First Nation in BC earns prestigious Blue Park Award

This Earth Day, the Kitasoo Xai’xais First Nation in British Columbia is celebrating getting the prestigious Blue Park Award for exceptional marine biodiversity conservation.

By SeaWestNews

The Kitasoo Xai’xais First Nation in British Columbia, have been awarded the prestigious Blue Park Award, for exceptional marine biodiversity conservation – a testament to the indigenous community’s stewardship of its traditional territories.

The award, a first for Canada, recognized the Indigenous community’s efforts to create a new Marine Protected Area (MPA) in Gitdisdzu Lugyeks, commonly known as Kitasu Bay, which is located in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest in BC’s remote central coast.

Presented by the Marine Conservation Institute at the 9th Our Ocean Conference in Greece, Gitdisdzu Lugyeks MPA will receive US$8,000 and join a growing network of 30 awarded Blue Parks around the global ocean that have met the highest science-based standards for conservation effectiveness.

“Receiving this Blue Park Award not only recognizes what we’ve been doing as a Stewardship Authority, but it also sets the stage for other Indigenous Nations to use this as a blueprint for their own protected areas in their territories,” said Kitasoo Xai’xais elected chief Douglas Neasloss.

“The management plan for Gitdisdzu Lugyeks combines our traditional knowledge and responsibilities with western science in a way that protects ecosystems and human livelihoods, and we’re grateful that this award recognizes the strength in that combination,” he said.

The Kitasoo Xai’xais First Nation designated Gitdisdzu Lugyeks MPA within their traditional territory in June 2022. The 33.5 km2 MPA protects the ecological and cultural value of the bay, whose waters are a spiritual place, essential to the community’s economy, health, and culture.

To date, Blue Parks cover over 3.5 million square kilometers of ocean, spanning 23 countries.

“Being a part of the work establishing Gitdisdzu Lugyeks, for me, is being a part of a legacy that was started by some of my own late and present grandfathers,” said Santana Edgar, Community Marine Use Coordinator for Gitdisdzu Lugyeks MPA.

“Our team has done so much over recent years to protect and preserve all that we have today, not only for our personal well-being but for the entire coast,” he said.

“We are reinvigorating our traditional management systems and exercising our inherent and Aboriginal rights, responsibilities, and obligations to steward and manage the territory and resources for current and future generations,” the First Nation said in its MPA declaration.

The other winners of the Blue Park award this year include the Tristan da Cunha Marine Protection Zone, an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom in the South Atlantic and the Siete Pecados Marine Park in the Philippines.

(Image shows an aerial view of Gitdisdzu Lugyeks, commonly known as Kitasu Bay)