Before COP15, Conservation Groups call on BC Government to Commit to Funding and Targets to Expand Protected Areas in BC

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For Immediate Release
November 30, 2022

BC has a chance to protect the most endangered ecosystems and promote community economic, social and cultural well-being linked to nature conservation – and also to finally end the War in the Woods over old-growth forests.

In the lead-up to the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal where 195 countries will meet next week to negotiate new international protected areas targets and policies, the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance (EEA) and the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) are calling on the BC government to commit to the federal protected areas targets to protect 25% by 2025 and 30% by 2030 its land and marine areas, at a bare minimum, and to ensure a significant federal-provincial funding package (the “Nature Agreement” that is currently being negotiated) that directs funding for the right “places, parties, and purposes” needed to ensure an effective protected areas system in BC.

The federal government has committed $3.3 billion over 5 years to expand terrestrial ($2.3 billion) and marine ($1 billion) protected areas, along with several billion dollars more for “natural climate solutions” that often overlap with nature protection initiatives.

BC’s share of those funds are between $200 to $400 million, yet the province has neither embraced the federal funds nor committed its own funds – nor even embraced the federal protected areas targets yet.

For the protection of the most at-risk old-growth stands, the federal government has also earmarked $55 million in a BC old-growth fund (a campaign for this fund was spearheaded by the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance with the Union of BC Indian Chiefs in 2020), contingent on BC providing matching funding for a total old-growth fund of $110 million – which again the BC government has not committed to.

For almost 2 years, the federal and BC governments have been in negotiations to develop a bi-lateral Nature Agreement on a funding package with protected areas targets for BC, yet still nothing has been announced just 1 week from the start of the UN Biodiversity Conference.

“Now is the time, in the lead-up to the UN Biodiversity Conference, for the BC government to commit to major federal funding and to provide its own funding on a sufficient scale. With significant funding and protected areas targets, including targets for all ecosystem types that ensures prioritization for the most underrepresented and at-risk ecosystems, such as the last of the ‘high-productivity’ old-growth stands with the biggest trees, we could see a historically unprecedented expansion of the protected areas system to safeguard the rarest and most endangered ecosystems in BC – and to end the half-century long ‘War in the Woods’. We’ve maintained for years that funding is the fundamental driver for protected areas expansion in BC, in particular to support First Nations sustainable economic development linked to new protected areas and for private land acquisition. Without this funding, major protected areas expansion in BC cannot happen at a scale and speed commensurate to the extinction and climate crises”, stated Ken Wu, Endangered Ecosystems Alliance Executive Director.

“Thousand-year-old trees with trunks as wide as living rooms and as tall as downtown skyscrapers are still being cut on a daily basis in BC. The provincial government has reaped billions from the logging of these highly endangered and irreplaceable ecosystems and now, with the planet facing a climate and biodiversity crisis that threatens the survival of even our own species, it’s time for them to give back. This means matching the federal government’s major funding commitments towards expanding protected areas in BC, adding additional funds of their own, and ensuring those funds are directed towards protecting the highest value forests that remain, not just scrub, rock, and ice. Leaving high-value old-growth forests standing needs to be made as economically viable for communities, even in the short term, as cutting them down”, stated TJ Watt, Campaigner and Photographer with the Ancient Forest Alliance.

AFA’s TJ Watt beside an old-growth redcedar stump near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory.

Across BC, most old-growth forests and endangered ecosystems are on the unceded territories of diverse First Nations, whose consent is a legal necessity to establish new legislated protected areas in the province. The British Columbian government is currently under pressure to help finance First Nations old-growth logging deferrals and protection, in particular to fund First Nations sustainable businesses and jobs linked to new protected areas, a process known as “conservation financing”. Across BC, numerous First Nations have an economic dependency on old-growth timber revenues that has been facilitated and fostered by successive provincial governments. Unfortunately, the provincial government has not committed the key funding to First Nations to help them develop economic alternatives to old-growth logging (in such industries as tourism, clean energy, sustainable seafood, or non-timber forest products like wild mushrooms) as was done in years past to secure the protection for large sections of BC’s Central and North Coast (ie. the Great Bear Rainforest) and Haida Gwaii, and as is currently underway to protect most of Clayoquot Sound. Without the key funding, many or most cases First Nations will have no choice but to default back to the status quo of old-growth logging on large parts of their territories.

That is, major funding worth several hundred million dollars is needed to support sustainable economic alternatives (ie. business development) for First Nations communities linked to Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas and old-growth logging deferrals. Compensation currently exists for First Nations forestry workers (ie. the labour side) via the province’s $185 million fund to support BC forestry workers affected by old-growth logging deferrals, while the province has also provided $12 million (an insufficient amount) to help First Nations undertake land-use planning, including assessing old-growth logging deferrals and the impacts to their communities. However, it is the “business side” of the equation – the largest part of funding needs, estimated to cost about $600 to $800 million for First Nations in order to supplant their old-growth logging interests (for example, to protect much of the Great Bear Rainforest, which is 6% of the land area in BC, $120 million in conservation financing was brought in from environmental groups and the provincial and federal governments, and tens of millions more in carbon offset funding) that will enable them to protect the most at-risk old-growth forests in BC – that is lacking from government at this time. Additional funds are also needed by First Nations to protect non-old-growth forest ecosystems as well – second-growth forests, grasslands, wetlands, etc.

