P>We are interested in making contact with native organizations involved in either of the following areas: (1) preservation of important cultural and environmental sites against outside industrial forces and; (2) the development of alternative economic strategies for native community self-reliance, especially strategies that utilize the resource base in an environmentally-sound and culturally-reinforcing manner.

We are presently engaged in developing economic alternatives that will preserve a large and spiritually important wilderness from road-building and clear-cut logging. We would be most appreciative if individuals or organizations who can offer us relevant experience or information would contact us concerning their activities.

Michael M'Gonigle, Institute for New Economics, 4551 West 15th Avenue Vancouver, B.C. V6R 3B3 Tel. 604-228-8339

Incorporated in 1982, the Institute for New Economics is a charitable research organization undertaking comprehensive studies on issues of sustainable economic development. Founded by a variety of professionals - a lawyer, an anthropologist, a political scientist, an economist and a practicing businessman - the Institute uses economic, ecological, anthropological and legal tools in its concern to harmonize three areas of importance to Canadian life: (1) a stable path for economic development; (2) the enhancement of native cultural values and ecological preservation; (3) the strengthening of the local community base.

The Institute is currently engaged in two projects. The first is the Native Economic Development Project. This project is being funded by the Donner Canadian Foundation. In many parts of Canada, native (and non-native) populations find themselves in a chronic state of economic depression at the very time their traditional resource base is being eroded, often by other, non-local, interests. This situation is a recurrent theme in lands claims cases. Meanwhile, the question of what type of economic development is possible and desirable for such communities is given relatively scant attention. Focusing on one region, the Institute is developing new strategies for economic development which will benefit a large population of local native people, the Lillooet and Thompson peoples of southwestern British Columbia. The "model" produced by the project will have great implications for native and non-native economic development in other regions throughout the country.

A major focus for this region is the future of the largest virgin wilderness watershed in southern British Columbia. This is the Stein River Valley, a 450-square mile undeveloped area within the traditional hunting, gathering and ceremonial grounds of this large native population. At present, the only economic uses envisioned for the Stein Valley are clear-cut logging and mining, both of which involve intensive but relatively short-term exploitation.

The Stein is a central feature of the area, but it is only one component of the overall regional economy. The study examines larger structural questions about what type of economic futures are available for this region. This provides the necessary context for evaluating the most "economic" use of the area's resources. For example, economists today rarely question what dependence a community should put on non-regional economic trade as compared with developing greater self-reliance through an enhanced local economy. Such questions are increasingly important given the vulnerability of regional economies to world-wide cycles of inflation and recession. This particular regional economy, for example, has been seriously depressed due to its almost complete dependence on international timber markets, which have yet to recover sufficiently from the deep recession which ushered in the decade. The project addresses the issue of the appropriate balance between local independence and trade interdependence, and, in this light, examines alternative options for development which will give the area more control over its economic destiny.

The Institute's second project will provide a general critique of Canadian economic policy. The focus of analysis is the effect of a market and government-based centralization in a variety of economic sectors. Prevailing economic approaches (across the entire political spectrum) are predominantly concerned with the level of economic activity and not with the character of this activity. Yet, as our study will demonstrate, economic centralization is perhaps the single most important ingredient in the problems affecting such areas as agriculture, forestry, urban development, native affairs, and various manufacturing and service sectors. It is also the underlying determinant of recurrent cycles of recession, inflation, unemployment and debt. Examining these issues, the study will re-examine such largely unquestioned articles of economic faith as labor-shedding productivity, efficiency defined in purely monetary terms, increasing international trade as the prime source of new wealth and so on. The questions it raises will take the economic debate far beyond the state analyses offered by both Left and Right. In short, the study seeks to provide a new framework for economic policy, one which is more oriented toward economic stability and sustainability at the community and national levels.

Article copyright Cultural Survival, Inc.