The Legacy of Clayoquot Sound
Consider a special place in nature that you hold near to your heart, a place to escape your everyday anxieties and feel at ease. For some, this might be a relaxing day at the beach. For others, this could look like a backpacking trip through the mountains. What if someone told you that this place would never look the same? What lengths would you go to save this place from exploitation? For the locals of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, these questions became a reality.
Their place to escape was Clayoquot Sound, an area with diverse ecosystems ranging from pristine temperate rainforests to rocky coastal shores. The indigenous people of First Nations have inhabited Clayoquot Sound for thousands of years, enjoying an abundant lifestyle with deep-rooted connections to the land. Traditional practices of these groups consist of using cedar trees for a wide range of necessities: heat, paddles, clothing, and utensils. Other practices with deeply spiritual connections for the First Nations include fishing for salmon and trading whales. In 1791, American and European explorers, initially involved in fur trading, discovered the First Nation’s land and recognized its abundance of natural resource wealth. This discovery ultimately led to the extraction of the indigenous people’s land and resources.
Clayoquot Sound is well known for its fir, cedar, and spruce trees. With 100 million tonnes of carbon stored in its forests, it is considered one of the largest carbon stores on the planet. This feature attracts tourists and locals alike, but it also makes it a vulnerable region to unsustainable logging and mining practices. For this reason, it was only a matter of time before greedy logging companies sought out the land’s natural resources for developmental purposes.
In the spring of 1993, Michael Harcourt, the former premier of British Columbia, granted logging companies permission to clear-cut sixty-two percent of Clayoquot land. By definition, clear-cutting is the unselective logging process of cutting down trees, regardless of their species, for economic purposes such as agriculture, cattle-ranching, mining, oil, production of goods, and development. Macmillan-Bloedel, a large forestry, pulp, and paper company based in Vancouver, was set to do most of the proposed logging in this area. In the summer of 1993, the announcement of this news disturbed locals and sparked the emergence of several protests and new environmental organizations. To ensure that the land remained untouched and the ecological diversity continued to prosper, activists and environmentalists devised a plan.
Several different discursive frames were used to define the goals and purposes of this movement. According to Jill Lindsey Harrison’s article in Twenty Lessons in Environmental Sociology, discursive frames provide a unique cultural viewpoint that informs the practices of a community of social movement organizations. When researching movements, many environmental sociologists focus on these frames and their numerous implications. For many researchers, a critical part of this process includes the examination of the language used by specific activists/organizations when presenting their arguments. The success of the Clayoquot Sound movement can be attributed to the movement’s many unique frameworks: environmental, peaceful, political, feminist, and educational.
In the summer of 1993, activists set up camp along the highway to Tofino in an area that had previously been clearcut by loggers. Activists gave this location a dramatic and rather bleak title: “the black hole.” This name was chosen intentionally as part of the movement’s educational framework, and according to protesters, it gained a foothold as it clearly showed what was wrong with the current forest practices. Protestors and environmentalists got to see firsthand what sixty-two percent of the land would look like if they didn’t defend it from corporate greed. In this so-called “black hole,” protesters physically blocked trucks from entering their cutting sites and recruited crowds to stop the building of roads. Other tactics included distributing flyers, holding up signs with catchy slogans, and organizing sit-ins.
Although these strategies helped attract local supporters, the strategic use of participants’ social networks generated more global diversity. Individuals participating in the movement were able to target diverse stakeholders such as resource users, other activists, knowledge holders, institutional actors, and entrepreneurs. Social networks played a key role in the environmental mobilization of this movement and ultimately helped take the movement to a global level. Social networks had no boundaries in this movement. Activists, environmentalists, and civilians traveled from all over the country and even worldwide to protest. The movement attracted teachers, artists, musicians, university students and their professors, working people, dentists, doctors, and First Nations elders. It became evident that all kinds of passionate people were eager to assist in the protection of Clayoquot’s forests.
The framing for this movement was significantly influenced by Gandhian principles, those that rely heavily on non-violent tactics. These principles set the stage for the movement’s environmental and peaceful framework. As the protests developed, activists altered the name of their location. The “black hole” became the “Peace Camp.” Here, organizational leaders created a space for protesters to engage in workshops and gather essential information about the harmful implications of logging. Notable educational sessions consisted of Nonviolence Training and Peacekeeper Training. These sessions helped ensure that protesters understood the purpose and organizational aspects of the movement. The educational element allowed for increased group camaraderie, trust, and support, all necessary components for leading a successful protest. This “Peace Camp” became the focal point of the movement, with an estimated 10,000 people participating throughout the summer months.