At its core, to actually protect the most contested and endangered high-productivity old-growth forests sought after by the timber industry with the biggest trees and greatest biological richness, the conservation financing for First Nations businesses must be tied to supplanting old-growth logging interests specifically in the stands most coveted for logging. Simply providing capacity funding or labour support, or even economic development funding not linked to protecting the most valuable old-growth timber, is a recipe for the biggest and best old-growth stands to still fall, while new protected areas skirt around these monumental stands and instead protect smaller trees in the lower-productivity old-growth stands typically at higher elevations, in poor soils or in boggy landscapes, and that have fewer species at risk and which are far more represented in the existing protected areas system.

Unprotected old-growth forest at risk of future logging on Edinburgh Mountain near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory.

In addition, to protect endangered ecosystems and old-growth forests on private lands, provincial and federal government funding is needed to purchase these lands. In BC, only about 5% of the lands are privately owned, concentrated on southeastern Vancouver Island, in the Lower Mainland, and in major river valleys in BC.

If the BC government ends up providing major funding and adopting the federal protected areas targets with a new Nature Agreement deal, there are still ways the agreement can come up short. For such a deal to be most effective, the funding must be directed to the key “places, parties, and purposes”:

Places: Priority must be given to the most endangered ecosystems that are most at risk from industry – in particular logging, agricultural conversion and suburban sprawl – in the major valley bottoms and lower elevations in southern BC where most of the people and industry are, and by no coincidence where most species and ecosystem at risk are. The government will tend to protect vast areas of lower productivity “rock and ice” – alpine areas at high elevations and far northern forests with minimal timber value in order to maximize the hectares protected for PR purposes and that minimize the impacts to most industries, which also minimizes protection for the vast majority of species and ecosystems at risk. These alpine, subalpine, far northern, and bog ecosystems are native ecosystems that deserve protection, but a far greater emphasis must be on saving the most contested, endangered ecosystems right now given the current ecological crisis.

The government also has to stop its “creative accounting” on how much they claim is protected in BC. About 15% of BC is in legislated protected areas – however, in some of its PR claims, the province has sometimes been adding an extra 4%, largely in tenuous conservation regulations, known as Old-Growth Management Areas and Wildlife Habitat Areas, that lack the permanency (OGMA’s can be moved around in chunks and logged, for example) and/or the standards (oil and gas and some logging is allowed in some types of WHA’s) of real protected areas.

Parties: Priority should be given to First Nations sustainable economic development linked to new protected areas and conservation reserves. Legally mandated corporate compensation for logging, mining and oil and gas companies should be years down the road – First Nations must come first, being Nations, as they decide the fate of their unceded territories. Land acquisition funding for private lands is also important.

In addition, as most First Nations have not initiated new land use planning processes where protected areas are decided, it is vital that much of the funding be “open” and uncommitted at this time to help drive protection options during the land use planning processes over the next couple years.

Purposes: Funding for the development of sustainable businesses for interested First Nations that is linked to new protected areas is by far the largest amount of funding needed – smaller funds are needed for First Nations capacity around land-use planning and deferral assessments and for interim jobs and labour needs. Without this core business development funding, protected areas will be add-ons that will largely skirt around the status quo of old-growth logging in the core areas with the biggest trees. The excuse of government saying that “First Nations haven’t been telling us they want conservation financing” is both incorrect in many cases, and often disingenuous when they haven’t even raised the possibility of any major conservation financing to First Nations.

Increasing the economic dependency of communities on old-growth logging, whether First Nations or non-First Nations, is the wrong approach for these conservation funds, including tenure buy-backs if they lack legal conservation measures to protect the remaining old-growth and endangered ecosystems.

Provincial funds are also needed from other sources – but not from the conservation funds of a Nature Agreement – to support incentives for a value-added, second-growth forest industry and the expansion of a smart, second-growth engineered wood products industry in general across BC.

It should also be noted that forestry revenue-sharing agreements do not constitute “conservation financing” for First Nations, contrary to the recent PR-spin of the BC government – quite the oppositive, it entrenches the economic dependency of the communities on old-growth logging (which would be akin to sharing oil and gas revenues, and then expecting the communities to then stop oil and gas activities).

“We hope the new Premier David Eby takes this chance for a major protected areas funding agreement of a sufficient size and with ambitious targets, aimed at the most endangered ecosystems and that prioritizes support for First Nations. He can end the War in the Woods and ensure the protection of the amazing diversity of endangered ecosystems across BC – what a great start to his first 100 days that would be and a historic leap forward for the planet!” stated Ken Wu, Endangered Ecosystems Alliance Executive Director.

EEA Excutive Director, Ken Wu, beside an incredible unproteted old-growth redcedar at Jurassic Grove near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory.

