It’s Time for the Government of British Columbia to become a Conservation Leader, not a Laggard, and Join the National and International Protected Areas Movement.
The BC government could end the War in the Woods right now by committing to significant protected areas FUNDING and TARGETS.
Please SEND a MESSAGE below!
**UPDATE: The federal government has recently kicked-in $50 million for a BC old-growth protection fund, which joins the $2.3 billion national protected areas fund allocated in the federal budget issued last spring, of which BC’s share would be several $ hundred million dollars (much of which would also go to old-growth forest protection).
NOW the primary ONUS is on the BC GOVERNMENT to DO ITS PART.
British Columbia has the greatest ecological diversity in Canada, from magnificent but highly endangered old-growth temperate rainforests to dry grasslands and forests, from valley-bottom wetlands to high alpine tundra.
The BC government must join the international protected areas movement by committing to:
Expand Protected Areas Targets to at least 25% by 2025 and 30% by 2030 of its land and marine areas, in line with Canada’s targets at a bare minimum. Scientists say that 50% of the Earth should be safeguarded in nature by 2030 in order to avert the climate and extinction crises.
Provide several $hundred million in funding for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (including to save old-growth forests) and to buy private lands from willing sellers - this is their responsibility.
Embrace the new major $2.3 billion in federal funding ASAP for new protected areas, including to protect old-growth forests. The BC government has just been handed a golden opportunity to largely end the War in the Woods - if they choose to take it.
Enact ecosystem-based targets for new protected areas, including making key productivity distinctions in old-growth forests (to protect the grandest high-productivity forests, not just the low-productivity bogs and subalpine forests with smaller trees).
Ensure stringent protected areas standards, so that “creative accounting” of tenuous conservation regulations are not included as “protected areas”.
Support BC communities in this shift, including providing conservation financing for sustainable economic development in First Nations communities linked to new Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas, incentives and regulations for a value-added, second-growth forest industry across BC, and a just transition for BC old-growth forestry workers.
NOT increase the economic dependency of BC communities on old-growth logging and old-growth timber revenues (most forests are second-growth now in BC) - any move to entrench the economic stake of communities to log until extinction will be placed squarely on the shoulders of this provincial government.
Across the world, countries, states, provinces, and Indigenous nations are moving to greatly expand their protected areas systems. Canada has committed to double its protected areas from 13% of its land area now to 25% by 2025, and has joined over 60 countries including the US and Mexico to commit to protecting 30% by 2030. The success of Canada to meet its protected areas commitments is fundamentally determined by the provinces, including BC.
BC, which has protected 15% of its land area, has not yet committed to meeting these national and international protection targets, nor has the province provided any dedicated funding to expand protected areas or to save old-growth forests.
Old-growth forests are vital to sustain endangered species, First Nations cultures, the climate, clean water, wild salmon, and tourism and recreation. They are not replicated in their structure and function by the ensuing second-growth tree plantations that are re-logged every 50 to 60 years on BC’s coast - never to become old-growth again.
Instead of fostering a value-added, second-growth forest industry (most forests in BC are second-growth now), the BC government is continuing to allow the large-scale industrial logging of the most endangered high-productivity (grandest) old-growth forests at a breakneck speed. Time is running out - and everyone knows it.
In contrast, the federal government which has just committed $3.3 billion to expand protected areas across Canada over 5 years, including $2.3 billion to protect land-based ecosystems, largely to finance Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCA’s) and to purchase and protect private lands from willing sellers. Another $1 billion will protect marine ecosystems.
This new federal funding comes at an absolutely critical time when the BC government is developing a new set of old-growth forest policies and legislation for the province, including deciding which areas will be subject to deferrals on old-growth logging and potentially protected, in consultation with First Nations whose unceded lands these are. The funding is vital to support First Nations Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCA’s) and associated conservation-based businesses and jobs.
However, the BC government has failed to commit any major protected areas funding of its own thusfar, and it is unclear how much the BC government will embrace BC’s share of the federal nature protection funding, which would likely be between $200 to $300 million - enough to protect a significant fraction of the most endangered old-growth forests in BC.
Will the BC government join the national and international movement to protect endangered ecosystems, or will the be left behind as a conservation laggard responsible for facilitating the demise of some of the world’s finest, last old-growth temperate forests?
