Over 12,500 hectares of some of BC’s most endangered and diverse old-growth forests will be protected in in the territory of the Kanaka Bar Band, a Nlaka'pamux First Nation in the Fraser Canyon near Lytton, when a major new Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) is finalized. The Kanaka Bar Band announced their vision today to protect a total of about 35,000 hectares of their unceded lands in British Columbia in this IPCA.
The Nature-Based Solutions Foundation (NBSF), Endangered Ecosystems Alliance (EEA), Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA), and Nature United are supporting the development of this amazing IPCA proposal, which will encompass the Kwoiek and Four Barrel Watersheds, and adjacent parts of the spectacular Fraser River Canyon.
This region is one of the most biologically and ecologically diverse areas in BC, in the transition zone from Coastal to Interior ecosystems, including old-growth Interior Douglas-fir, Ponderosa Pine, Western Redcedar, White and Engelmann Spruce and Whitebark Pine. A new protected area here would be contiguous with the adjacent Stein Valley Nlaka’pamux Heritage Park to the north and would be near the Mehatl Creek and Nahatlatch Provincial Parks to the west and south.
The IPCA plan is still undergoing further development, including consultation with neighbouring communities and land use planning, before it is finalized, and boundaries are preliminary for now.
The IPCA will ultimately require provincial legislated protection and greater provincial and federal financial support, including for sustainable economic development, to help it come to full fruition.
Assorted pictures of Kanaka’s proposed T'eqt'aqtn IPCA
