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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1514012
11 BC BU S I N E S S .C A F E B R U A R Y 2 0 24 Illu s t r a t i o n : J a n ik S ö ll n e r/ N o u n P r oj e c t ; S a y a M a s s o p o r t r ai t : Ky l e r Vo s THE NBOX i tory. However, the Tla-o-qui- aht people realized few of the benefits of that tourism while shouldering many of its chal- lenges, like crowds, garbage, stress on water resources and other infrastructure, and inflated housing costs. "A quick Google search will show you how much tourism revenue is generated in this region. It's upwards of $350 million annually," Masso says. The Tla-o-qui-aht estab- lished the guardian program to try to mitigate some of these impacts. Their traditional ter- ritory is divided into four tribal parks, an assertion of sover- eignty that began in the 1980s when the nation declared Meares Island the Wah-nuh-jus – Hilth-hoo-is Tribal Park fol- lowing a B.C. Supreme Court victory that halted MacMillan Bloedel's logging plans. The problem, explains Masso, is that the guardian program lacked funds. A solution ar- rived almost by chance. In 2017, Julian Hockin-Grant was working on a master's in anthropology, environment and development at Univer- sity College London. He had heard about tribal parks and, through a family connection, he contacted Masso about a potential thesis project. "Funding was a big constraint for the Tla-o-qui- aht Guardians stewardship program and Saya had been unsuccessfully lobbying for some kind of legislated fee for a while," Hockin-Grant says. "At the time, my brother was working for a company called EDGE in Switzerland, which has a corporate gender equity certification program. That's where the idea of a certifica- tion program and incentivizing businesses to voluntarily con- tribute a fee came from." Tribal Parks Allies, in essence, is a pay-to-play initia- tive. To help fund the guard- ian program, businesses and organizations are asked to add a 1-percent ecosystem service Weekend traffic crawls along Campbell Street in downtown Tofino. It's a moody day. Ashen clouds brood above the green mountains of Clayo- quot Sound. Suddenly the sky bursts with a downpour that sends tourists and locals run- ning for cover. A few blocks away inside the Common Loaf Bake Shop, Saya Masso, resource direc- tor for the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, cradles a mug of coffee in one hand and a phone that pings repeatedly in the other. Masso, a Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation member who studied economics at the University of Victoria before earning a mas- ter's in Indigenous governance, oversees the Nation's fisher- ies and forestry resources, and manages a small team of Tribal Park Guardians who do everything from beach cleanup and trail maintenance to fish hatchery work and public edu- cation. He's also at the helm of an innovative program called Tibal Parks Allies that is build- ing bridges, both economic and social, between Tofino's booming tourism sector and the Tla-o-qui-aht Nation. For decades, hotels and tour operators marketed the wind, waves, wildlife and wonder of Tla-o-qui-aht terri- NATION BUILDING In Tofino, the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation's Tribal Parks Allies program is seeking to combine the land's history with its future by Andrew Findlay TOURISM " A quick Google search will show you how much tourism revenue is generated in this region. It's upwards of $350 million annually." PARK LIFE Saya Masso manages Tofino's Tribal Parks Allies program