Business

In our part of the world, society's wealth comes from a market economy. We vote only periodically for government officials, but we vote every day with how we spend our money. I believe that business has an incredible ability to change our world for good

Ecotourism: Maple Leaf Adventures

I've co-owned and operated Maple Leaf Adventures since 2001, after my time as a land use negotiator on the Great Bear Rainforest agreement, where we committed to a conservation based economy in the region.
Maple Leaf Adventures is committed to creating a great sustainable tourism industry in British Columbia and southeast Alaska.
We provide high-quality adventures, following the principles of eco-tourism, where we not only respect the environment and communities of our coast, but we give back to protect and regenerate, too.
The trips provide special access to the wildlife, landscapes, culture and nature of the coast, while providing the excitement of an adventure by ship.

The Trips

Since 1986 Maple Leaf has offered what are now called expedition cruises -- but in a very small-scale way.
We take 8, 12, or 24 guests for weeklong journeys. There are few roads along this coastline; dozens of fjords slice through the coast mountains and archipleagos of islands cluster offshore. Our 'safaris' are by boat and the ocean is our road.
Through our trips, guests experience and learn about the ecosystems, wildlife and people of the coast.
We work with dozens of First Nations, through various kinds of agreements, while travelling in their territory.
The trips have won awards for quality and sustainability and are part of changing how we view our place and our responsibility in the world.
For more information, visit Maple Leaf Adventures.

Our headquarters and ships’ home port is in downtown Victoria, in the homelands of the Songhees and Esquimalt People. Our trips explore all along the coast in the traditional, unceded territory of many First Nations. This includes nations in the broad language groups of Coast Salish, Kwak’wala, Nuučaan’ut, Oowekyala/’Uik’ala, Nuxalk, Hailhzaqvla, Sm’algyax, Haida and Tlingit. More specifically, some of our First Nation friends invite us into their communities and territories including:Toba Inlet (Klahoose Nation), Alert Bay (‘Namgis Nation), Kyuquot (Ka:’yu:’k’t’h’/Che:k:tles7et’h’ Nation), Port Hardy (Gwa’sala-‘Nakwaxdaw’xw Nations), W̓áláqvḷa (Heiltsuk Nation), Klemtu (Kitasoo/Xai’xais Nation), Hartley Bay (Gitga’at Nation), Kitamaat (Haisla Nation), the Kitlope (Xenaksiala), Masset and Skidegate (Haida Nation) and communities in Tlingit traditional territory. We are particularly pleased to have been able to work with the Gitga’at, Kitasoo-Xai’xais and the Heiltsuk nations to formalize a common understanding, along with our land and sea acknowledgements, in protocol agreements, and with the Haida through the Archipelago Management Board in Gwaii Haanas. We look forward to more of these kinds of respectful relationships in future. We are pleased that our guests can learn from these communities about their rich cultures that have existed here since time immemorial. For those interested in learning more we encourage you to visit the First Peoples Map of BC.