Establishing Gwaii Haanas
From the 1970s through the early 1980s, plans to expand logging to Burnaby Island led to controversy, and the first concerted efforts to protect Gwaii Haanas. The "South Moresby Wilderness Proposal" was drawn up in an effort to stem natural resource exploitation.
To prevent logging, the Haida Nation designated the "Haida Heritage Site" in 1985, encompassing roughly the southern third of the archipelago. Importantly, the Heritage Site included a swath of land and sea, both terrestrial and marine areas. However, logging continued, amidst legal and political battles. In 1987, logging ended when the governments of Canada and British Columbia signed the South Moresby Memorandum of Understanding.
This accord led to the South Moresby Agreement a year later, which created South Moresby National Park Reserve. It was not a full national park; it was an area reserved to become a national park, because there were outstanding claims to land ownership among federal and tribal governments. But the measure safeguarded the area, and permitted shared stewardship. It would be managed as if it were a national park, pending land claims.
Read more about this topic: Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve And Haida Heritage Site
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