Why a Conservation-Based Approach?

Building a Conservation-based Economy

Coastal First Nations are leading a strategic and forward-looking path to our future.

Working together, First Nations are branching out from an economy that relied for too long on the overexploitation of our natural resources.

We’re partnering with government, industry and other groups to develop non-traditional economic sectors such as:

• Renewable energy
• Carbon credits
• Eco-system based forestry management
• Ecotourism
• Non-timber forest products
• Shellfish aquaculture
• Commercial Shipping

The High Cost of Industrial Exploitation

Despite our protests, industrial activity depleted our Traditional Territories throughout much of the last century.

Pulp mills, sawmills, logging camps, canneries and mines turned profits for companies with little benefit to First Nations.

By the late 1990s, old growth forests and salmon populations were diminished. Our communities were suffering. Coastal ecosystems were in danger of being completely destroyed.

Time for a New Approach

Today Coastal First Nations are building a conservation-based economy for the North and Central Coast and Haida Gwaii that will:

• Provide meaningful work for community members
• Put decision-making in the hands of people who care deeply for the ecological health of the Great Bear region