New Protection Areas established on British Columbia Coast (Great Bear Rainforest)

Twenty large protection areas have been established in the coastal rainforests of British Columbia.

British Columbia today passed regulations to legally establish 20 new protection areas for the white kermode bear and other ecological areas in the rainforests of the Central Coast, also known as the Great Bear Rainforest.

The new protection areas, totalling 441,000 hectares (more than one million acres), were recommended by First Nations (aboriginal people), forest companies, conservation groups, government, communities and others through cooperative land use planning.

The protection areas are temporary, since boundaries may change as a result of stakeholder-based planning, scheduled for completion in spring 2003.

Other progress includes:

Harvesting deferrals: Over the past year, forest companies have voluntarily chosen not to harvest in any of the proposed protection areas or option areas identified in the preliminary land use agreement. Government has now introduced regulations to ensure that no harvesting occurs in these areas while land use planning is under way.

Ecosystem-based forestry: Robert Prescott-Allen, an internationally-renowned expert on sustainable development, has been appointed to head an independent Coast Information Team. The Team will help develop ecosystem-based management to sustain healthy ecosystems and support communities along much of the provinces coast. Pilot projects are now under way to help define ecosystem-based management.

Community transition: An independent $35 million trust fund has been established to help workers and communities impacted by land use planning.

First Nations: Agreements between the B.C. government and coastal First Nations establish a partnership role for First Nations in land use planning, and provide a basis for economic development.

For more information, see http://www.growingtogether.ca/centralcoast/index.htm