Central Coast Update: Land & Resource Management Plan

December 1997 - January 1998

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

by Howard Breen

"Discomfort is a sign of change. Every so often I feel as birds must before their first migration-a gut instinct that something is wrong where they are, a strong sense that they must now go where they have never been before."
-- Andrew Goldsworthy

While the Slocan Valley in the BC interior continues to be the environmental hot spot in the province this fall, dark storm clouds are building over the Central Coast, where a Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP) will determine the fate of a vast undeveloped area of the coastline. Already this process has seen an unprecedented boycott by terrestrial environmental groups. The remaining marine-focused groups are still weighing their options.

The enormous Plan area, equal to the area of Vancouver Island, has a 'marine planning' component which is driven by the BC Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food's eagerness to create a new cash cow through the expansion of fish farming.

But the CC LRMP remains mired in jurisdictional wrangling, with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans contending that the federal government should be the lead agency in a Coastal Zone Management (CZM) process. Unfortunately, coming from the most anti-environment federal government we've had in twenty years, this offers us no assurances of a better outcome.

Central Coast of British Columbia (Vancouver Island at bottom), showing the regional division of Northern and Southern Plan Areas according to the LRMP.

Heiltsuk First Nation representatives have decried the false democracy of the LRMP process. They successfully argued that the "Community Forums" drop the noun "Community" as this is really an interest group process and does not represent the majority of the region's First Nations residents.

First Nations continue to be wooed by industry and government to cooperate in joint venture agreements. Yet government and corporados (plus pro-development north Vancouver Island Mayors) are in fact highly selective in their support for First Nation interests.

While giving lip service to Native self government, the last Plan meeting revealed that pro-development interests do not support tenure reform or respect First Nations' consensus for retaining the provincial moratorium on fish farm expansion.

Early in the new year the provincial government should announce its new provincial fish farm policy (resulting from the Salmon Aquaculture Review). This will have implications for the Central Coast and the continued participation of marine environmentalists at the LRMP table.

Take heart and stay tuned, Central Coast watchers. With solidarity, the CC LRMP may be more than just another long good-bye to the wilderness.

 

Future Central Coast LRMP Meetings Plan Area Forums are planned for January 16-18 in either Port Hardy or Vancouver. North Area and South Area meetings are scheduled for Bella Coola on Dec 11-12 and Port McNeill on Dec 8-9 and for the same locations during the weeks of Feb 16-22 and March 23-29. A Marine Sub-committee meeting on or about February 20 is a possibility, location to be determined. Observers may attend Forum meetings and those who consider that their interest is not represented adequately by the Forum members may arrange to make brief presentations by contacting the process coordinator in advance of the meeting. More Information can be obtained directly from Scott Benton, process coordinator. Ph: 250/751-3237 Fax: 250/751-3103 <sbenton@ nanaimo.env.gov.bc.ca> Paul Chaplow of Northern Lights Expeditions is representing marine tourism. He can be reached at <chaps@seakayaking.com> Garry Ullstrom is another good contact: <ullstrom@north.island.net> For information and input on outdoor recreation aspects and issues contact: · Don Griffiths. Ph/fax: 604/228-1450 <donansol@unixg.ubc.ca> · Ray Pillman. Ph/fax: 604/926-0077 <raypillman@bc.sympatico.ca>

Howard Breen is a Campaigner with the Georgia Strait Alliance.