Former Poplar River band councillor wins award for protecting boreal forest
Manitoba woman wins international award for protecting boreal forest
Steve Lambert, Canadian Press - April 22, 2007
WINNIPEG -- Sophia Rabliauskas has seen what mining, hydroelectric dams, logging and other projects have done to aboriginal lands. And she doesn't like it.
"We know the land that's being destroyed, the devastation that it leaves behind with communities and people," the quiet 47-year-old said in an interview. "People that depend on the land... have been displaced from their communities and are still suffering today."
"(My goal) is for our people to use the land the way they have always used it."
Rabliauskas has spent years trying to get permanent protection against development for residents of the Poplar River First Nation, an isolated community on the east side of Lake Winnipeg.
She was recognized for her efforts Sunday, as the North American recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize -- an award that has been handed out every year since 1990 to one person from each continent in recognition of grassroots environmental work.
Only three other Canadians have won the award, including Matthew Coon Come, who led the Quebec Cree battle against hydro dam development in northern Quebec.
Rabliauskas's work paid off partially in 2004, when the Manitoba government offered interim protection of the 8,100-square-kilometre area -- larger than Prince Edward Island.
The province has announced its intention to offer permanent protection to Poplar River, and has also launched land-use planning consultations with aboriginal leaders on a vast 83,000-square-kilometre area that covers much of the east side of Lake Winnipeg, including Poplar River.
Rabliauskas, whose duties have included working as a band councillor, said the award belongs to all Poplar River residents.
"We know exactly what we want and we've been working on this for years. To actually see the result of work that's been done... I'm very proud of our community," she said.
The east side of Lake Winnipeg includes a huge section of pristine boreal forest, which environmentalists say plays an important role in the ecosystem.
"I like to talk about (the boreal forest) as a green halo that runs across the top of the Earth," said Kim Fry, a Toronto-based forest advocate with Greenpeace who calls the boreal an important habitat for fish, fowl and caribou.
"The majority of the world's freshwater is stored in the lakes and rivers and waters of the boreal forest."
"What a lot of Canadians don't realize is that . . . the majority of the waterfowl -- the ducks, the songbirds -- that travel through southern Canada are actually on their way up to the boreal. And that's where they make their nesting grounds."
Some areas of the Canadian boreal forest have been clear cut for lumber or have had been dug up for mining. Some forestry operations run just south of the Poplar River area.
Rabliauskas's husband, Ray, a land-use co-ordinator with the Poplar River band, said the jobs that come with such development are a high price to pay.
"We get a lot of support from communities up north whose lands have been flooded (by hydro dams) and communities in the south whose lands have been logged out. They warn us and tell us, 'What you're doing is really important, and don't let what happened to us happen to you.'