SEND A MESSAGE! It's time for the BC government to get on board the protected areas momentum sweeping the world now and embrace the key protection targets, policies and funding! The Canadian government should help protect old-growth forests by ensuring that a greater amount (significantly more than $50 million) of federal funding goes to protect the most at-risk old-growth forests in BC.
YOUR MESSAGE WILL BE SENT TO: BC Premier David Eby, BC Minister of Finance Selina Robinson, BC Minister of the Environment and Climate Change George Heyman, BC Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Murray Rankin, BC Minister of Land, Water, and Resource Stewardship Josie Osborne, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations, and Rural Development Katrine Conroy, Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sports Lisa Beare, Minister of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation Ravi Kahlon, Minister for Municipal Affairs Nathan Cullen, BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau, Green MLA Adam Olsen, Opposition Leader of BC Shirley Bond, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault, Federal Minister of Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson, Federal Minister of Indigenous Services Patty Hajdu, Federal Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland, Leader of the New Democratic Party Jagmeet Singh, NDP Critic for Environment and Climate Change Laurel Collins, Green MP Elizabeth May, Green MP Paul Manley, Interim Leader of the Conservative Party Candice Bergen. BC resident’s message will be delivered to their MLA, and all Canadians will have their message sent to their MP.
More Important Information about BC Protected Areas and old-growth forests:
See an important press release about all this here and see a new press release about the recent $50 million dollar federal old-growth fund here.
Across BC, the vast majority of endangered ecosystems including old-growth forests are on the unceded lands of diverse First Nations, many or most of whom are developing their own protection and conservation plans - largely unrecognized by the provincial government - for their territories.
The old-growth temperate rainforests of North America’s West Coast store more carbon per hectare than any other forests on Earth – even more per hectare than tropical rainforests do. They are also vital to sustain species at risk (marbled murrelets, mountain caribou, spotted owls, northern goshawks, etc.), many First Nations cultures (many who use the ancient redcedars for longhouses, dugout canoes, totem poles, and masks), tourism, recreation, clean water, and wild salmon.
All of BC’s diverse native ecosystems, including grasslands, wetlands, dry and wet forests, many tracdts of second-growth forests, freshwater and marine ecosystems, and the diversity of native ecosystems also require expanded protection.
Scientists say that about 50% of Earth should be safeguarded in natural areas by 2030 (with at least 30% in protected areas, 20% in de facto Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures or OECM’s), in order to draw-down enough carbon into protected forests, grasslands, and wetlands to enable us to reach our climate targets, and to avert the mass extinction crisis.
The Canadian government has adopted a framework to help guide protected areas policies and targets based on three land conditions:
Condition 1: Urban and farm landscapes (ie. heavily impacted, with critically important natural habitat patches remaining, over 50% impacted by an industrial footprint per 100 km^2). In BC, these are largely in the Lower Mainland, eastern Vancouver Island, and in portions of some major Interior valleys (eg. Okanagan Valley), and include the greatest concentration of species at risk in grasslands, Garry oak and Coastal Douglas-fir ecosystems, Fraser Valley lowland ecosystems, etc. Land acquisition funding from the province as well as from land trusts, municipalities, regional districts, and the federal government are vital to purchase and protect private lands in these areas, as well as protecting remnant Crown and municipal lands with First Nations.
Condition 2: Shared lands (ie. moderate impact, major resource extraction like logging and natural gas extraction, but significant natural areas and wilderness remain, between 0.5% to 50% impacted per 100 km^2). In BC, most of the medium and high-productivity (ie. grandest old-growth forests) are found in this land condition, as well as productive forests in general of both high conservation value and timber value. Key financing for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas and for First Nations land use plans is vital to protect these lands.
Condition 3: Wild lands (ie. low industrial impacts, less than 0.5% impacted per 100 km^2, mostly natural areas). In BC these areas consist mainly of alpine, subalpine, and low productivity old-growth forests, and large parts of northern BC and the highest mountain ranges are in this land condition. Financing for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas is vital to protect these lands.
These land conditions roughly correspond across Canada to the South, Middle, and North, and also to the low, medium and high-elevation landscapes in mountainous British Columbia, and their different conditions require different policy mechanisms and targets to protect their biodiversity.
Under major pressure, the BC government agreed in September of 2020 to undertake a potential policy overhaul and provincial land use planning process for logging deferrals and the potential protection of major tracts of old-growth forests across the province. The BC government has committed in theory to implement all 14 recommendations of their public input panel, the Old-Growth Strategic Review Panel, that they appointed in the fall of 2019.
