After years of respectful dialogue, the B.C government has partnered with the Saulteau and West Moberly First Nations and the federal government to achieve a historic agreement that strives to protect southern mountain caribou in northeastern B.C., while considering the social and economic well-being of communities and stakeholders in the region.

First Nations, environmental groups and coastal forest industry representatives joined the Province to celebrate achieving ecosystem-based management in the Great Bear Rainforest.

A new agreement with First Nations in the north that provides certainty around resource development along with a reduced backlog of mining permits will help create jobs in the mining sector, Premier Christy Clark announced today in her speech to Round Up 2012.

Premier Christy Clark and Taku River Tlingit First Nation spokesperson John Ward signed an agreement that creates 13 new protected areas and provides resource development opportunities and investment certainty in more than three million hectares (approximately 11,500 square miles) in the Atlin Taku region of northwestern B.C.