Post by blackcrowheart on Feb 11, 2006 12:15:44 GMT -5
Canada unveils huge new park on B.C. coast
JEREMY HAINSWORTH
ASSOCIATED PRESS
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Canadian officials unveiled a 16
million-acre preserve today, including parkland covering an area more
than twice the size of Yellowstone, teeming with grizzly bears, wolves
and wild salmon in the ancestral home of many native tribes.
Closing another chapter of the wars between environmentalists and
loggers, the Great Bear Rainforest is the result of an accord between
governments, aboriginal First Nations, the logging industry and
environmentalists.
The preserve will stretch 250 miles along British Columbia's rugged
Pacific coastline -- the ancestral home of groups whose cultures date
back thousands of years. The area also sustains a rare white bear found
only in British Columbia.
“The agreement on these areas represents an unprecedented collaboration
between First Nations, industry, local governments and many other
stakeholders in how we manage the vast richness of B.C.'s coast for the
benefit of all British Columbians,” said Premier Gordon Campbell, who
was accompanied by native dancers and drummers for the announcement and
formal First Nations blessing.
“The result is a strong marriage that balances the needs of the
environment with the need for sustainable jobs and a strong economic
future for coastal communities,” he said.
Campbell said 4.4 million acres of the total would be protected outright
and managed as parkland, with another 11.6 million run under an
ecosystem management plan to ensure sustainable forestry with minimal
impact on the environment.
Full implementation of the project is not expected until 2009.
British Columbia's lush evergreen forests have been the scene of decades
of confrontation between environmentalists and loggers. Successful
boycott campaigns in the 1990s led to large international companies
turning away from British Columbia paper and wood products, forcing the
government to find a negotiated solution.
“British Columbians are showing that it is possible to protect the
environment and provide the economic foundation for healthy
communities,” said Lisa Matthaus, coast campaign co-ordinator for the
Sierra Club of Canada's British Columbia chapter. “This innovative
rainforest agreement provides a real world example of how people and
wilderness can prosper together.”
The region is home to hundreds of species, including grizzlies, black
bears, the so-called spirit bear, wolves, cougars, mountain goats, moose
and deer. The spirit bear is a rare white species and is also called the
kermode bear.
A central component of the Great Bear Rainforest project will be a $104
million conservation financing package to support the land-use
agreements.
To date, Greenpeace Canada, the Sierra Club of Canada and ForestEthics,
the Nature Conservancy, Tides Canada Foundation and several private U.S.
and Canadian foundations have raised $52 million to help establish the
financing package.
The provincial government has committed $26 million and project partners
are working to secure the rest from Canada's federal government.
Speaking on behalf of the 25 aboriginal groups involved in the project,
Art Sterritt of the North Coast First Nations said the agreement would
allow for controlled use of the land and let natives continue their
traditional lifestyles.
“It wasn't an easy job,” he said. “Everyone had to make compromises here
and there.”
ON THE WEB
Rainforest Solution Project: www.savethegreatbear.org/
Raincoast Conservation Society: www.raincoast.org
www.bellinghamherald.com
JEREMY HAINSWORTH
ASSOCIATED PRESS
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Canadian officials unveiled a 16
million-acre preserve today, including parkland covering an area more
than twice the size of Yellowstone, teeming with grizzly bears, wolves
and wild salmon in the ancestral home of many native tribes.
Closing another chapter of the wars between environmentalists and
loggers, the Great Bear Rainforest is the result of an accord between
governments, aboriginal First Nations, the logging industry and
environmentalists.
The preserve will stretch 250 miles along British Columbia's rugged
Pacific coastline -- the ancestral home of groups whose cultures date
back thousands of years. The area also sustains a rare white bear found
only in British Columbia.
“The agreement on these areas represents an unprecedented collaboration
between First Nations, industry, local governments and many other
stakeholders in how we manage the vast richness of B.C.'s coast for the
benefit of all British Columbians,” said Premier Gordon Campbell, who
was accompanied by native dancers and drummers for the announcement and
formal First Nations blessing.
“The result is a strong marriage that balances the needs of the
environment with the need for sustainable jobs and a strong economic
future for coastal communities,” he said.
Campbell said 4.4 million acres of the total would be protected outright
and managed as parkland, with another 11.6 million run under an
ecosystem management plan to ensure sustainable forestry with minimal
impact on the environment.
Full implementation of the project is not expected until 2009.
British Columbia's lush evergreen forests have been the scene of decades
of confrontation between environmentalists and loggers. Successful
boycott campaigns in the 1990s led to large international companies
turning away from British Columbia paper and wood products, forcing the
government to find a negotiated solution.
“British Columbians are showing that it is possible to protect the
environment and provide the economic foundation for healthy
communities,” said Lisa Matthaus, coast campaign co-ordinator for the
Sierra Club of Canada's British Columbia chapter. “This innovative
rainforest agreement provides a real world example of how people and
wilderness can prosper together.”
The region is home to hundreds of species, including grizzlies, black
bears, the so-called spirit bear, wolves, cougars, mountain goats, moose
and deer. The spirit bear is a rare white species and is also called the
kermode bear.
A central component of the Great Bear Rainforest project will be a $104
million conservation financing package to support the land-use
agreements.
To date, Greenpeace Canada, the Sierra Club of Canada and ForestEthics,
the Nature Conservancy, Tides Canada Foundation and several private U.S.
and Canadian foundations have raised $52 million to help establish the
financing package.
The provincial government has committed $26 million and project partners
are working to secure the rest from Canada's federal government.
Speaking on behalf of the 25 aboriginal groups involved in the project,
Art Sterritt of the North Coast First Nations said the agreement would
allow for controlled use of the land and let natives continue their
traditional lifestyles.
“It wasn't an easy job,” he said. “Everyone had to make compromises here
and there.”
ON THE WEB
Rainforest Solution Project: www.savethegreatbear.org/
Raincoast Conservation Society: www.raincoast.org
www.bellinghamherald.com