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Stand up to Support MP Patrick Weiler's Motion to Protect Old-Growth Forests!
Member of Parliament (MP) Patrick Weiler has introduced a federal motion that launches an enhanced BC old-growth protection fund of $82 million, increased from the original $50 million - contingent on matching BC funds, that would bring the total to $164 million.
In the Great Bear Rainforest, $120 million was indispensable to help ensure the legislated protection of over 2 million hectares (an area two-thirds the size of Vancouver Island, or triple the size of Banff National Park) - so $164 million will be no small deal on the ground.
Weiler's motion also calls for the much larger, federal-provincial BC Nature Fund, worth many hundreds of millions more to expand protected areas in general across in BC (which we're still waiting on as negotiations continue between the federal and provincial governments and First Nations) to also prioritize protection for old-growth forests in BC.
The motion also calls for an end to the international export of old-growth raw logs and wood products from across Canada as quickly as possible, and to prohibit old-growth destruction on federal lands (military and national park lands, where occasional road and infrastructure projects can destroy old-growth).
Weiler, the MP for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country, should be commended for his leadership here, and his motion fits with Biden's initiative to potentially end old-growth logging on US federal lands, and Weiler is helping to lead the way towards a similar initiative in Canada.
Funding for First Nations capacity, stewardship and economic development is an indispensable component to protect old-growth forests in BC. Old-growth forests across BC are on the unceded territories of diverse First Nations, whose consent is a legal necessity for the establishment of new protected areas on Crown / unceded First Nations lands (ie. the provincial government legally cannot unilaterally protect old-growth forests in BC – the support of the local First Nations is a necessity, and the province should and must undertake the needed policy framework and provide key funding as part of the “enabling conditions” to facilitate interested First Nations to establish new protected areas).
Across BC, many or most First Nations have a major economic dependency on timber revenues and jobs, including on old-growth logging. Therefore, conservation financing from government and conservation groups is vital to facilitate the development of an alternative sustainable economy in the communities based on tourism, clean energy, sustainable seafood, non-timber forest products, value-added sustainable second-growth forestry, etc linked to the establishment of new Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area initiatives (typically legislated via Provincial Conservancy or other Protected Area designations in BC).
In the Great Bear Rainforest and Haida Gwaii, major funding from the federal and provincial governments and conservation groups has allowed high levels of old-growth protection, and a similar initiative is underway in Clayoquot Sound. Such an approach is vital to secure protection for the remaining old-growth forests across BC, and Weiler's motion helps to move this process along.
Read details on Weiler's federal motion here
Please SEND a MESSAGE to the federal government and to your Member of Parliament to get behind this motion! Speak up here:
SEND a MESSAGE here:
YOUR MESSAGE WILL BE SENT TO: Member of Parliament - West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country Patrick Weiler, Federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault, Federal Minister of Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson, Federal Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland, Minister of International Trade Mary Ng, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Gary Anandasangaree, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. And also BC Premier David Eby, BC Minister of Water, Land, and Resource Stewardship Nathan Cullen, BC Minister of Forests Bruce Ralston, BC Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Murray Rankin, and your Federal MP.