Date of Award
Fall 2022
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Forestry and Environmental Studies
First Advisor
Wargo, John
Abstract
The Central Region Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations (NCN) are an alliance of five First Nations: the Ahousaht, the Tla-o-qui-aht, the Hesquiaht, the Toquaht, and the Ucluelet. Their traditional territories cover the central west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia (BC)—known as Clayoquot Sound. Industrial logging concessionaires had clearcut much of the ‘old-growth’ forests in Clayoquot. These were public lands, and multiple forest values important to multiple stakeholders had been reduced. In 1984, the NCN obtained a logging injunction for Meares Island in Clayoquot Sound. The NCN publicly protested for additional curbs on logging in their traditional territories. In the early 1990s, they were joined by large environmental organizations, like Greenpeace and the Rainforest Alliance. Major protests broke out, with highly visible logging road blockades, international boycotts, and public relations campaigns against BC forest products. First Nations and environmentalists were able to leverage the internationalized protests to bring the British Columbia government and logging companies into negotiations with them. Their goals were protection of ‘old-growth’ forests and increased bio-cultural sovereignty for the NCN. Important to this case study is that landmark court cases across BC and Canada had been strengthening First Nations’ property rights. Historic decisions ordered traditional territories be returned and reparations be paid. Treaties with First Nations began to be negotiated and signed, leading Canada to set up a formalized treaty process. In 1994, BC signed “a bridge to a treaty” with the Nuu-chah-nulth: the Interim Measures Agreement. It recognized the right of NCN elders (Hawiith) to “co-manage” land with the province. In 1995, the Clayoquot Sound Scientific Panel issued a set of Recommendations for ecosystem-based management and conservation of forests, which the BC Ministry of Forests mandated. Another outcome was the 1998 formation of a majority NCN-owned ‘conservation forestry’ firm: Iisaak Forest Resources Ltd. Iisaak took over the Tree Farm License (TFL) formerly controlled by MacMillan-Bloedel. It comprised a good portion of the Central Region NCN’s traditional territories. Iisaak’s practices were to combine traditional Nuu-chah-nulth resource management and governance and with modern forestry. Iisaak’s business plan featured relatively experimental sources of revenue, using newly commodified goods and ecosystem services. These were: Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood, non-timber forest products, carbon sequestration, and potentially ‘biodiversity credits’. The research here seeks to understand Iisaak’s role in environmental conservation and bio-cultural sovereignty for the NCN First Nations. It assesses and then analyzes key decisions, outcomes, and causal factors at Iisaak, from its launch in 1998 to 2008. First, a history of First Nations property rights in BC is given for context vital to this case study. The history includes traditional NCN systems of property rights and natural resource governance in Clayoquot Sound. Then Iisaak’s business model and planned revenue streams are explored. The influences of the multiple stakeholders involved with Iisaak are mapped. Then five of the most pivotal—the most diagnostic—critical junctures of decision-making at Iisaak are identified. These critical junctures are assessed to find the outcomes from the decisions. Finally, the research seeks causal explanations for the outcomes of these critical junctures. Path dependence theory is the analytical framework used. Multiple results were found to help understand and explain the decisions made at Iisaak. The results are marked by complexity and interdependence, and thus are not summarized here. One of the ways this case study can be viewed is as examining ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ aspects of the Nuu-chah-nulth’s work towards increasing bio-cultural sovereignty and the requisite conservation of the ecosystems on their traditional territories.
Recommended Citation
Agee, Cintra Cady, "The Resurgence of the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations in the Clayoquot Sound Bio-Cultural Landscape: A Case Study of Iisaak Forest Resources, Ltd." (2022). Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations. 737.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/gsas_dissertations/737