About two-thirds of the protesters were women and girls, some as young as 8 or 9 years old. Women played a critical role in the movement. With their strong connection to nature, many questioned the political and economic philosophy surrounding the government’s devastating plan to clear-cut the forests. In an incredible documentary, Fury for the Sound: The Women at Clayoquot Sound, director Shelly Wine shares a feminist perspective of the movement. In an interview for the film, activist Tzeporah Berman explained the principles behind the eco-feminist thought within the Peace Camps. She said, “when we started the Peace Camp, we explicitly made feminist principles a part of our structure. Because we really strongly believed that if we didn’t, that we would be replicating the same things we’re trying to change.” These women shared the common notion that they were fighting against environmental issues closely linked to patriarchy and white supremacy. Realization of this provided them with even more of a reason to preach eco-feminism and non-violence.
According to Twenty Lessons in Environmental Sociology, the eco-feminist theory argues that “environmental sustainability requires confronting all relationships of domination, with regard to nature, gender, race, class, sexuality, indigeneity, and other hierarchies that privilege some people over others.” Framing this movement with feminist ideology ultimately led to an increase in public interest, more power in the movement, and more incentive for individuals to join.
Political opportunity structures (POS), as defined by Jill Harrison, are the “changing power of movement organizations relative to other actors and institutions shaping politics.” Political opportunity structures can either constrain or enable movements; therefore, the success of any environmental movement is highly dependent on the POS in which the movement takes place.
The activists’ political agenda in Clayoquot represented a new approach to environmental issues. Local activists used the political opportunity structures available to enable the movement. Although they were hindered by the powerful logging company’s ability to control elected government officials and policymakers in Canada, activists found creative ways around this and took their campaign to an international level. They traveled outside of Canada in hopes of convincing international organizations from Britain, Germany, and Austria that protecting the rainforest was crucial. They also used their social networks to attract followers from around the world. In addition to these critical steps, activists teamed up with notable local environmental organizations such as Friends of Clayoquot Sound and several larger organizations, including Greenpeace International, Rainforest Action Network, and Western Canada Wilderness Committee. These organizations helped catalyze the movement and demonstrated how vital social networks are in a successful environmental campaign.
With the help of these organizations, activists introduced their movement into the marketplace. They began targeting buyers of B.C. wood and convincing them to cancel their contracts with BC paper suppliers. While protests occurred, “American organizations sent out a mailing list to the country’s largest newspaper, magazine, and phone directory publishers, urging them to end business ties to MacMillan Bloedel.” Environmentalists emphasized the moral issues behind supporting these big logging cooperations and tried to educate these companies on the loss of habitat and soil erosion that clear-cutting causes. These organizational efforts brought legitimacy, attention, and political involvement to the movement.
During that summer, activists also encouraged celebrities to support their efforts. Famous Canadian actors and authors such as Oliver Stone, Tom Cruise, Barbra Streisand, and Robert Redford publicly denounced the continuation of logging in Clayoquot Sound. These celebrities were drawn to the protestor’s cause and passion for the rainforest’s ecological diversity. This tactic successfully brought the movement into the media spotlight and helped spread the word.
Activists in this movement took advantage of the POS available to them for resource mobilization: reaching out to international organizations, taking advantage of social networks, introducing the movement into the marketplace, and using celebrity recognition for increased media exposure.
As the protests continued to block logging trucks that summer, MacMillan declared that protesters were violating a court ruling. This court ruling resulted in arrests, stiff fines, and mass trials of about 932 people. Following this incident, the Peace Camps eventually closed, and the government contested that protesters disobeyed the mandate permitting MacMillan Bloedel to clear-cut. Despite the prosecutions, the protesters successfully made their point. After some time, the B.C. government assigned a panel of First Nations people and scientists to provide recommendations on the situation and decide on acceptable logging laws. In conclusion, the clear-cutting rates dropped dramatically, and five years later, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared that the entire Clayoquot Sounds was designated as a global biosphere reserve.
The Clayoquot Sound protests demonstrate a perfect example of a successful environmental movement. Not only did protestors and activists manage to save the ecological diversity, but they also got people thinking about the implications of clear-cutting and other unsustainable practices that harm the environment. The key to their success was framing the movement in a way that made sense to the public and resonated with a diverse group of people. By framing the movement as environmental, peaceful, educational, political, and feminist, protestors and activists were able to evoke feelings of familiarity within people and inspire them to take action before it was too late. Today, other environmental groups are influenced by the Clayoquot Sound protester’s perseverance, dedication, and organizational structure.
Several groups leading environmental change today are led by former participants of Clayoquot Sound. Tzeporag Berman, a woman who participated in the movement, is now an acclaimed Canadian activist. Although Berman, along with many others, was arrested for protesting in 1993, she now works for Greenpeace, she was appointed by B.C.’s premier to the Green Energy Task Force, and she was listed in BC Business Magazine as one of British Columbia’s Most Influential Women. Other success stories include Ken Wu, Chris Genovali, and Valerie Langer. Through these stories, it is clear that those who fought for the protection of Clayoquot Sound continue to express passion and care for this planet.
By: Kate Zitzmann
