*Top Project of the Year* – Great Bear Forest Carbon Projects
Projects Sponsor
Delta Management Group is the leading sustainability, ESG and clean tech focused search firm in Canada. Delta is proud to have founded the Canada's Clean50 Award program in 2011, and has been the primary sponsor for the past 13 years.
Great Bear Forest Carbon Projects are globally recognized Indigenous-led climate initiatives generating up to 1 million tonnes of carbon credits annually. Emerging from decades of land use planning and negotiation between First Nations and the Government of BC which formed fundamental agreements such as the 2009 Reconciliation Protocol and the Atmospheric Benefit Agreements, the Great Bear Carbon Projects recognizes First Nations ownership of carbon benefits. The project area is governed by Ecosystem-Based Management principles, ensuring the long-term storage of forest carbon. To date, Indigenous shareholders received over $85M in carbon credit revenues. A groundbreaking, ground-healing initiative, the project is a model of how carbon finance can support ecosystem conservation, Indigenous governance, and community well-being.
By the end of the 1990s, Great Bear Rainforest’s land and marine resources were being rapidly depleted by industrial logging and commercial fishing. At the same time, the coastal economy had dwindled, and jobs were scarce. First Nations had limited access to resources in their territories, and little say in how those resources were managed. In 2000, Indigenous leaders from the North and Central Coast and Haida Gwaii signed the Declaration of First Nations of the North Pacific Coast to protect and restore the natural world and in doing so, retain their Indigenous cultures while designing sustainable economies.
Three years later, a coast-wide First Nation alliance was born. In 2006, the alliance passed a resolution to explore carbon credits as a pathway to conservation finance. The goal was to end destructive industrial logging practices, protect cultural and ecological values, and generate new revenue sources to ensure long-term economic self-sufficiency.A team of independent scientists and researchers were contracted to collect, research, and analyze data. The Great Bear Rainforest is one of the largest temperate rainforests in the world and the team determined the percentage of the rainforest that needed to remain intact and protected in order to maintain its unique ecological aspects. The First Nations alliance focused on new financial mechanisms and explored how carbon credits would ensure this protection whilst providing financial resources for long-term stewardship.
The research included local and traditional knowledge to ensure that the invaluable and direct understanding of the rainforest accumulated over many centuries was incorporated into all project concepts, proposed solutions, and activities.
The research identified 5 focal species, (grizzly bear, marbled murrelet, mountain goat, northern goshawk, and coastal tailed frog) each with its own unique role in the ecosystem, and determined that 75% of the Great Bear Rainforest needed to be protected in order for it to maintain its ecological diversity and function. The final agreements protected 85% of the forest, with 70% of that being old growth. A model of conservation financing was also established so that the communities and stewards living within the rainforest would have the necessary resources to ensure a thriving ecosystems AND communities.
At a policy level, the Coastal First Nations found strength in numbers to negotiate with the Provincial government as a group, advocating for the protection of the rainforest, elimination of destructive logging practices, reconciliation, and the right to manage the natural resources within its Nations, including establishing a carbon project within its territories. At the centre of these discussions and negotiations was the need to clarify, and formally acknowledge, ownership of the land and its benefits. This resulted in the creation of ground-breaking Atmospheric Benefit Sharing Agreements between the Coastal First Nations and the Province of BC.
Key stakeholders were identified and engaged to support the alliance’s goal of developing a fully Indigenous-owned Forest carbon project. This included various stages from signing agreements between the First Nations and Provincial government to securing funds to contract technical experts to “validate” the carbon projects, and third-party verifiers to “verify” the carbon credits generated by the projects. It was crucial to ensure that the scientific components of the project were sound and that the projects met the requirements of the GHG Industrial Reporting Act, Emission Project Regulation and (future) Forest Carbon Offset Protocal.
At a market level, the carbon market in the Province was non-existent, establishing projects in this nascent market period required working closely and collaboratively with the Provincial government, incentivizing and pushing the government to develop regulations and protocols that would allow for a credible carbon market.