More background info:

Old-growth forests are vital to support endangered species, First Nations cultures, the climate, clean water, wild salmon, and tourism.

Protecting nature is not only vital to avert the extinction crisis and the climate crisis (by drawing down vast amounts of atmospheric carbon into protected forests, grasslands, and wetlands) but research shows that nature and protected areas are vital for our health and for the economy.

Increasing studies show that being in forests and nature supports our mental and physical health, reducing all sorts of ailments and boosting our immune systems. Recent research has even shown that many trees and plants emit a defensive compound called “phytoncides” which boost our immune systems when we breathe them in.

Studies also show that protected areas, including protecting old-growth forests, attract and foster more diverse, resilient, and prosperous economies, including supporting businesses and jobs in the tourism and recreation sectors; commercial and recreational fishing industry by sustaining clean water and fish habitat; real estate industry by enhancing property values in communities near protected green spaces; non-timber forest products industries like wild mushroom harvesting; high tech sector by attracting skilled labour that locates to areas with a greater environmental quality of life; and by providing numerous ecosystem services that benefit businesses.

The province appointed an independent science team, the Technical Advisory Panel, in 2021 who recommended that logging be deferred on 2.6 million hectares of land with the grandest (biggest trees), oldest and, rarest old-growth stands while First Nations land use plans are developed over a couple years to decide which areas are permanently protected in legislation. These recommended deferral areas have been put forward by the BC government for the consent of local First Nations to decide which areas get deferred. Currently about 1 million of the recommended 2.6 million hectares (ie. 40%) are under deferral, while some areas have been logged. Unfortunately, the provincial government has not committed any concrete funding to First Nations to offset their lost revenues should they accept old-growth logging deferrals in areas where they have logging interests, nor to help them develop economic alternatives to old-growth logging.

EEA Executive Director, Ken Wu, by an old-growth Douglas-fir in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni on Vancouver Island in Hupacasath, Tseshaht, & Uclulet territory.

Before-and-after images of old-growth logging in the lower Caycuse Valley, captured by AFA conservation photographer TJ Watt.

Giant trees still fall amid old-growth funding lag for BC First Nations

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November 27, 2022
The Canadian Press
By Brenna Owen

British Columbia has asked First Nations if they want old-growth forests set aside from logging, allowing time for long-term planning of conservation and sustainable development, but it has yet to fund the process on a large scale, advocates say.

In the meantime, some of the biggest and oldest trees are being cut down.

Several years before the BC government launched the process last November to defer logging in old-growth forests at risk of permanent biodiversity loss, Ahousaht First Nation was developing the land-use vision for its territory on Vancouver Island.

It was with careful analysis that Ahousaht decided how to balance environmental and economic outcomes, said Tyson Atleo, a hereditary leader of the nation whose territory spans Clayoquot Sound, a globally recognized biosphere reserve.

Ahousaht has largely done the work without major public funding, he said. Instead, the nation has secured grants and support from organizations including Nature United, the charity where Atleo works as natural climate solutions program director.

“This is long and hard work that is a part of nation building,” Atleo said.

“You need to have a vision, and in order to have a vision, you need to have the resources, and in order to implement the vision you need to have partnerships with Crown governments, likely corporations, as well as supporting (non-governmental) partners, and you need to have a vision for your economic future,” he said.

The neighbouring Hesquiaht and Tla-o-qui-aht nations were working on similar plans in the fall of 2020, when the BC government issued an order to defer logging across more than 170,000 hectares of old-growth forests around Clayoquot Sound, while it works with the nations to establish permanently protected areas.

Ahousaht was in favour of deferral because the nation believes “very strongly (in) preservation of old-growth systems … not just for the potential economic benefits of protection, but for the ecological and cultural benefits,” Atleo added.

A year ago, BC announced that an expert panel had mapped 2.6 million hectares of old-growth forests identified as “rare, at-risk, and irreplaceable.”

At the same time, the province asked 204 First Nations to decide whether they supported the deferral of logging in those areas for an initial two-year period, allowing time for the province to develop “a new approach to sustainable forest management that prioritizes ecosystem health and community resiliency.”

However, it has yet to announce significant funding to support the complex process for nations to consider how to preserve old growth while developing alternative sources of revenue and economic opportunities aligned with stewardship goals.

Conservation comes with economic costs, said Atleo, especially in communities that depend on forestry revenues. It must be paired with some kind of compensation or support for sustainable economic diversification, he said.

“The philanthropic community is stepping up and offering a stewardship endowment in the case of (Clayoquot Sound) because of the high biological diversity in the region, but it’s a model that we should be looking at publicly,” he said.

“The government might not have a long-term vision, which for me means there’s space for nations to step up and define what that vision might be,” he added.

In its most recent public update on deferral areas provided nearly eight months ago, the Forests Ministry said the province had received responses from 75 First Nations in support of deferrals across 1.05 million hectares of at-risk forests, while 60 had requested more time and seven had indicated they didn’t support the plan.

In response to a request for the total area set aside in the first year of the deferral process, the ministry said it’s working toward an update in the near future.

