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B.C. conservationists buy up hunting rights to save bears

VANCOUVER (CP) - A conservation group has joined with several B.C. First Nations to curb trophy hunting on a 20,000-square-kilometre portion of the central coast.

But they need the B.C. government's co-operation for their bold initiative to actually work. And while it aims to bar foreign hunters from junketing to the B.C. wilderness to stalk grizzly bears, wolves and other carnivores, it won't stop provincial residents from making trophy kills.

The Raincoast Conservation Society, along with five coastal First Nations, confirmed Tuesday they've purchased the provincially issued commercial trophy-hunting licence owned by Raincoast Outfitters Ltd. for $1.35 million.

The region, about 150 kilometres long stretching from Cape Caution in the south to Princess Royal Island, is home to grizzlies, black bears, the white kermode or so-called spirit bear, wolves, cougars, mountain goats, moose and deer.

The initiative's backers say they would like to buy up other trophy-hunting licences to extend the ban along the northwest B.C. coast, including the Queen Charlotte Islands, known by aboriginals as Haida Gwaii.

It's part of a larger effort by the society and First Nations to limit exploitation of what they call the Great Bear Rainforest, such as logging and mining.

First Nations say a trophy-hunting ban would be especially welcome because the practice is alien to aboriginal culture.

"Trophy hunting is sacrilegious to First Nations," said Art Sterritt, executive director of the Coastal First Nations. "We don't hunt for fun. We don't go out and measure what we hunt. We hunt out of necessity."

Sterritt said the goal is to accelerate the transition to eco-tourism, bringing people in to view the wildlife, not shoot it.

"This fits with this new economy, to engage all types of people, to bring them into our traditional territories, to share the resources with them without them having to take away a trophy," he said.

The president of the Guide Outfitters Association of British Columbia was skeptical the strategy will really be implemented.

"Raincoast Conservation Society is notorious for pumping these things up to be something more than what they really are," said Dale Drown, whose group represents a $120-million industry employing upwards of 2,000 people.

Drown said trophy hunting has been on the decline already in the licence area, which represents only one of 235 guide territories in the province, some licensed to First Nations.

Ian McAllister, the society's conservation director, said most of the money to buy the licence came from Canadian, non-government sources. First Nations will finance the stewardship aspects, such as developing tourism businesses.

"Nowhere else in North America's history has such a large commercial trophy-hunting tenure been taken over for conservation interests and community interests," he said.

McAllister urged Premier Gordon Campbell to "get behind this."

The strategy needs government support because the licence carries a "use it or lose it" requirement that would make it impossible to implement a ban without amending the licence.

"This Wildlife Act was written at a time when First Nations weren't being heard, when conservationists weren't being heard and when tourism wasn't such a viable growth industry," said McAllister.

B.C. residents also are not restricted from trophy hunting.

"The provincial government needs to sit down with the First Nations, with communities, and deal with this issue once and for all," said McAllister.

B.C. Environment Minister Barry Penner was in meetings all day Tuesday and unavailable to comment, a ministry spokeswoman said.

First Nations hope to meet with ministry officials early in the new year, said Sterritt.

Neither the society nor the First Nations are against visitors hunting game such as moose and deer for meat, McAllister added.

Chief Ross Wilson of the Heiltsuk Nation dismissed suggestions hunting was needed to avoid an overpopulation of predator species, putting pressure on local deer, elk, moose and mountain goat.

"Two hundred years ago we didn't have that problem," he said. "There was a natural cull. They died off of old age."

Drown said the initiative, if it spreads, could put aboriginal people out of work. But Sterritt said he doubts that, based on his knowledge of guiding operations along the central and north coast.

"I don't know of any First Nations people who work for those outfitters," he said.

Some aboriginal people have already trained as wildlife guides and are being hired by small cruise ships and film companies.

"We have more employment based on this new economy than we've ever seen on the whole coast in the past," Sterritt said.