However, the BC government has already missed the 6 month deadline to defer old-growth logging in the most at-risk old-growth forest types (the high-productivity, rarest, oldest and most intact old-growth) as recommended by the panel. It has been over one year since the BC government received the Old-Growth Strategic Review Panel’s report, although in their PR-spin they have falsely insinuating that they have enacted these deferrals. In fact, they have placed logging deferrals on 11 areas across the province, of which only 1% consists of previously unprotected high-productivity old-growth forests.
The BC government’s latest budget fails to include critically important funding for Indigenous old-growth protection initiatives.
Across much of BC, First Nations have an economic dependency on old-growth timber revenues via revenue-sharing, employment, joint venture and tenure agreements facilitated by successive BC governments, often in the most contentious old-growth forests. To protect old-growth forests on the unceded territories of First Nations (most of BC) will require that the BC and federal governments help provide the critical financing for First Nations old-growth protection initiatives, including for land use planning, Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas management and stewardship, and the development of conservation-based economies including eco- and cultural tourism, clean energy, sustainable seafood, non-timber forest products (eg. wild mushrooms), and value-added second-growth forestry in First Nations communities. This is the critical path to protecting old-growth forests and establishing protected areas in BC.
The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) released a resolution in September of 2020 calling for the implementation of immediate old-growth logging deferrals based on the criteria of the Old-Growth Strategic Review panel recommendations, and for the province to finance Indigenous old-growth protection initiatives: https://www.ubcic.bc.ca/old_growth_forests_in_b_c_remain_on_the_chopping_block They also released a joint letter with the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance and BC conservation groups reiterating the call for this funding at: https://www.endangeredecosystemsalliance.org/news/2021/2/25/ubcic-and-conservation-groups-ask-bc-government-for-critical-funding-for-first-nations-old-growth-protection-initiatives
Without this critical funding, the BC government is likely aiming for First Nations (whose unceded lands encompass most of British Columbia and whose consent is required for new logging deferrals and protected areas) as a whole to fall back largely on the side of the status quo of major industrial logging of high and medium-productivity old-growth forests due to their dependency on old-growth timber revenues that the BC government has facilitated and fostered over decades. The federal government’s $2.3 billion in funding could provide an economic and political way out from the old-growth timber dependency of First Nations communities and to protect old-growth forests - but the province must not work to obstruct or undermine the free-flow of these federal funds.
As the rest of the world moves forward to expand protected areas, it’s vital that the provincial government not seek to create loopholes to evade protecting lands most sought after by resource extraction interests, such as high-productivity old-growth forests, while claiming credit for establishing protected areas. They could attempt to do this by failing to ensure ecosystem-based targets and thus almost exclusively protect alpine, subalpine and low productivity forests of little to no timber value (and also lacking the biodiversity, species at risk, carbon storage value, and tourism value of the lower elevation old-growth forests that they seek to avoid protecting), which thusfar has been their strategy, and through “creative accounting” by including tenuous conservation regulations like Old-Growth Management Areas where boundaries can readily be changed by bureaucrats for logging as “protected areas”.
The old-growth temperate rainforests of North America’s West Coast store more carbon per hectare than any other forests on Earth – even more per hectare than tropical rainforests do. They are also vital to sustain species at risk (marbled murrelets, mountain caribou, spotted owls, northern goshawks, etc.), First Nations cultures (who use the ancient redcedars for longhouses, dugout canoes, totem poles, and masks), tourism, recreation, clean water, and wild salmon.
Numerous studies show that protected areas are a major net benefit to building more diversified, resilient and prosperous economies than the traditional industrial resource liquidation industries (eg. old-growth logging, fossil fuel extraction, coal mining, etc) in many areas.
Science is also showing how nature is vital for our health, by boosting our immune systems, removing stress, and providing all manner of ecosystem services like clean water, flood and erosion control, and regional and global climate regulation.
Over the ensuing months of 2021 we will see if the BC NDP government works to ensure the key solutions to the ecological crisis by increasing the protected areas system in the high-productivity old-growth forests, which will require federal and provincial funding for First Nations-led protected areas - or if they instead move to increase the economic dependency of communities on old-growth logging, to deny funding for the sustainable alternatives, and continue to minimize protection of the grandest, high-productivity old-growth forests and most contested ecosystems.