Unless a First Nation expresses support for deferrals in its territory, the areas remain open to potential logging and applications for new logging permits.

About 9,300 hectares of the proposed deferrals — an area 23 times the size of Vancouver’s Stanley Park — have been logged over the last year, the ministry said.

The deferral areas contain some of the largest and most ecologically important old-growth forests left in BC, said TJ Watt, a photographer whose images of ancient trees before and after logging first captured global attention in 2020.

Watt’s photos from the Caycuse watershed on southwestern Vancouver Island show massive trees, then their stumps after they were cut. Some were logged a few months before they were identified as part of the deferral process, he said.

About 15,000 hectares of the proposed deferral areas had already been logged in the year leading up to the announcement last November, the Forests Ministry said.

Another area in the Caycuse was logged a couple of months after the start of the deferral process, said Watt,who uses GPS, geo-tagging on his photos, publicly available data and satellite images to confirm the location and status of cut blocks.

The province’s publicly available mapping shows cut blocks overlapping with proposed old-growth deferral areas in the Caycuse and other areas across BC.

The Caycuse watershed is located in Ditidaht First Nation territory.

Reached by phone, Ditidaht Chief Councillor Brian Tate said he had a full schedule and couldn’t comment on old-growth logging in the nation’s territory.

Teal-Jones, the forestry company that holds the rights for cut blocks in the Caycuse watershed, said in a statement it is not harvesting in areas that have been deferred.

Watt said he feels BC is putting First Nations in an unfair position by asking them to choose between generating forestry revenue and pausing logging without compensation or support for sustainable economic and ecological development.

Conservation financing is the key element that enabled the large-scale protection of old-growth forests in the Great Bear Rainforest, said Watt, a National Geographic explorer whose work was funded by the Royal Canadian Geographic Society.

It could mean developing eco-tourism or sustainable fisheries, or expanding Indigenous Guardian programs, which support a variety of land-based jobs.

“None of this can happen for free,” Watt said.

“It takes some leadership from the province to say, ‘We’ve taken from you for more than a century, now we’re asking you to protect these forests because it’s an ecological emergency, here is how we’re going to help make thatpossible’,” said Watt, who works with the Ancient Forest Alliance, a BC-based advocacy group.

In an email, the Forests Ministry said BC is currently working to establish a new conservation financing mechanism to support permanent old-growth protection.

The BC government began sharing forestry revenues with First Nations in the early 2000s. Last spring, it more than doubled the amount it shares with eligible nations, leading to an estimated increase of $63 million this year, the ministry said.

In response to a series of questions, the ministry said the increase would “more than offset” any short-term revenue impacts arising from old-growth deferrals.

The province has not received any direct requests from First Nations for compensation as a condition for supporting the temporary deferrals, it said.

BC provided just shy of $12.7 million over three years to support First Nations through the deferral process, amounting to about $20,000 per year for each nation.

At the time, Grand Chief Steward Phillip with the BC Union of Indian Chiefs called that funding “totally insufficient to undertake the work.”

The province’s 2022 budget earmarked $185 million over three years to support the forest industry, its workers, and First Nations through the deferrals.

Watt noted the federal government committed up to $55.1 million over three years to establish a BC “Old Growth Nature Fund” in its budget earlier this year.

The money would be available in 2022-2023, but it’s conditional — the BC government must match the federal investment in order to establish the fund.

BC’s Ministry of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship did not answer a question about whether the province plans to match Ottawa’s pledge.

Dallas Smith, a member of Tlowitsis Nation on the east coast of Vancouver Island who helped negotiate the Great Bear Rainforest protection agreement, said the lack of funding is a gap in the deferral process, and BC has yet to communicate a clear plan to help First Nations with long-term planning.

“Even if nations wanted to protect more, (the province) didn’t have capacity to sit down and deal with all those nations and actually have a planning process,” said Smith.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 27, 2022.

Read the original article. [Original article no longer available]

Before and after photos show devastating effects of intensive logging on BC’s old-growth forests

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November 22, 2022
Canadian Geographic 
By Madigan Cotterill 

Conservation photographer TJ Watt advocates for the protection of old-growth ecosystems by documenting the loss of giant trees

For hundreds of years, British Columbia’s old-growth forests have stood as markers of time; storing carbon, supporting biodiversity, providing habitat and performing other ecosystem services. But intensive logging is quickly decimating these ancient forests, leaving stumps, clearings and young forests where giants once grew.

In an effort to highlight the incredible grandeur of old-growth ecosystems and draw attention to their unfortunate destruction, Victoria-based conservation photographer TJ Watt has spent years seeking out and documenting the province’s biggest trees — then returning later to photograph their stumps.

“I’m trying to remind people that unless we speak up and advocate for the permanent protection of old-growth ecosystems, we will continue losing ecosystems which are second only to the redwoods of California,” says Watt, who is the co-founder of and a campaigner with the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA). In addition to advocating for the protection of existing old-growth forests, AFA wants to see replanted forests given more time to grow before being logged again.

