Vancouver Sun -- New eco-based logging regime coming to Great Bear Rainforest
February 7th, 2008
VANCOUVER -- The B.C. government announced today it has signed new legally binding rules committing forest companies to eco-based logging on the province's north and central coast.
The new logging regime for the area, dubbed the Great Bear Rainforest, was announced by Agriculture and Lands Minister Pat Bell at a Vancouver news conference where he was flanked by leaders from eco-groups, industry and first nations, signalling the broad support the initiative has received.
The 10-year-long war in the woods has ended in "a love-in of collaboration," said first nations leader Dallas Smith, of the groups assembled for the news conference.
Land-use plans for the region were announced two years ago but implementing the measures has taken some time. The adoption of ecosystem-based logging is a significant step forward, said Valerie Langer, of the eco-group ForestEthics.
"The new logging regime is something that has never been done before, she said. "It takes a lot of tenacity on everybody's part."
Ecosystem-based management is the emerging practice on the coast where logging takes place in the context of leaving an intact environment behind. But equally critical - and yet to be tested - it must also balance community needs and be economically sound.
Bell said the key to balancing environmental values with human and economic needs lies in marketing the region's wood products as being "a cutting-edge world-class model of forestry that speaks to the sustainability of our industries.
"Ecosystem-based management is about environmental values but it is also about social and economic values," Bell said. "This is something we can truly be proud of and market internationally."
Bell also said a $120-million economic develop fund has been created for first nations. The funds were raised by environmental foundations and matched by the federal and provincial governments.
Forest company leaders said they're committed to smaller harvests in the region and intend to market the eco-friendly label their wood products will now have.
The region's products are "leading the pack," in blending ecosystem-based logging with a sustainable economy, said Duncan Kerr of the Coast's largest forest company, Western Forest Products.
Forest companies are to receive an unspecified reduction in the stumpage rates they pay on Crown timber to compensate for added costs. They have one year to become fully compliant with the new logging framework.
Bell said the legal objectives cover 6.4 million hectares - an area twice the size of Vancouver Island - and include 1.8 million hectares of protected areas. Logging is to be subject to 15 legally-binding objectives including:
- Protection of grizzly bear habitat.
- Specific harvesting set-backs from streams to protect salmon.
- Ensuring not only adequate protection of old-growth but also protection of younger forests where necessary to ensure there will be old growth in the future. The measures are to be fully implemented by March 2009.
