Brown bears in the Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia
Canada is home to one of the rarest and most endangered types of ancient forest in the world - coastal temperate rainforests. They only exist in their natural state in temperate zones, stretching along the west coast of Canada and much of the US. These forests only ever covered 0.2 percent of the earth's land surface, and are far rarer than tropical rainforests.
These forests are home to some of the oldest, largest and most magnificent trees on earth as well as to an abundance of wildlife including bears, wolves, eagles and salmon. The unique way in which the salmon in the river interact with the nutrient cycle of the rainforest ecosystem provides the dietary backbone for animals of the forest and the local indigenous people who have inhabited this rainforest coast for thousands of years.
On Wednesday, April 4, 2001, the government of British Columbia announced support for new approaches to conservation and forest management in BC's Great Bear Rainforest.
This is a significant first step in ensuring the future protection of Canada's Great Bear Rainforest on British Columbia's central and north coasts.
This region of one-thousand year old cedar trees, towering ancient spruce, grizzly, black and rare white "Spirit" bears, wild salmon, eagles, wolves and enormous biological diversity is globally rare and truly an international treasure worthy of protection.
These first steps by the forest industry and politicians toward ensuring a healthy future for the rainforest follow an intensive global campaign by Greenpeace to build a consensus of opposition among international buyers of forest products to the irresponsible destruction of BC's last intact rainforests.
The agreement includes:
- Protection of 20 large, pristine rainforest valleys (18 on the central coast, 2 in the northern Kalum forest district) which will be protected from industrial logging and development.
- On moratorium on another 69 large valleys which will be designated as "option areas" with no logging allowed for the next 12 to 24 months.
- A government-to-government protocol with six First Nations ensuring principles of ecosystem-based management form the basis for future land use plans in their traditional territories.
- A multi-party process to develop an ecosystem-based plan for the temperate rainforest is expected to lead to further protection as well as ecologically responsible logging practices.
- Bi-lateral agreements will lead to voluntary moratoria on some critical valleys outside the Great Bear Rainforest, and processes to move to resolution.
These decisions do not completely ensure the future health of the Great Bear Rainforest, but are the first concrete steps in the right direction. Ecosystem-based management recognizes the need for large, contiguous tracts of wilderness and the need for ecologically responsible logging practices.
