QUEEN CHARLOTTES - HAIDA GWAII LAND-USE PLANNING

Background
A land and resource management planning process was announced in 1997 but failed to get past the preliminary phase. The primary product of that phase was the draft background report, An Overview of Natural, Cultural, and Socio-Economic Features, Land Uses and Resource Management, printed in 1999.

Planning Process
The new planning process will reflect the government's streamlined approach, and the plan will balance the need for sustainable economic development with the need to maintain environmental values. The process will follow tight timelines and take no more than 24 months.

The Council of the Haida Nation supports land-use planning and is working with the ministry to define the process, set to begin in the spring of 2002, consistent with a protocol agreement signed in April 2001. There are no strategic land-use plans guiding resource management.

The Plan Area
The Queen Charlotte Islands - Haida Gwaii to the Haida - are about 90 kilometres west of the north coast of mainland B.C. The archipelago contains 150 islands and hundreds of islets. The total land area is just over a million hectares. Of that land, 427,400 hectares is timber supply area, 323,100 hectares is tree farm licence areas, and 232,000 hectares is parkland and reserve.

The Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve is 147,500 hectares and encompasses the southern portion of Moresby Island. Naikoon Provincial Park, totalling 73,800 hectares, occupies the northeast corner of Graham Island.

About 6,000 people live in the Queen Charlotte Islands; a third are members of the Haida Nation.

The economy of the Queen Charlotte Islands is primarily resource-based. The main industry is forestry, followed by fishing and the public and service sectors. There are concerns about the sustainability of the area's resources, amount of local benefits generated from the use of island resources, and competing land-use interests.

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For more information on the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management, visit our Web site at http://www.gov.bc.ca/srm.