The provincial government and the Taku River Tlingit First Nation have signed an agreement providing resource development opportunities and creating 13 new protected areas for more than three million hectares in the Atlin Taku region in Northwestern B.C.
“This agreement represents a clear shift from conflict to collaboration between B.C. and the Taku River Tlingit First Nation,” Premier Christy Clark said in a press release.
From 2000 to 2004, the Taku River Tlingit and the province were involved in litigation in the Supreme Court of Canada. The new agreement took three years to negotiate.
The Taku River Tlingit have already begun to work with mining developers in the area on potential resource development projects. According to the province, future resource extraction projects are expected to support 350 jobs during construction and 280 operations jobs.
The province is heralding the Land and Resource Management and Shared Decision-Making Agreement as the first of its kind in B.C. The agreement gives effect to the Atlin Taku Land Use Plan and creates government-to-government decision-making structures and process to guide future land and resource management.
The land-use plan area is nearly the size of Vancouver Island and includes the Taku Watershed, one of B.C.’s most significant salmon watersheds. It supports the largest commercial salmon run in Southeastern Alaska. The Taku watershed has been one of the last remaining regions in B.C. without a land-use plan.
Jenny Wagler
Twitter: JennyWagler_BIV