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People settled the Great Bear Rainforest soon after the last Ice age. Thirteen different language families exist among the many First Nations who live here — their totem poles, long houses, and archeologically significant sites are found throughout the area. This place is their past and their future.
The context of land use planning and the development and implementation of ecosystem-based management on the coast of British Columbia is defined in large part by the rights of aboriginal people. There are twenty-two First Nations whose traditional territories include land and water within the Central Coast and North Coast. As a result, the negotiation of comprehensive treaties, protocol agreements, interim measures, consultation and First Nations' land use planning are part-and-parcel of coastal planning.
The Central and North Coast LRMPs reached consensus agreements that were recommended to the British Columbia government. Subsequently, the Province and coastal First Nations entered into a government-to-government process that reviewed the LRMP agreements before final decision–making by the provincial government.
First Nations in the Great Bear Rainforest
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