Samantha Charlton
During the summer of 2011, I spent a few months in Clearwater and Chu Chua exploring the barriers and opportunities to harvesting non-timber forest resources for both personal consumption and/or commercial activity. This topic was interesting to look at in the context of a community forest, because only two forest tenure types, the Community Forest Agreement and the First Nations Woodland License, include the rights to “… harvest, manage and charge fees for botanical forest products and other prescribed products.” However, there is currently no government support or guidelines for implementing these rights. At the same time, First Nations have a long history of harvesting NTFRs and also a legal right to NTFRs through the Canadian constitution.
A few historical examples of NTFR regulations do exist. One example is the case of cascara tree (Rhamnus purshiana). In 1942, the government of B.C. wrote one of the first and only recommendations for proper harvesting techniques for a NTFR. The Cascara Bark Regulation was created in 1958 to control the activities of harvesters and buyers and ensure the long-term conservation of cascara trees due to the popularity of using its bark to produce a powerful laxative and colon cleanser.
Another example is the Nisga’a Final Agreement Act (1999). Among many other rights, this act grants the Nisga’a Lisims government the authority to determine, collect, and administer any fees, rents, royalties, or other charges for NTFRs on Nisga’a lands. Nisga’a Lisims government may also make laws establishing standards to regulate harvesting and conservation of NTFRs. The Nisga’a government has successfully used this authority to implement a permitting and royalty system for the pine mushroom (Tricholoma magnivelare) harvest.
My research is a case study involving the Wells Gray Community Forest Corporation (WGCFC) in Clearwater and the Simpcw First Nation, whose administrative centre is located in Chu Chua. Using background literature, my own experience in the region, and interviews, my research describes the local NTFR sector in great detail.
Two of the things I discovered are:
1) there are a variety of ways in which existing physical and social barriers to harvesting NTFRs are overcome; and
2) many species are “managed” informally through the care and stewardship of the individual harvesters using their own local and/or traditional knowledge.
My research also looks at the possibility for further “co-management” in the case study. Co-management is the sharing of power and responsibility between a government institution and local resource users. Community forests are already a type of co-manangement arrangement, but co-management agreements often include sharing of power and responsibility with local First Nations regarding the resource in question, in this case, NTFRs.
My research supervisor, Dr. Evelyn Pinkerton, and I will present the highlights of my research in more detail and lead a question and answer session at the Community Resource Centre, Room 1, Thursday, Mar. 7, at 7 p.m.
– Samantha Charlton is a post-graduate student at Simon Fraser University