Old-growth forest ecosystems contain many features that second-growth or replanted forests lack, such as multi-layered canopies and habitats for certain species. Currently, second-growth forests are logged after 55 to 80 years — not enough time for them to regain the beneficial characteristics of old-growth forests.

“These trees take many centuries to grow, and nobody’s waiting around for them to come back again,” says Watt.

In 2021, Watt received a grant from the Trebek Initiative, which supports emerging storytellers, researchers, conservationists and educators. He is using the grant to create additional before and after images. After identifying at-risk forests, Watt locates the largest trees and photographs them, often positioning himself beside the trees for scale. After logging takes place, Watt returns to the area to document the stumps that remain where these ancient trees once stood. Displayed side by side, the images are a powerful statement on the finality of old-growth logging.

“It’s up to us to ensure [ancient forests] are protected and I encourage people to safely get out there and explore the landscape themselves and reconnect with nature and see what they might find,” says Watt.

Read the original article

Businesses join environmentalists to push BC’s premier to protect biodiversity

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November 21, 2022
Vancouver Sun
By Rochelle Baker 

Federal government is willing to spend millions to reach its international commitments to products natural areas

Businesses are urging the BC government to capitalize on Ottawa’s offer to spend hundreds of millions to save threatened ecosystems in the run-up to the UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal next month.

A total of 250 businesses are backing a resolution urging BC’s new Premier David Eby to stave off the extinction and climate crisis by backing the federal government’s 30×30 promise — to protect 30 per cent of the country’s land and waters by 2030.

Canada hopes to secure similar commitments from other global leaders at the UN conference, also known as COP15, where countries from around the world will negotiate a biodiversity framework to slow the human-caused mass extinction event that risks wiping out a million species.

Of all provinces and territories, BC is the most biodiverse, but it also has the greatest number of species at threat of extinction. As many as 278 species — including the burrowing owl, southern mountain caribou, American wolverine, and western tiger salamander — are at risk.

The businesses are partnering with the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance and Nature Canada to push for permanent protections in the most endangered areas, such as the southern Interior grasslands, the coastal Douglas fir zone on eastern Vancouver Island, and the province’s iconic coastal old-growth forests.

There’s a range of small- to medium-size companies involved, representing the tourism, hospitality and food sectors as well as marketing, tech, design and consulting firms, said Ken Wu, executive director for the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance.

Canada’s business sector and other societal groups outside the environmental movement are increasingly aware that safeguarding biodiversity is critical to protect human health and to foster a more diverse, resilient and prosperous economy, Wu said.

That understanding isn’t limited to Canada. The World Economic Forum’s 2022 Global Risks Report warns biodiversity loss is one of the top three threats facing humanity in the next decade, in tandem with climate action failure and extreme weather.

Joining forces with non-traditional allies such as businesses, unions, faith groups and non-profits has a much greater effect in securing conservation goals and the government’s ear, Wu said.

“Businesses exert a disproportionate amount of influence on all governments for the simple reason that they generate a lot of tax revenues, provide jobs and act as a foundation of the economy,” he said.

“So governments tend to listen to the business lobby a lot more attentively than they do the average environmental protester.”

British Columbia has yet to commit to Canada’s targets for protected areas.

The province reports having protected nearly 20 per cent of its land base, but the figure is the result of creative accounting — with only 15.5 per cent truly under robust protection in parks or actual nature conservation areas, Wu said, pointing to a 2022 study by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society’s BC chapter.

Flouting international standards for conservation designation, BC is reporting an additional four per cent of “protected” land included in old-growth management areas, wildlife habitat areas and wildland zones, CPAWS BC found.

Though the designations include some protective measures, they are not permanent and can be quietly adjusted by the government, Wu said. Most alarmingly, they often allow for industrial activity such as clearcut logging, oil and gas, and road building in at-risk ecosystems like valley bottom old-growth forests.

Another crack in the province’s conservation effort is that areas featuring some of the highest biodiversity values are underrepresented in the BC Parks system, while alpine or high-elevation areas with lower biodiversity and less competing demand from industry or development are better protected.

The province and the federal government are currently negotiating a joint Nature Agreement to strengthen conservation in the province in partnership with Indigenous peoples.

Ottawa has set aside $2.3 billion for the protection of terrestrial ecosystems across Canada, of which BC’s share could be between $200 million to $400 million — or more — if it steps up and creates new protected areas, especially those stewarded by First Nations, Wu said. The federal government has also committed $55 million specifically for protecting at-risk old-growth forests. But B.C needs to invest in biodiversity and provide matching funding, he added.

Wu hopes with COP15 around the corner and a new premier in place, the BC government will shake off its lacklustre commitment to the environment.

Eby has pledged to block new infrastructure for oil and gas and speed up protections of old-growth forests, but details are still scarce.

Governments may be wary about losing industrial revenue and jobs if they create parks or protected areas, Wu said, but studies show protected, biodiverse areas can generate sustainable local economies and jobs in the tourism, real estate, recreation and hospitality sectors.

“When you protect nature, you have a better environmental quality of life, and it attracts skilled labour to those regions,” Wu said.

