2006 Annual Report

In a conservation economy, growth Ecotrust Canada Annual Report 2006 is about‘getting rich slow.’ It is about ensuring that companies and communities profit on the interest, not capital, of nature. That means harvesting trees without destroying the rainforest ecosystem. It means fishing without erasing the very stocks that feed us. It means tapping into energy sources that are clean and renewable. But most of all, a conservation economy is about people — where they live, how they prosper. People, place and profit. That’s the conservation economy. Ecotrust Canada Annual Report 2006 / Page 1 Executive letter A Conscious Economy Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth, has arguably had a more transformative effect on how people think about the environment than any other single event of this generation. Now the hard part starts: turning awareness into action. That’s because “action” is often viewed only through the lens of consumerism. Drive a smarter car, buy a carbon offset, screw in a fluorescent light bulb — all of these actions worthy, but somehow not quite enough. If people — and by extension the governments we elect, and the companies we invest in or work for — all now have a heightened consciousness about the environment, why can’t we have a more conscious economy? Why is there such a yawning gap between the economy we want — one that delivers clean air, clean water, healthy food, good jobs and time to share with families — and an economy that overheats the planet and imperils us all? In a word, investment. With rare exceptions, there is vastly too little capital invested in enterprises that strive not just for a financial return, but for social and environmental returns as well. Without a fundamental shift in how we view money, the gap between what we want and what we get from our economy will continue to grow. As we envision a conservation economy, we realize we are also striving for a conscious economy — one where people invest their money, save their money and, yes, spend their money carefully, intentionally, consciously. At Ecotrust Canada, we take encouragement from Europe’s Triodos Bank, and its vision of the future of finance. “If money makes the world go around, why not turn it in the right direction?” Triodos asks. It champions “conscious investment” in businesses that make a difference, which enables customers and consumers to do so, too. Closer to home, we take heart from the Great Bear Rainforest agreements that have brought new capital to our coast — a conscious effort to invest in conservation and communities. We applaud investments in leadership, as in the selection of Guujaaw, president of the Council of the Haida Nation, as winner of the 2006 Buffett Award for Indigenous Leadership. And we make investments of our own — in the stewardship future of Cougar Annie’s Garden, in new fishing, forestry and energy enterprises, and in our new subsidiary, Ecotrust Canada Capital. As befits an organization whose resources are modest and whose ambitions are boundless, we rely on many partners to achieve our goals. As such, we take comfort from the fact that a lot of people seem to want the same thing we do. A conscious, indeed a conservation economy. Jacqueline Koerner Ian Gill Chair President Ecotrust Canada Annual Report 2006 / Pages 2 / 3 hooked on conservation Groundfish are some of the slowest-growing fish on the B.C. coast. Quillback rockfish have been known to live to 76 years and red snapper to 117 years. A female spiny dogfish reaches reproductive maturity after 19 years. A sustainable fishery of these long-lived species demands the highest a thousand-year conservation standards in the world. In 2006, Ecotrust Canada partnered with a group of Vancouver Island fishermen to found and finance the Pacific Coast Fisheries Conservation Company. This unique enterprise owns business plan fish quota and leases it to member-fishermen to improve their sustainable fishing practices. These hook-and-line fishermen represent a sea change in how we harvest our ocean’s bounty. Conservation doesn’t have to be about stopping logging. Instead, think about a thousand-year business plan that generates value from our forests for generations to come. That’s what ecosystem-based management (EBM) can accomplish. This new eco-forestry approach minimizes the risk to the ecosystem first, and then designs appropriate logging to suit. The rainforest ecosystem remains fully functional after low-impact logging. Ecotrust Canada is a leader in understanding and implementing EBM forestry on the B.C. coast. We have established partnerships in Clayoquot Sound, the Great Bear Rainforest and Whistler to prove that EBM forestry works for communities and conservation. growing wisely Nestled between the wet coast and dry interior plateau — a transition zone known as the Sea to Sky corridor — the Lil’wat people are witnessing unprecedented growth in their traditional territory. They receive some eighty referrals for development projects each year. The population in neighbouring Pemberton has