People settled the Great Bear Rainforest soon after the last Ice age. Thirteen different language families exist among the many First Nations who live here — their totem poles, long houses, and archeologically significant sites are found throughout the area. This place is their past and their future.

The context of land use planning and the development and implementation of ecosystem-based management on the coast of British Columbia is defined in large part by the rights of aboriginal people.  There are 26 First Nations whose traditional territories include land and water within the Central Coast and North Coast.  As a result, the negotiation of comprehensive treaties, protocol agreements, interim measures, consultation and First Nations' land use planning are part-and-parcel of coastal planning.

Through their government-to-government relationship the Province and First Nations ratified consensus land use plans, oversaw the implementation of EBM and ratified the final 2016 Great Bear Rainforest Agreement.