Royal Dutch Shell proposal threatens Sacred Headwaters in BC

While there are many places around the world in which Canadian or international companies are implicated in real or potential human rights violations, we must not forget that such violations also take place right here in our backyard.

Thanks to group member Tara Parsons for sending to me the following article from the Georgia Straight and many of the links below.

World-renowned BC anthropologist Wade Davis is raising alarm bells about a potential coalbed methane development in Northern BC, at the headwaters of major salmon systems. Here is an excerpt:

In recent years, there have been ripples in the wild serenity of Tahltan territory, the place that Davis–along with David Suzuki, who also has a residence on Ealue Lake–considers a second home. Because of the booming economies of China and India, once-marginal mineral and fuel deposits in this geologically rich and remote region have piqued the interest of investors and speculators. Now Davis is gearing up for a fight to protect Canada's Serengeti from the spectre of coal-bed methane development. In 2004, the B.C. government awarded mineral rights to Shell Canada Ltd. for the Klappan methane reserve, estimated at eight trillion cubic feet. Shell's proposed development occurs among the small tributaries that give rise to the great salmon systems of the Nass, Stikine, and Skeena rivers, a place in the Klappan Valley the Tahltan people call the "sacred headwaters".

"The Nass, Skeena, and Stikine are all born within a remarkably short distance of each other," Davis says. "This is a place that should be celebrated but instead, without a thought, we are about to violate the very meadows where these rivers are born. The issue is not about development or no development, it's the pace of development, where and for whose benefit. My message to Shell is that this is not the place for this kind of development, at the headwaters of some of our greatest salmon rivers. This kind of development will bring in itinerant labour and won't do anything for the Tahltan."

Read the whole article here.

Here are some links for more info:

Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition: Help us keep Royal Dutch Shell out of the Sacred Headwaters!

Sacred headwaters

British Columbia: Nigeria North? (YouTube)

Citizens Concerned About Coal Bed Methane

Dogwood Initiative