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British Columbia is the most ecologically diverse province in Canada, with ecosystems ranging from towering old-growth temperate rainforests to hot dry grasslands, from low elevation wetlands to high elevation alpine tundra, and from freshwater to marine ecosystems. These ecosystems are key for the health, well-being and prosperity of all British Columbians. They also sustain diverse First Nations, whose cultures evolved in them over millenia.
Currently, about 15% of the province is safeguarded in legislated protected areas, with ecosystems across the province at risk from a variety of industrial threats including commercial logging, suburban sprawl, oil and gas, mining, and agricultural conversion.
In BC the provincial government cannot unilaterally establish protected areas - First Nations support is a legal necessity for the establishment of protected areas on their unceded territories. Therefore, logging deferrals and the protection of old-growth forests in BC move at the speed of the will of local First Nations.
However, the BC government can and should ensure the enabling conditions - the policy framework and funding for sustainable economic alternatives for First Nations communities to old-growth timber revenues and jobs - in order to facilitate the ability of First Nations to viably choose protection options for old-growth forests and endangered ecosystems.
Under Premier David Eby, the province has committed recently to expand protected areas to 30% by 2030 (ie. to double protected areas over 7 years), to devise a conservation financing mechanism (ie. funding for sustainable economic development linked to new protected areas) to support First Nations Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCA’s), to prioritize biodiverse areas for protection (which needs greater definition and policy development), to remove the constraints on conservation designations in BC’s forest practices regulations, to develop a Biodiversity Declaration that prioritizes biodiversity and ecosystems in forestry and land-use decisions, and to support a transition to a lower volume, more value-added forest industry retooled to handle smaller diameter trees (instead of the forest giants). These are all vital steps forward that are needed to help pave the path for a major protected areas expansion over the coming months and years.
However, missing still is any major immediate funding needed to offset the lost revenues of First Nations in order to enable them to implement deferrals on logging of the most at-risk old-growth forests with high-value timber in their territories - by far the hardest ecosystems to achieve protection for. The province must provide these funds immediately to stop some of the last of these forest giants from falling.
In addition, ecosystem-based targets set by science and informed by Traditional Ecological Knowledge are vital to ensure the prioritization of the most at-risk ecosystems for protection - otherwise protected areas will continue to be designated largely in alpine, subalpine, bog/muskeg and far northern landscapes with small trees or no trees, and minimized in the most endangered, productive old-growth forests with big trees and in valley-bottom ecosystems where most biodiversity and species at risk are found - and that are most coveted by industry.
YOUR voice has taken BC much closer now to a sea change towards major environmental protection. But we are not there yet. Please continue to SPEAK UP to ensure that the key funding for old-growth logging deferrals and protection, and for ecosystem-based targets based on science in the forthcoming protected areas expansion.
PLEASE SEND a MESSAGE Below to the BC and Federal governments:
YOUR MESSAGE WILL BE SENT TO: BC Premier David Eby, Minister of Finance Katrine Conroy, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change George Heyman, Minister of Forests Bruce Ralston, Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Murray Rankin, Minister of Tourism Lana Popham, Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Nathan Cullen, Minister of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation Brenda Bailey, Minister of Municipal Affairs Anne Kang, BC Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau, Green Party MLA Adam Olsen, BC Opposition Leader Kevin Falcon, and your own MLA if you live in BC. Also Federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Green Party Leader MP Elizabeth May, NDP MP Jagmeet Singh, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, and your Federal MP.
MORE INFO:
Protecting nature is not only vital to protect biodiversity and to store vast amounts of atmospheric carbon, but increasing research shows that being in nature is important for our health, with trees and plants emitting compounds known as "phytoncides" that boost our immune systems to remove virus- and cancer-infected cells from our bodies.
Research also shows that protected areas attract and support much more diverse, resilient and prosperous economies based on tourism, recreation, enhanced real estate values, attracting skilled labour, providing clean water and habitat for commercial and recreational fishing, supporting non-timber forest products like wild mushrooms, and providing ecosystem services like flood and erosion control, clean water, regional climate regulation and natural sewage treatment.
Old-growth forests, among the most iconic ecosystems in BC, are vital to support endangered species, First Nations cultures, clean water, wild salmon, the climate, tourism, and recreation. Alas a century of industrial logging has resulted in well over 90% of the most productive old-growth stands being logged, replaced by tree plantations that lack the unique qualities of the original old-growth forests, and that will be re-logged every 50 to 80 years, never to become old-growth again.
Across BC, most natural areas and old-growth forests are on the unceded lands of diverse First Nations, whose consent and support is a legal necessity to establish new legislated protected areas.
The BC government must finally come on board and strike up an effective Nature Agreement with the federal government, where they adopt the federal protected areas targets at a minimum, develop protection targets for all ecosystem-types (otherwise most protected areas will end up saving a lot of alpine "rock and ice" and subalpine landscapes, largely avoiding the productive forests with timber value and valley bottoms where most endangered species and ecosystems are), emphasize funding for First Nations sustainable economic development linked to new protected areas (known as "conservation financing") and for private land acquisition.