Tsitika/Ma'amtagila logging

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DECEMBER 20, 2025 | ACTION ALERT

BC Timber Sales, A&A Trading Ltd, and the Tlowitsis Tribe Administration is attempting to log the entire hillside above the Ma'a̱mtagila First Nation's ancient village of Etsekin (I'tsika̱n ~ Matilpi Village) without consultation, consent or even acknowledgement of the Ma'a̱mtagila People.

NANWAKOLAS TIMBER Ltd, TimberWest/MOSAIC as well as "La-kwa sa muqw" Forestry and Western Forest Products are also violating Indigenous Law and the Free Prior and Informed Consent of Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw peoples with their continued destruction of critical and sacred forests in the Tsitika, Eve, Adams, Naka and Great Bear Rainforest Watersheds on a regular basis.

This is at best, devastating negligence on the part of these parties and at worst malicious disregard for the Free, Prior and Informed Consent of an Indigenous nation. Furthermore, the fact that this old-school, cavalier style of colonial resource extraction is still happening in the so-called Great Bear Rainforest highlights the desperate need for the Provincial Government to put into action commitments on DRIPA and the honouring of their crown-obligations to, at the very least consult with First Nations for whom they are issuing permits to operate within their sovereign territory.

Crown entities; relevant Public and Private Logging corporations; The Provincial Government including successive Forests and Indigenous Relations ministers as well as successive Premiers and the BC Treaty Commission have all been made aware of Ma'a̱mtagila demands for recognition and consultation for years.

Ma'a̱mtagila have never ceded or surrendered their lands, air or waters to any entity, despite the impacts of ongoing colonization and resource extraction that have sought to displace them from their homelands.

The Ma'a̱mtagila have an active legal case seeking crown solutions in BC Supreme Court as well as an open conflict resolution space through Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw Potlatch law seeking solutions that build benefits for all Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw peoples. In honour of both crown legal traditions as well at Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw Potlatch Law we demand that no further forestry permits be approved and no further forestry activity moves forward without the participation and enthusiastic consent of the collectively held rights and title of the Ma'a̱mtagila People.

These crown entities, public and private corporations are in flagrant violation of Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw law, The United Nations Declaration on The Rights of Indigenous People, as well as both provincial and federal DRIPA regulations.