ABSTRACT
It would be an understatement to characterize natural resource policy on Canada’s west coast as being quarrelsome. Canada’s westernmost province, British Columbia (BC), is a jurisdiction where conflict about public land use plays a significant part in public policy dialogue. The use of public lands in Canada, and, indeed, across North America, has focused on deriving social and economic benefits from resource extraction (Perry, 1998). Despite the rhetoric of ecosystem management, integration, and multiple use that flows from managing agencies and industry, in practice the preservation of ecosystems is given considerably less attention (Bean, 1997; Beaty, 2000; Margules and Pressey, 2000). The industrial use of public lands also reflects the values of many citizens, especially in communities where well-being is tied to resource industries (Grumbine, 1997; Song and M’Gonigle, 2001). Conflict has emerged as alternative views of the values of public lands have gained prominence, particularly with respect to the designation of protected areas, which have, in turn, become integral conservation policy instruments (Noss and Scott, 1997). Alternative views also have a dualistic relationship with conflict – they flow in part from a more conflictual public policy setting, but they also intensify it. We can increasingly observe contexts where protected areas decisions are dictated not so much by ecology or science as by emotive conflict over place.
