Here’s a message from the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance's executive director Ken Wu:
Friends, I've spent the last 30 years of my life working non-stop to protect old-growth forests in BC, and for the first time I can truly see a light at the end of the tunnel. For the first time there is a real chance to systematically end the logging of endangered old-growth across the province.
The BC government under massive public pressure during the last election in October agreed to implement all 14 recommendations of their public input panel, the Old-Growth Strategic Review Panel, which they convened in October of 2019 only after years of massive citizens pressure as they tried to backslide away from their 2017 pre-election promise to protect old-growth (which itself took years of massive public pressure...they don't just move to break away from the multi-billion dollar status quo of old-growth timber on their own accord).
If fully implemented, the panel's recommendations would result in immediate logging deferrals and likely the permanent legislated protection afterwards of the high-productivity (ie. grandest, richest), most endangered (by ecosystem type), oldest and most intact old-growth forests in BC.
Now, for the first time after decades of policy stagnation while the ancient forests have fallen, the BC government has opened the door to a major policy and legislative change on old-growth protection across BC for the remaining 10.6 million hectares of old-growth (of which 2.3 million hectares are medium-productivity old-growth stands and 415,000 hectares are high-productivity old-growth stands - the two productivity classes of greatest value to the timber industry and of the greatest conservation urgency. Low productivity old-growth may increasingly be at risk by the still modest but burgeoning wood pellet industry, an issue we will also be tackling.).
But to get there several things still must happen, namely:
1. The BC and federal governments must provide the critical funding to implement the panel's recommendations, in particular for First Nations Indigenous Protected Areas and land-use planning focused on protecting old-growth, to help finance the development of conservation-based economies (eg. tourism, clean energy, sustainable seafood, non-timber forest products like wild mushrooms, value-added second-growth forestry, etc) in First Nations communities as an economic alternative to the major old-growth logging jobs and revenues in those communities (an economic path-dependency fostered by successive BC governments including this one), and to purchase and protect old-growth forests on private lands. Without the funding and support for First Nations communities, the systematic, large-scale logging deferrals and protection of old-growth forests simply will not and cannot happen - and the BC government not only knows this well, but I suspect is banking on this.
2. Make the deferral and protection of high-productivity old-growth forests (ie. The "ecological heart" of BC's old-growth forests with the greatest species richness and largest trees, and the hardest hit by logging) a central part of the BC government's mandate in going forward with new policies - along with ecological integrity as the overriding management principle for BC's forestry legislation. The province will seek to backslide, evade, and find/create all sorts of loopholes, excuses, spin, and rationalizations and to undertake all manner of stalling tactics regarding high-productivity old-growth forests in particular - as this is where the real logging money is, and by no coincidence it is also the central conservation battle (though it is not limited to high-productivity stands, of course).
3. Foster a major value-added, sustainable second-growth forest industry by implementing key incentives (eg. rebates and tax-relief for new investments, education and skills training, R&D, marketing, etc.) and regulations (restrictions on log exports, developing regional log sorts, etc) with a focus on lower volume but more labour-intensive, higher-end products. BC can sustain and even expand forestry employment levels while protecting old-growth forests if the province pro-actively works to increase the jobs to harvest volume ratio through such policies.
But to get there it will require supporting First Nations old-growth/ protected areas champions and their land use planning efforts, including pushing for the key financing they need, and to continue to develop and mobilize a large-scale, broad-base and diverse movement (including of non-traditional allies in businesses, unions, diverse faith groups, multi-cultural outreach, etc) to ratchet up the pressure further. Otherwise, there will be space for a very calculating , shrewd and reluctant provincial government to try to sustain the status quo of massive industrial old-growth logging for as long as possible - and time is running out.
The current national and international movement to expand protected areas (Canada has committed to double protected areas from 12% to 25% by 2025, and 30% by 2030...BC has protected 15% of the province but has not committed to any of this yet) is also creating pressure on the province to protect endangered ecosystems like old-growth forests, and this is a central part of the context within which we operate.
I am dedicated to seeing this through, an end to to old-growth logging across BC has been in my dreams and my efforts for decades, it is the issue that has defined my lifetime thusfar. The Endangered Ecosystems Alliance is the organizational vehicle that I created 2 years ago to focus on protecting the diversity of endangered ecosystems across Canada (including non-forested ecosystems like grasslands, another great passion of mine) - but the protection of old-growth forests in BC has been a central part of our efforts from the start.
We need substantially more funding to build a bigger team of activists and to undertake the key projects that will play a decisive role within the mix of initiatives currently underway by First Nations, environmentalists, scientists, policy analysts, unions, businesses, civil servants and politicians regarding the fate of BC's old-growth forests. Here's our chance to seize the greatest opportunity to end old-growth logging in BC that is currently upon us.
Please help us out with whatever you can! Donate here: https://www.endangeredecosystemsalliance.org/donate