hartley Bay (Gitga’at) — and over 20 more across Canada. And many more communities want to establish programs: Hutton says there were 30 communities at the recent national gathering organized by Indigenous Leadership Initiative, with upward of 200 communities that have expressed interest.

“The appetite and conversation around it feels very alive right now in communities,” Hutton says. “There’s a lot of interest.”

#Indigenous Guardian Program Awarded First Ever Federal Funding https://t.co/IID2xyeElb #Budget2017 #bcpoli #onpoli #cdnpoli #FirstNations pic.twitter.com/8hS1p8nkBp

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) March 22, 2017

Single Program Costs Over $200,000 For Six Guardians, Fuel and Equipment

In addition to monitoring for illegal activities, Indigenous guardians serve as ambassadors to visitors, welcoming them to the territory and teaching them about its history and laws.

Chantal Pronteau, who’s about to start her third season as a Guardian Watchman for Kitasoo/Xaixais Nation, says that exchanges with visitors are usually fairly friendly: “We’re going in there with respect and open minds to try to understand the person’s reason to be extracting our resources,” she says.

Pronteau is one of six full-time guardians for the First Nation, with a specific role of working alongside biologists conducting research within the territory and monitoring Mussel Inlet for illegal crabbing; her and a colleague spend two-and-a-half months every season stationed out at a cabin in the inlet.

Hutton stresses that every guardian program is as unique as every Indigenous community, but that there are common themes (TNC Canada is releasing a toolkit in June for communities to help share resources and practices about guardian programs).

One commonality is these programs all cost money. Neasloss says the guardian program run by the Kitasoo/Xaixais Nation costs $210,000 a year, including fuel, wages and equipment. The First Nation charges a “sustainability fee” — $10 per day, per person — for any commercial users in the territory, which supports the Guardian Watchmen program.

“It’s a small fraction of what we need,” he says. “I don’t think it’s fair for our community to spend that kind of money to go monitor commercial activity when it’s the province that gives out those permits. Essentially, they give out the permits and we’re there to babysit.”

Tensions Between Indigenous and Canadian Laws

That’s where federal funding is needed, helping to kickstart and maintain programs across the country.

But there’s a major problem that has yet to be resolved: the Canadian government still doesn’t recognize the Indigenous laws that guardian watchman attempt to enforce as legitimate. In addition, the federal government has approved a series of resource extraction projects in recent months that challenge Indigenous claims to nationhood, including the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline and Pacific Northwest LNG export terminal.

“There are very complex jurisdictional issues that tie certain activities to certain departments,” Hutton says.

Neasloss explains: “In the eyes of the nation, my community, we feel our watchmen do have the enforcement authority on behalf of our nation. Our nation never signed a treaty with Canada, we never surrendered it, we were never conquered in war, therefore we maintain it belongs to us. The feds and the province do not agree or support that at this point.”

However, he says that while he thinks it’s hard for the Crown to look at relinquishing any authority, the new funding represents a “step in the right direction.”

The budget says the ministers of Indigenous Affairs and Environment and Climate Change will “develop a proposal for the pilot” in the coming months.

Image: The Ahousaht Resource Stewardship Guardians leave the dock in Tofino, on Vancouver Island, for their daily patrols. The First Nation started its Guardian program in May 2016. © TNC Canada

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