The alliance of First Nations established corporate entities under 100% Indigenous ownership, and a team to manage, sell and market the tonnes on behalf of the Shareholder Nations. Buyers were like-minded companies or people who shared in the vision for healthy ecosystems and reconciliation. The carbon credits are not only a commodity, but also a reflection of the deeply rooted values of the Shareholder Nations, and the plural here matters.There’s a tendency to refer to Indigenous groups as one group. But with over 600 distinct First Nations in Canada, each one is unique and different. This diversity is respected within the Great Bear Carbon company, but establishing consensus within a diverse group is no easy feat. Throughout the project cycle, consensus amongst the alliance of First Nations had to be achieved many times, from how to create a conservation economy, to whom to sell. Consensus was not only required within the alliance but with all stakeholders, including government and NGOs.
With a myriad of stakeholders, discussions and decision-making can sometimes be intense and frustrating. And various elements of the project, from policy to science and sales need to be aligned and developed in harmony to establish one of the first science-based models of conservation economy in the Province. The strength of having a diverse group acting together can also be an obstacle.
Luckily, the stakeholders are committed to the same overarching goal and share the same belief in the project. They are dedicated to consensus-building, working together and many personal behind-the-scenes and out-of-meetings interactions keep the momentum of the projects and alliance alive. Success here comes from the diversity of the stakeholders. As one stakeholder stated, “These lands have inspired the world, and we have friends everywhere who support what we’re doing. It wasn’t just one nation, one person, one group, one generation. It took all of us in this world to do what we’ve done here.”
The projects have successfully protected 85% of the Great Bear Rainforest. But protection is not enough, and the projects have been a successful model of conservation financing, with to date over $85 million distributed to the Shareholder Nations, of which the majority is redirected back to forest stewardship, including supporting the salaries of Stewardship Directors in the communities.
Key founding agreements were spearheaded between the Nations and government, providing legal clarity on Indigenous rights, First Nations’ ownership of their land and resources and cementing broader Indigenous self-determination–changing and evolving relations between First Nations and government, solidifying and strengthening interactions on a government-to-government basis.
These are the forest carbon projects in British Columbia, the first forest carbon projects in Canada to be developed on traditional Indigenous territory with Aboriginal Rights and Title and they also represent a global first. There was no other fully Indigenous-owned carbon forest project whereby the owners–the Nations–had the power and right to establish a project on its terms, had full ownership of the project, and with 100% of the revenue returned to the Nations and forest stewardship in the world—yet.
These projects have lived through many challenges and successes and existed long enough to establish sound proof-of-concept as a credible example for others. Today, several First Nations are working to establish their own carbon projects in their traditional territories with the Province of BC.Great Bear Carbon is also extending carbon credits beyond the land by supporting the development of a blue carbon protocol–the first step to establishing a future blue carbon market in the Province. The forest carbon projects have informed and inspired the First Nation Shareholders and the Province of BC to imitate and expand conservation financing to the sea.
Corporations and individuals outside of the GBR were also impacted as the projects provided a pathway for enlightened companies and persons to offset their carbon emissions by purchasing high-quality carbon credits and investing in a rare and precious ecosystem and the people and communities within it. By establishing an innovative and sound model and market, The Great Bear Carbon Projects demonstrates that humans and ecosystems can co-exist and thrive together, generating positive ecological and societal impact. Sales have increased and diversified from a single sale of $2.7M in the first year to 67 sales totalling over $19M in the last fiscal year.
As Canada turns the page on its dark past, the Great Bear Forest Carbon Projects represent renewed relations between Shareholder First Nations and government—informing and inspiring Indigenous groups to exercise their inherent rights, title and jurisdiction and establish innovative solutions to help reverse negative social and environmental impact,
Sometimes a tree doesn’t fall in the forest, and everyone hears it.
