Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site

August 26, 2022 By: T00472990

The report that I decided to look at is “Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Herritage site”, which I found in the Environment and Society Portal.

Vlachos, Alexandra. “Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site.” Environment & Society Portal, Arcadia (Spring 2017), no. 1. Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. https://doi.org/10.5282/rcc/7738.

The report speaks to the unique characteristics of Haida Gwaii and how it is known as Canada’s Galapagos where nature enthusiasts can merge with Haida Culture. The report explains the Haida’s frustration with large-scale resource extraction on their ancestral home and how logging was destroying the land. “According to Gary Edenshaw (or Guujaaw), president of the Council of the Haida Nation (CHN) from 2000 to 2013, the forest industry is responsible for the “biggest changes” in Haida lives and cultural activities.”[1] In 1985 the Haida blocked Frank Beban Logging on Lyell Island and stood to protect what was left. The report discusses how the National Park Reserve, National Marine Conservation Area Reserve and Haida Heritage Site were created in 1988. However, not what the Haida had imagined as a protected area. In the end, the Haida Nation and the Canadian government agreed to disagree, and the area is currently co-managed by both parties. Commercial fishing activities still ocurr in some of the waters around Gwaii Haanas, but restrictions to preserve the ocean ecosystems are being taken.

Civil disobedience played an important role in the formation of Gwaii Haanas. When the National news reported on Haida elders being arrested on Lyell Island, people paid attention. The Gwaii Haanas story is an important chapter in the indigenous conservation movement in Canada and worldwide.

[1] Vlachos, Alexandra. “Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site.” Environment & Society Portal, Arcadia (Spring 2017), no. 1. Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. https://doi.org/10.5282/rcc/7738.