6 - Contested forests and transition in two Gulf Island communities

Summary

In this chapter we provide a comparative illustration of barriers to implementing community forests on British Columbia's Pacific coast. We recount the parallel experiences of two small Gulf Island communities that have been unsuccessful thus far in establishing community forests after four decades of struggle with off-island (and indeed on-island) forest interests. The communities on Denman Island and Cortes Island appear similar with respect to certain internal characteristics and events; they share a similar settlement history unfolding from the earliest First Nations peoples to non-Aboriginal homesteaders, to back-to-the-landers and, most recently, amenity migrants. This succession is linked to transitioning rural resource economies and evolving demographic profiles and, in particular, the emergence of a formally educated and “graying” middle class. Each island is politically unorganized and has endured social conflict related to industrial forest development and local efforts to get involved in forest governance. Both community forest initiatives emerged from informal grassroots monitoring committees during the 1980s and adopted the principles of ecosystem-based management early on (hiring the same consultant in fact). Just as in the case of Creston (see Chapter 5), the roots of each initiative and the notion of increasing local control long pre-date formal provincial efforts during the late 1990s to create the BC Community Forest Agreement program.

Each community has yet to fully establish a community forest, but for different reasons. Key differences lie in the challenges each experienced with community mobilization, local institutions, stakeholder involvement, and the decision-making structures and processes used to govern forest ecosystems. Although each failed to secure full control of the contested forest lands, to say this was the main stumbling block would be a gross oversimplification. The nuances of local collective processes and structures for community-based management are more visible through micro- and comparative analyses (Gibson et al. 2000). Key events and factors constraining implementation in rural settings of transition and contestation will be presented for each case, leading into a synthesis and discussion of some critical challenges pertaining to institutional issues in First Nations relations, local politics and the latent growth control agenda in the community forest movement.