NATIONAL ABORIGINAL FORESTRY ASSOCIATION

Strategy: Forest Land and Resources for Aboriginal Peoples

An intervention submitted to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples by the National Aboriginal Forestry Association

Ottawa, Ontario

Part 1

Introduction

The Issue

The quest of Aboriginal peoples for an adequate land base to support the pillars of viable self-governing communities - economic self-sufficiency, traditional lifestyle potential, and spiritual fulfilment - underlies the demand for the just settlement of land claims, the recognition of aboriginal and treaty rights and measures to address the Federal Crown's fiduciary obligations. With the exception of agreements reached or under negotiation in northern Quebec, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon, most Aboriginal communities remain frustrated in their efforts to regain productive use of lands and waters beyond the boundaries of those lands set aside for them as reserves or communities; nor, for the most part, have they succeeded in gaining a meaningful influence on decisions affecting the management of lands and waters in the vicinity of their reserves, on territories they have used for generations. For the majority of Aboriginal communities within Canada, the recognition of an inherent right of self-government will, by itself, fail to meet aspirations to break the demeaning dependency on governmental welfare programs and their constraints on self-determination. Improved access to land and resources will be essential.

The economic history of Canada has been the story of natural resource exploitation. Beginning slowly with agricultural settlement, the fur trade, lumbering and mining, the pace has increased as new technologies have allowed ever larger hydroelectric developments and the exploitation of more tree species and lower quality ore bodies. As industry has moved inexorably into the hinterlands, more and more of the traditional lands of Aboriginal peoples have been alienated from them. Not only have traditional lifestyles been shattered, but the possibilities of participating in Canada's economic growth have diminished. The original fur trade has suffered from destruction of wildlife habitat and changing consumer preferences. Decision-making on forest management has been driven by economic interests of industry. Governmental regulations requiring the ownership of sawmills or pulp mills as a prerequisite to obtaining timber licences has been another factor favouring the large industrial enterprise to the detriment of small scale Aboriginal enterprise. Technological advances and high capital costs in the forest sector have put the means of participating in the industry beyond reach for most Aboriginal communities, while at the same time reducing the demand for labour. Startup loan capital has often been denied because of the lack of a prior track record or the inability to find the necessary collateral. The remaining job categories require a substantial level of education and training, largely unavailable to most Aboriginal peoples.

Historically, forest management methods have not encouraged multiple use of resources; nor have they recognized the need to sustain the non-timber values of the forest. Finally, however, there appears to be a coming together of minds. Aboriginal communities have stood together confronting governments, enlisting public support and winning major court decisions supporting their rights. Concurrently, the industrialized world has awoken to the fact that its headlong rush of resource exploitation must be tempered and sustainable development practised if economies are to be maintained for future generations. An area of common interest is emerging.

The past has shown that lack of consultation between governments and Aboriginal people with rights to land and resources creates conflicts. Several provinces have begun to consult with Aboriginal communities on resource exploitation plans; and Aboriginal communities have begun to respond with concrete plans of their own, with or without government support. First Nations are providing plans for their traditional areas that identify their own practices and needs. In some cases governments have begun to listen and Aboriginal interests have begun to be incorporated in official plans. Where this has occurred, aboriginal access to resources in traditional territories has been maintained. In others, there is still a difficult road ahead. In this intervention the National Aboriginal Forestry Association (NAFA) will discuss provincial regimes for access to forest resources and describe some of the difficulties and some the most encouraging cooperative initiatives through which Aboriginal people have successfully maintained or achieved access to resources.

The Objective

The objective of this submission is to provide the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples with analyses and options to overcome the inaccessibility to land and resources. Access to forest land resources could be achievable in several forms ranging through outright ownership, special long-term Aboriginal tenures, resource harvesting leases under existing provincial tenure systems, cooperative or joint management agreements, and decision-making or advisory roles in resource management and environmental assessment processes on traditional-use territories. Not only should it be possible to increase the effective land base of many communities, but it should be possible to minimize the negative effects of industrial development on Aboriginal peoples' traditional use areas.

Access to Resources

The expression "access to natural resources" can have a range of meanings depending on the circumstances of the Aboriginal communities involved. In non-treaty areas of British Columbia, land claim settlements will mean outright ownership of land and resources. In treaty land entitlement areas of the prairies, it will mean the addition of land and resources to existing reserves or the creation of new reserves. NAFA's intervention will not deal with these two categories of access to resources off reserves. To Aboriginal people, off-reserve land is often referred to as traditional territories, to governments it is Crown land and to other Canadians it is land of public domain.

NAFA sees the required access to resources to include two components. First, there is a need to gain access to harvest resources such as timber. Second, there is a need to gain access to resource management decision-making so that resources will be managed on an integrated basis taking aboriginal cultural and traditional uses into account along with the interests of Canada's industrial society.

Sometimes a province may offer "consultations" to the Aboriginal communities neighbouring areas leased to a forest industry. This is the weakest form of access to resources, but it does allow Aboriginal communities to bring their traditional uses of wildlife harvesting, cultural and spiritual use to the attention of government and industry, and to argue for their protection in forest management and logging plans. Some provinces may take the consultation process a step further by establishing formal advisory committees with representation from Aboriginal communities, industry and government in the development and review of forest management plans. While the province reserves final decision making to itself, the advisory committee process provides more certainty that Aboriginal concerns will be recognized and taken into account in final plans of the industrial lessee.

In some situations, usually involving wildlife management, governments have gone a step further, establishing what are sometimes referred to as "joint management" or "co-management" agreements. While offering Aboriginal communities significantly more involvement in decision-making, these agreements should really be referred to "co-operative management" since final jurisdiction is jealously retained by government. Nevertheless, Aboriginal representation on a co-management board may constitute the majority; and a boards's recommendations may go directly to ministers rather than to departmental officials. A board of this nature may be delegated decision-making at the operational level, and a minister would require very strong arguments to overturn the recommendations of a board.

The ultimate in cooperation between a province and an Aboriginal community is the truly "joint management" venture agreement in which aboriginal organizations and the province sit as true partners in decision-making. This type of partnership is usually sanctioned by the province through a formal agreement and even legislation. This is the arrangement sought by many Aboriginal communities and the process recommended by the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba in 1988 when it recommended:

It would be preferable for Aboriginal people and their representative organizations to be a partner with federal and provincial government departments in the establishment of appropriate regulations and standards. Co-management of natural resources is the only suitable method . . . " (p. 188)

In the course of its study, NAFA has identified examples of each of these categories of Aboriginal peoples' access to resource management which we shall review for the Royal Commission in leading to our recommendations.

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