Scott Sinclair, a signatory to the business resolution, agreed, saying BC’s biodiversity hot spots draw people from all over the world to live and work.

“Protecting our endangered ecosystems is a huge priority that benefits our company, our staff and our economy,” said Sinclair, CEO of SES Consulting, a firm specializing in improving buildings’ energy efficiency.

Rochelle Baker is a reporter with Canada’s National Observer

Read the original article

Read Endangered Ecosystems Alliance’s media release

Thank you to our recent business supporters

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From donations and dedicated fundraisers to in-kind support and everything in between, we’re incredibly grateful to the business community for generously supporting the ancient forest campaign! This month, we’d like to give a huge thank you to the following supporters:

First Growth Reclaimed Design for donating partial proceeds from sales of their sustainable Big Lonely Doug holiday ornaments made from reclaimed wood.

SimpleCert for selecting AFA for their ‘Certificate of the Month’ feature and for donating credits to use their services.

Elastic Email Inc. for their long-time monthly support.

Old Growth Therapy for their generous gift.

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Join us for our Year-End Celebration & Fundraiser on Weds. Nov. 30th

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You’re invited to our Year-End Celebration & Fundraiser at the Victoria Event Centre (1415 Broad St.) on Wednesday, November 30th from 6 pm – 9 pm!

Join us for our first in-person Ancient Forest Alliance year-end event in three years to celebrate our 12th year of operation and the amazing community that has helped us get to where we are today!

The evening includes a slideshow presentation with new photos and stories from AFA’s TJ Watt & Ian Thomas, appetizers, drinks, socializing, and a small silent auction fundraiser featuring select prints from AFA’s award-winning conservation photographer and campaigner, TJ Watt. Plus, you’ll have the chance to win some awesome AFA gear, such as t-shirts, cards, calendars, and more!

 

BC hasn’t taken $50 million federal offer for old-growth forest protections

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November 9, 2022
The Narwhal
By Sarah Cox

In August, as Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault prepared to visit an old-growth forest park in West Vancouver, his office drafted a news release for the occasion. It was never sent out.

The federal government had committed up to $50 million to permanently protect BC’s old-growth forests and was “awaiting the matching commitment from the province,” said the draft release, a copy of which was obtained by The Narwhal.

In the lead up to the United Nations biodiversity conference Canada will host in December, the federal government is eager to see permanent protections announced for BC’s old-growth forests as part of Ottawa’s commitment to protect 30 per cent of the country’s land and waters by 2030.

But with less than a month before the COP15 conference gets underway in Montreal, the BC government has yet to accept Ottawa’s offer of funding to protect old-growth forests that store carbon and provide habitat for many species at risk of extinction, including spotted owls, marbled murrelets and woodland caribou.

That leaves environmental groups and the BC Green Party questioning the sincerity of the BC government’s promise to protect old-growth forests and embark on a forestry transition many believe is long overdue.

“It’s really critical that there’s money on the table,” Stand.earth forest campaigner Tegan Hansen said. “And BC hasn’t seized on that to actually support communities in transitioning away from old-growth logging and protecting forests.”

The draft release noted Guilbeault’s visit intended to show “solidarity and support for the protection of old-growth forest in British Columbia, and highlight ongoing discussions with the province to establish an Old Growth Nature Fund in BC.”

“Old-growth forests in British Columbia are some of the most biologically diverse and productive ecosystems in Canada,” Guilbeault stated in the draft release. “They are also some of the most important and largest natural carbon sinks in the world. With deep-rooted significance to Indigenous communities and of importance to all British Columbians, old-growth forests require greater protections.”

Guilbeault’s office declined to comment directly on the draft release, which offered the province $50 million. In an emailed response to questions, Guilbeault’s press secretary, Kaitlyn Power, said the 2022 federal budget allows for $55.1 million over three years to protect old-growth forests in BC The budget said the funding was conditional on a matching investment from the provincial government.

“Our government will continue collaborating with the province to get a good deal to protect BC’s beloved nature,” Power wrote.

Asked if the provincial government will accept and match the federal old-growth funding, the BC Ministry of Forests referred the Narwhal to the BC Ministry of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship. In an emailed response to questions, the Land Ministry said the province is working with the federal government to develop a Nature Agreement that will, among other aims, “advance reconciliation by supporting Indigenous leadership on conservation efforts.”

“The proposed agreement presents an opportunity both for a more collaborative, long-term relationship between the federal and provincial governments and to build an integrated, landscape-based approach to nature conservation and stewardship,” the Land Ministry wrote.

(Following publication, when pushed on whether or not BC would be taking the federal money, the Ministry of Forests said: “The $50 million pledge is a welcome first step and we continue the important with our federal partners to do more to protect biodiversity and old-growth forests.”)

Old-growth funding a chance to end the ‘war in the woods’

BC is known throughout the world for the giant, old-growth trees that grow in moss-carpeted rainforests in coastal regions and in the rare inland temperate rainforest in the province’s interior. Following decades of industrial logging, most of the province’s unprotected old-growth forests have been logged.

