MONTREAL - Multi-million dollar oil and forestry plans could be thrown into doubt if Canada's Supreme Court rules in favour of native peoples in a dispute over the use of their ancestral lands.

The case, being considered on Wednesday and Thursday, centers on the extent to which authorities and private corporations in western British Columbia must consult aboriginal peoples on land that they claim.

The case has the potential to throw a spanner into future oil, mining or forestry projects envisaged for areas in Canada which are claimed all or in part by native peoples.

British Columbia's government took the case to the country's highest court, after coming out on the wrong side of two Court of Appeals rulings.

The first covered objections of Haida Indians to a forestry project in their traditional lands in the Queen Charlotte islands, close to Alaska.

The Haida based their arguments on the spiritual role played by trees in their ancient culture, and their use in producing cedar totems.

They contend the British Columbia government failed to consult them sufficiently on a project on their ancestral lands.

The Court of Appeals upheld their complaint in 2002, and for the first time criticised a private firm in this area of the law, forest products conglomerate Weyerhaeuser.

The second case is a similar complaint by native Taku River Tlingit peoples, against British Columbia authorities involved in a mining project.

There again, the legal authorities concluded that the state has an obligation to take ancestral claims to land into account before contemplating exploration projects.

Both courts ruled that natives must be consulted as soon as they have a plausible claim on land, even if that claim has not been established in law.

But Geoff Plant, British Columbia Attorney General hit back: "We live in a province that is covered by claims of arborigonal rights."

"Almost all the land of British Colombia is covered by arboriginal claims,"

he said.

"Every day some government official has to make decision about a fishing resort or ranchers who want to extend their grazing or a timber company who wants to cut trees down."

As Plant suggests, the implications for the case could be enormous, as British Columbia mulls whether to end its moratorium on offshore oil exploration, in waters which are claimed by First Nations.

The Supreme Court hearing featured lawyers for other Canadian provinces as well as big corporations, who would be loath to see native peoples given an effective veto over their operations.

"A new era of managing the forests of British Columbia in a spirit of cooperation could be ahead, if it is determined that business had an obligation to consult native people," said EAGLE, an aboriginal group arguing the Haida's case.

A ruling is expected in the case late this year, or early next year.

AFP 25 March 2004