Support the Heiltsuk First Nation & British Columbia's Rainforests
11/25/96
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 17:32:20 -0800 (PST)
From: Pacific Environment and Resources Center
Subject: Sign-ons needed for British Columbia's rainforests
November 25, 1996
Dear Friends of the Clayoquot Rainforest Coalition:
Attached is an open letter of support to the people of the Heiltsuk
First Nation. This letter has been crafted by Greenpeace,
Rainforest Action Network, and Pacific Environment and Resources
Center (PERC) with input from British Columbian NGOs. The
Heiltsuk's territory is in British Columbia's mid-coast temperate
rainforest - the largest contiguous, intact forest of this type in the
world. We are asking all of the organizations that have supported
the protection for Vancouver Island's Clayoquot Sound to show your
support for the Heiltsuk and sign-on to this letter. As always, a
prompt response (verbal or written) is greatly appreciated. We will
be sending the letter and list of co-signers to the Heiltsuk First
Nations on December 2, 1996.
Your support is imperative to the protection and preservation of the
heart of B.C.'s rainforests. National and international groups
raising
concerns with the proposed logging in Heiltsuk territory will have a
tremendous positive impact, just as it has with Clayoquot Sound.
All the best,
Laura McGourty, Pacific Environment and Resources Center
Steering Committee member, Clayoquot Rainforest Coalition
Send sign-on (via email) to: perccanada@igc.apc.org
*************December 2, 1996
To the people of the Heiltsuk First Nation,
We, the undersigned environmental and indigenous organizations,
send greetings to the the people of the Heiltsuk First Nation.
Many of our groups have worked and continue to work with First
Nations to support greater decision-making being transferred to
indigenous peoples, and have worked together to phase out
clearcutting and other destructive logging practices and protect
the health of forest ecosystems. We are writing to you now because
of concern over the temperate rainforests of your territory.
We recognize that you and your neighboring communities have for
thousands of years exercised wise stewardship over the rainforests
the forest-dependent animals and plants in your territories and the
fisheries. Correspondingly, we understand and welcome the fact that
the Heiltsuk people are involved in a process to gain greater
decision-making and control over what events transpire in your
territory.
Like the rainforests of the Amazon, the temperate rainforests are
of global significance and warrant international attention when
they are threatened. Sadly, much of the world's temperate
rainforests elsewhere have been destroyed. Today the largest
contiguous tracts of what remains of the world's temperate
rainforest lie on the central coast of B.C., some within your
territory.
We have recently learned of the plans proposed by Western Forest
Products to clearcut some of the remaining rainforest valleys, in
particular in the Mooto-Ingram-Pollalie-Ellerslie lakes region. We
were surprised and concerned to learn that, despite recent
advancements in forestry practices, the proposed plan involves
putting in large networks of roads and concentrates on clearcutting
as a logging method. With so much of the coastal rainforest already
clearcut, both within British Columbia and worldwide, we do not
believe that the remaining pristine valleys should be allowed to be
roaded or logged.
Western Forest Products, owned by Doman Industries, has played a
large part in the degradation of other rainforest areas in B.C.,
with one 1994 study showing that they violated B.C.'s Fish and
Forestry Guidelines in 80 per cent of the north coast areas
surveyed. There is no reason to expect that this logging operation
will be any different.
We believe that community-based and cultural uses are entirely
appropriate but that industrial logging is not appropriate in these
areas. We also question why governments would allow Western
Forest Products to clearcut some of the most valuable trees within
your territory before the Federal and Provincial governments have
fully responded to the Heiltsuk's land claim over their traditional
lands.
In areas which are already partially developed and where there is
not opposition to logging, this company and others should be held
to, at minimum, the standards of the Clayoquot Sound Scientific
Panel. This would allow for much smaller logging areas and fewer
roads, incorporate traditional environmental knowledge and require
cutblock-by-cutblock approval by a community panel. These
standards were developed as a way to log the very same kind of
forest that you have in your territory with less damaging impact on
the forests.
We urge you not to support the proposed logging plan for the
Mooto-Ingram region and will support your efforts to maintain the
integrity of your rainforests, fisheries and culture.
With respect,
International ENGOs