Low-elevation old-growth valley bottoms — home to the biggest trees and the greatest biodiversity — are the most at risk of being clear-cut. They have been identified as priorities for protection to avoid irreversible biodiversity loss.

During the 2020 provincial election campaign, the BC NDP promised to fully implement the recommendations of an old-growth review panel that called for a paradigm shift in the way BC’s forests are managed.

The panel, led by two foresters, said the province’s forests should be managed for ecosystem values, not for timber. Among other recommendations, the foresters said the government should support forest sector workers and communities as they adapt to changes resulting from a new forest management system.

Ken Wu, executive director of the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance, said the federal money, matched by BC, would be a “game-changer” for old-growth protections.

Old-growth logging has long been an issue of contention in BC More than 800 people were arrested in 1993 during months of logging protests, which became known as the “war in the woods,” in Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island. Since 2021, more than 1,000 people have been arrested trying to stop old-growth logging in and around Fairy Creek on Pacheedaht territory on southwest Vancouver Island.

“The BC government has a chance to finally put an end to the war in the woods by embracing the federal money, kicking in their own funding and directing it to the right places — the grandest, most at-risk old-growth forests — and to the right parties,” Wu said in an interview. The right parties are First Nations, who require funding for sustainable economic development initiatives linked to protected areas, he said, and not corporations.

“If they do that on a big enough scale, then they will have solved the war in the woods on the conservation side. And on the labor side, simultaneously they can be building a value-added, second-growth, smart forest economy with the right incentives and regulations.”

Yet even $100 million – $50 million from each of the federal and provincial governments – is not nearly enough to permanently protect BC’s old-growth forests, Wu said. Adding considerably to the pot would be BC’s share of $2.3 billion in federal funding to support nature conservation measures across the country, including Indigenous-led conservation. Wu estimated BC could receive between $200 million and $400 million from that fund.

“If BC were to match that, and then direct it in the right places, to the right parties, it could actually end old-growth logging in British Columbia and protect most endangered ecosystems.”

Wu also cautioned the use of federal money could still “go sideways” if the end result is to protect alpine and subalpine areas, “leaving out the valley bottoms and the big trees.”

The Union of BC Indian Chiefs has also called on the federal and provincial governments to finance old-growth forest protection, Indigenous protected areas and land use plans.

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Great News! Diverse Old-Growth Forests Purchased by Conservation Groups for First Nations

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We’re excited to share that the Nature-Based Solutions Foundation (NBSF), in collaboration with the Kanaka Bar Indian Band, the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA), and the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance (EEA), recently purchased one of the most diverse old-growth forests in BC and will be giving it back to the Kanaka Bar with a conservation covenant.

The 8-acre property, also referred to as “Old Man Jack’s”, is a remarkable ecosystem located just south of Lytton, BC, that features rainforest trees such as redcedars and bigleaf maples growing side-by-side with dry-adapted ponderosa pines. It’s also home to some of the largest interior Douglas-fir trees known in Canada along with living archaeological treasures – ancient redcedars showing evidence of centuries of use by First Nations peoples.

See media coverage from The Globe and Mail & The National Observer.

Garth Asham, Kanaka Lands Department Assistant by an ancient Interior Douglas-fir tree on the newly acquired private property by the Nature-Based Solutions Foundation.

In addition to purchasing and conserving this land to support Kanaka Bar’s protected areas plan, the AFA, EEA, and the NBSF are also supporting the Kanaka Bar’s Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) proposal, which would protect about 350 square kilometres of land in their territory, including 125 square kilometres of old-growth forests.

Both projects are part of the AFA, EEA, and NBSF’s collaborative work, known as the Old-Growth Solutions Initiative, to protect endangered old-growth forests across BC by working directly with Indigenous and rural communities.

Kanaka Bar leaders and conservationists, from left to right: Kanaka Bar CEO Greg Grayson, Lands Manager Sean O’Rourke, Chief Jordan Spinks, Endangered Ecosystems Alliance Outreach Director Celina Starnes, Executive Director Ken Wu, Nature-Based Solutions Foundation National Coordinator Hania Peper, Ancient Forest Alliance Photographer & Campaigner TJ Watt.

The NBSF works alongside AFA and EEA to help fill key funding gaps in protecting old-growth forests, providing support to communities with funding linked to the protection of public lands, and helping in the purchase and protection of private lands.

The AFA and the EEA are also working hard to push the BC government to bring much greater funds to the table for First Nations’ sustainable economic development linked to new protected areas and for private land acquisition.

The federal government has offered a $55.1 million Old-Growth Nature Fund to specifically help protect old-growth forests in BC, and they are also making available hundreds of millions more in funding to expand protected areas in BC (including to protect substantially more old-growth forests).

The key barrier to this huge movement for conservation right now is the BC government itself, which must agree to let these funds in and provide its own matching funding. It is incumbent upon the BC government to get serious about directing funding to protect the most endangered ecosystems in BC, including the most at-risk, high-productivity stands of old-growth forests.

Please take a moment to send an instant message to the BC government calling for substantial funding to support Indigenous-led old-growth protection initiatives and sustainable economic alternatives to old-growth logging today.