ballooned and the region will host the 2010 Winter Olympics. Ecotrust Canada helped the Lil’wat Nation in Mount Currie launch a new Geographic Information Systems or GIS Program to map out the development pressures in their territory. Through GIS and proper planning, the Lil’wat are making more informed decisions about the use of the rivers, lands and wilderness in their territory. going against the grain Alfred Butterfield and Dali Lin are going against the grain in more ways than one. While most of B.C.’s forest companies are building bigger and faster mills, these two business partners launched TF Sawmill, a small specialty mill in Cumberland that operates at a fraction of the speed of most industrial mills. Its niche is quality, not quantity. As they buck conventional wisdom, TF Sawmill bucks logs differently too. Logs are cut from the inside-out creating highly stable lumber of exceptional appearance. TF Sawmill is just one of the innovative enterprises that Ecotrust Canada financed through our business lending program this year. 06 Program highlights Business Lending Real Estate Transforming progressive ideas into profitable enterprises is at the heart of building Our work this year centred on feasibility studies for a new administrative a conservation economy. One way we do this is by providing loans to small- and building for the Tsleil Waututh Nation in North Vancouver and a downtown medium-sized enterprises. This year our new subsidiary, Ecotrust Canada Capital, redevelopment project for the ‘Namgis Nation in Alert Bay. We also produced a - - made 15 new loans totaling $1.7 million to entrepreneurs who incorporate study on real estate opportunities in Clayoquot Sound for the Nuu-chah-nulth ecological values in their operations, and who promote jobs and diversification in Central Region Management Board. rural and Aboriginal communities. Some 354 people were employed in full-time, part-time and seasonal jobs by businesses financed by our lending program in Aboriginal Mapping Network 2006. More than a quarter of our portfolio is made up of Aboriginal entrepreneurs, Revamped and relaunched, the Aboriginal Mapping Network (AMN) has a bold including a new loan to Taku Wild, a fisheries enterprise owned by the Taku River new look and many new functions including discussion forums, a network user Tlingit First Nation. map and job postings. The website is now based on open-source software and allows mappers from British Columbia and around the world to share best GIS & Planning practices in Indigenous people’s mapping methodologies. Launched in 1998 as Our work this year shifted in two telling directions in the Great Bear Rainforest on an online resource for local First Nations, the AMN has expanded into a global the Central Coast. First, we began working with the Heiltsuk Nation in Bella Bella hub of Aboriginal know-how. From Africa to Ahousat, more than 800 users to implement their land-use plan in two distinct watersheds. Second, modeled on across six continents have registered with the AMN (see map below). For more the success of this terrestrial work, the Heiltsuk marine-use planning process information visit www.nativemaps.org. completed initial work on the community’s vision, and on data collection and research. Ecotrust Canada also developed the first phase of the Lil’wat’s Indian Reserve plan in Mount Currie and built an electronic catalogue to better manage Aboriginal Mapping Network their geographic information. The catalogue’s innovative software was then shared Worldwide registered users with the Haida and Heiltsuk. We continued to provide support to the Haida Mapping Office and built a GIS model of biophysical diversity for Haida Gwaii. Tourism For the past 20 years, Peter Buckland has doggedly worked to reclaim Cougar Annie’s Garden and to build the Temperate Rainforest Field Study Centre in Clayoquot Sound. In 1999, he founded the nonprofit Boat Basin Foundation to maintain and operate the 117-acre property located above Hesquiat Harbour 50 km northwest of Tofino. This year Ecotrust Canada became a stewardship partner to help the Foundation deliver research, educational and cultural tourism offerings at the Field Study Centre and historic garden. For more information visit www.boatbasin.org. Ecotrust Canada Annual Report 2006 / Pages 8 / 9 06 Program highlights Fisheries In partnership with six commercial fishermen, Ecotrust Canada founded and New Aiyansh financed the Pacific Coast Fisheries Conservation Company, an innovative business model that promotes community-based fisheries and conservation. The company owns a pool of groundfish quota which its member-fishermen lease at a fair price to better enable them to meet new fisheries conservation rules. The fishermen Masset Prince Rupert Terrace have also agreed to a “conservation covenant” furthering their commitment to sustainable fishing practices. We are now developing software to improve the efficiency of recording catch and trading quota in B.C.’s integrated groundfish fishery.

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