Stronger commitment needed for a long-term “new relationship”
READ THE FULL REPORT HERE.
VANCOUVER–BC should turn half of the roughly $1 billion it collects annually in stumpage fees from forest companies back to First Nations. A new report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says such a move would be an important step towards a lasting “new relationship” with Indigenous Peoples.
The report takes a detailed look at nearly 130 forestry accords brokered by the province with First Nations in recent years. Although the government has made a concerted effort to share a portion of revenues and forest resources, the report finds that the agreements are far from equitable. The current situation leaves First Nations with few dollars and minimal access to timber with which to diversify their economies and alleviate poverty and unemployment in their communities.
The accords were prompted by a mounting number of court decisions that forced the province to seek “workable” arrangements with First Nations, whose traditional lands are being rapidly altered by industrial logging while the treaty process crawls forward.
“On average in the past decade, BC collected $1 billion per year in stumpage fees from forest companies logging public lands claimed by First Nations,” says Ben Parfitt, resource policy analystw with the CCPA and author of True Partners: Charting a New Deal for BC, First Nations and the Forests We Share. “Yet the money flowing back to First Nations from these accords is just $35 million per year – 3.5% of the stumpage revenue stream. That certainly isn’t enough to bring
much-needed economic development to more than 100 First Nations.”
The report finds that a longer-term commitment is needed. Timber-cutting rights set out in the accords run for only five years – far too short a time to attract serious investments and build viable enterprises.
The report also critiques how cash and timber-cutting rights have been allocated. “Offers of cash and timber are based on head counts. The more ‘members’ a First Nation has on federal Indian Band lists, the more cash and timber they get,” Parfitt says. “This automatically penalizes First Nations with small populations. It also fails to consider on-the-ground realities. First Nations whose forests are relatively intact get treated exactly the same as First Nations whose forests are being liquidated.”
Parfitt recommends that the province:
- Share half of all stumpage dollars with First Nations, with each nation compensated based on the value and volume of trees coming off of their lands;
- Turn defined areas of forestland over to long-term management by First Nations;
- Recognize First Nations as equal co-managers in land-use planning; and
- Give some further stumpage revenues to Interior First Nations and communities in anticipation of a mountain pine beetle-related collapse in future logging rates.
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