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Soren Larsen, Georgia
Southern University
"Policies for Place Attachment: Forestry Initiatives and Aboriginal
Communities in British Columbia"
This presentation examines recent forestry initiatives among Dakelh
communities in the province’s central interior, concentrating on
the role of place in aboriginal forestry management. During the 1990s,
British Columbia’s New Democratic Party (NDP) sought to improve
the chronic privations of resource-dependent and First Nations communities
by implementing new policies in the forestry sector. For example, the
Jobs and Timber Accord enabled local groups to lease, manage, and harvest
large tracts of land known as community forests. Other policies encouraged
the formation of public-private partnerships that generated locally
owned sawmills and processing facilities. Frustrated by a lack of progress
in the provincial treaty process, several First Nations communities
have used these forestry initiatives to advance their own visions of
economic and cultural revitalization. In the process, they have strengthened
their relationships to place by harvesting and processing local forest
resources. As their place attachments are intensified, they confront
both internal and external complications. In particular, community members
struggle over the meanings invested in their ancestral territories as
they forge partnerships with non-native and non-local individuals and
firms. Only recently have forestry scientists begun to debate the role
of such place attachments in the sustainable development of forested
land. In light of these debates, the aboriginal experience in British
Columbia illustrates the interconnections between place identity and
forest management as local communities implement policies originally
designed to promote sustainable development.
Email: sclarsen (at) gasou.edu
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