Tag Archives: Great Bear Rainforest

Parks, Politics

Conservative candidate targets Great Bear Sea marine protection plan

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Northern Vancouver Island Federal Conservative Party candidate Aaron Gunn wants to sink plans for a network of Indigenous-led marine protected areas on the West Coast.

A month before announcing his bid in September 2023 to become the North Island-Powell River candidate, the right-wing social media personality from Victoria released a YouTube video taking aim at the B.C. Northern Shelf Marine Protected Area (MPA) Network, better known as the Great Bear Sea MPA Network. 

Continue reading Conservative candidate targets Great Bear Sea marine protection plan →
Rivers & Oceans

Janie Wray: Listening to Whales

Over 100 people came to the Quadra Community Centre on December 7, to learn about the acoustic dialects and social connections of Orca, Humpback and Fin Whales. Sierra Quadra invited Janie Wray –  CEO and co-founder of the North Coast Cetacean Society, BC Whales, and the manager of the BC Hydrophone Network – to share from her more than two decades of research.

Continue reading Janie Wray: Listening to Whales →
Environment, Indigenous Nations

The Story Behind ‘Keepers of the Land’

The audio version of this story begins with a solitary male voice raised in a seemingly ageless First Nations chant. Then Doug Neasloss, elected chief counselor of the Kitasoo Xai’xais First Nation, states, “We’ve always had the responsibility to steward, that’s what we are doing.” 

The clip was taken from Deirdre Leowinata and Tavish Campbell’s documentary ‘Keepers of the Land.’ They spent two years working with the Kitasoo Xai’ Xais in Klemtu, more than 350 miles north of Cortes and Quadra Islands.

Continue reading The Story Behind ‘Keepers of the Land’ →
Forests, Indigenous Nations

First Nations leader celebrates evolution of stewardship in Great Bear Rainforest

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

There are new measures to better protect bear and fish habitat in the globe’s largest remaining coastal temperate rainforest, thanks to First Nations’ increasing role in stewarding the Great Bear Rainforest (GBR).

The new protections resulted from the latest five-year review of an agreement between the B.C. Ministry of Forests and two First Nations alliances — Coastal First Nations and Nanwakolas Council — which represent 11 of the 26 Nations with territory in the rainforest.

Continue reading First Nations leader celebrates evolution of stewardship in Great Bear Rainforest →
Indigenous Nations

New federal funding buoys First Nations’ efforts to protect Great Bear Sea

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Coastal First Nations striving to protect to B.C.’s Great Bear Sea got a boost after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently announced $800 million in funding for Indigenous-led conservation projects.

Spread over seven years, the funding will support projects in B.C., Ontario, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories and is expected to protect a total of one million square kilometres, said Trudeau. The prime minister made the announcement at the global United Nations biodiversity conference, known as COP15, underway in Montreal. 

Continue reading New federal funding buoys First Nations’ efforts to protect Great Bear Sea →