BC First Nation transforms open-net pen into stewardship economy hub
BC’s smallest First Nation is taking great strides toward the creation of an innovative stewardship economy that puts sustainability and conservation first.
The Kwiakah First Nation, led by munmuntle, Chief Steven Dick, consists of 19 members mostly based on Vancouver Island. The community is launching a “return home” by transforming a former open-net pen salmon farm into a floating, solar-powered scientific hub anchored in their traditional territory along BC’s wild central coast.
The community intends to revitalize its lands and waters—much of which were badly damaged by logging and other resource industries by building a “stewardship economy” that puts the environment first when it comes to economic development. The Kwiakah Centre of Excellence will be the base for a dedicated research station, an experimental kelp farm, the nation’s regenerative forestry operations and its territorial Indigenous guardian, or Forest Keepers program.
The aim is to find a variety of ways to “monetize” and diversify the ecosystem services that preserving or regenerating nature can provide to create an economic ripple effect for coastal jobs and services.
“We want to be stewards of the land,” says Frank Voelker, the nation’s Band Manager & Economic Development Officer. “Eventually, revenue will be created by protecting the environment, by conserving forests and by not cutting them.”