The Great Bear Rainforest is extremely special.
I mean, I think it's probably one of the most
biodiverse places on the planet.
You still get wild things like bears and wolves and
abundance of salmon and a bunch of different sea light.
You still have old growth forest and these areas in
a large way are untouched by industry.
And so we want to keep it like that.
My name is Mukwes Klaw,
which my language means white bearer.
My other name is Douglas Nislas.
Doug Nislas is one of those extraordinary leaders.
He's been advocating for conservation and for the sovereign management
of the coastal waters of his nation,
which is the kitasu hey Hey Nation.
So they have created the Kitasu Bay MPA.
And it's amazing because that is their bread basket and
he's done an incredible job of not just leading his
people,
but bringing the rest of Canada to his point of
view.
So right now we're just getting ready to enter Kilissy
Bay and that's the area.
It's probably the most important area.
It's a holding area for hearing.
So that's where they all gather.
I think indigenous knowledge is super important and I think
it needs to be integrated and all of the management
that's out there,
whether it's wildlife management, fisheries management,
oceans management. We have a belief that if you take
care of the land,
the land will take care of you.
And so that's ingrained in all of our work here.
Doesn't matter if it's in stewardship,
if it's in tourism, if it's in economic development.
We want to make sure that we have a place
that the world can enjoy.
If we don't have protection,
we know that we're going to be in trouble.
Kedeshi Bay was declared by the Military chiefs supported by
the community,
and it was launched so the rest of the world
knows about it.
We've engaged provincial governments, federal governments,
we've engaged stakeholders, letting everyone know it is closed.
We've left the document open to collaborate.
We're in this era of reconciliation and how do we
work together?
There's laws and practices that we practiced for thousands of
years,
and those practices are geared toward conservation and sustainability and
stewardship.
And so I think when we are writing our management
plan,
like the KDCBA management plan,
that is our opportunity to indigenize some of these policies.
This island is called Marvin Island.
This is probably one of the most important seasonal harvesting
areas we have,
and so herring eggs is super important for the community.
It's one of the First foods you would have access
to after a long winter.
What happens is when the herring come in and lay
all their eggs,
people harvest the eggs and they would prepare them here
on the island.
There's about 400 million indigenous people on this planet.
They belong to about 5000 different tribes and they're the
largest minority in the world.
Together they live in less than 20%
of the land surface of planet Earth,
but they manage 80% of the biodiversity.
So should we be letting them make more decisions about
how their territories are managed?
Absolutely.
I think just by designating Kinsey Bay is an indigenous
protected area and enforcing that,
making sure that. The conservation is there,
sustainability is there, that stocks have a chance to rebuild
and that our people will continue to have access to
that.
That Bay is sustained, this community for thousands of years.
So it's really, it's really important that that Bay survives.
But I also hope that this provides a model for
all these other protected areas all over the world.
I think Kishi Bay is a very strong example of
what we can do.