In the meantime, we’re celebrating this incredible milestone that bridges Indigenous land stewardship and old-growth forest protection in BC. We could not undertake these important projects without your support – thank you! Please help us expand our vital work by making a donation today.

Spin-filled Announcement Reveals BC Government’s Failure to Ensure Net Gains in Old-Growth Logging Deferrals

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VICTORIA / UNCEDED LEKWUNGEN TERRITORIES – Yesterday the BC government released new and misleading statistics about old-growth logging on the one year anniversary of its science panel’s recommendations that logging should be deferred on millions of hectares of the most at-risk old-growth forests in BC. In November of 2021, the province’s independent science panel, the Technical Advisory Panel, recommended that the rarest, grandest, and oldest fraction of the remaining unprotected old-growth forests in BC, totalling 2.6 million hectares, be deferred from logging, while the province developed new management policies and legislation based on its Old-Growth Strategic Review panel’s recommendations.

Based on the BC government’s statistics (ie. the same ones they used last time), there has been no net increase in the deferred area since the BC government’s last official update in April, when they reported that 1.05 million hectares of the 2.6 million hectares (about 40%) recommended area had been deferred.

The implementation of the logging deferrals is contingent on the consent of local First Nations, whose unceded territories these are. However, the province has thus far failed to provide the critical funding for First Nations sustainable economic alternatives (to help develop such industries as tourism, clean energy, sustainable seafood, non-timber forest products, value-added second-growth forestry, etc) to offset and replace their reliance on old-growth timber revenues (in the form of logging tenures, joint venture agreements, and revenue-sharing agreements) that would make it economically feasible for most First Nations to support the deferrals and to protect old-growth forests. This funding process is known as “conservation financing”, and was undertaken in the Great Bear Rainforest and Haida Gwaii with a mix of funding from conservation organizations and the provincial and federal governments, and is currently underway in Clayoquot Sound, enabling significant protection levels for old-growth forests in those regions.

The lack of progress of any net gain in old-growth deferrals – the precursor to permanent, legislated protection – with still no announcement of vital provincial funding for First Nations sustainable economic development linked to the development of new protected areas, reveal’s the provincial NDP government’s efforts to contain change against the status quo of old-growth logging, while thousands of hectares of old-growth forests continue to fall each year.

Ancient Forest Alliance Photographer & Campaigner, TJ Watt, stands on top of a freshly cut stump in an old-growth forest recommended for deferral on southern Vancouver Island, BC.

“The BC government for many months now has been backsliding on their old-growth commitments, working to delay, deflect and slow the momentum for significant policy change for old-growth forests, away from the ‘paradigm shift’ that they committed to in theory in 2020. Instead of changing their ways, they’re changing their PR again. David Eby, the new premier of BC, can veer away from the anti-environmental backsliding of the BC government. He has said he wants to speed up the implementation of the province’s old-growth plans when he takes the reigns soon. This will require major funding specifically for First Nations sustainable economic development and for private land acquisition, that is, a commitment of many hundreds of million of dollars from the province alone, which should be combined with other funding sources including federal and non-profit conservation funds. This is the key to speeding up both deferrals and to enabling the permanent protection of those forests – I can’t stress that enough. There can be no ‘paradigm shift’ without the funding, the key missing piece here”, stated Ken Wu, Endangered Ecosystems Alliance executive director.

Furthermore, the province seems to be returning to its old ways of undertaking major misleading PR-spin and sophistry in their press releases.

Their press release for example noted a decline in the amount of old growth logging between 2015 and 2021, from 65,500 to 38,300 hectares logged, but failed to mention that overall logging rates have declined across the province for well over a decade due to a diminishing timber supply from massive pine beetle kill and wildfires as a result of climate change (exacerbated by old-growth logging) and by old-growth logging itself (leaving lower volume second-growth stands behind and fewer jobs, a process known as the “falldown effect”), and failing to attribute how much of the decline has been due to the logging deferrals since the initial set of deferrals in 2020.

Old-growth logs are hauled out of the woods in 2022 on southern Vancouver Island, BC.

In addition, the province’s press release minimizes the amount of old-growth forests that are still at risk, stating “In total, approximately 80% of the priority at-risk old growth identified by the panel is not threatened by logging because it is permanently protected, covered by recent deferrals and/or not economic to harvest.” This figure is based on the province’s repeated, misleading use of the figure that 4 million hectares of the most at-risk old-growth forests remain, and that only 800,000 hectares are at risk of logging. However, they fail to mention the context of the original amount (a bread-and-butter tactic of their PR-spin), that there were once about 20 million hectares of such forests in BC (ie. the vast majority of the medium to high productivity old-growth forests have been logged where most forest giants grow), and that 1.4 million hectares of the remaining fraction was in pre-existing protected areas and forest reserves, much of it for decades, unrelated to province’s old-growth plan. In addition, their reference to old-growth forests that are “not economic to harvest” refers to about 700,000 hectares of at-risk old-growth forests that are largely outside the Timber Harvesting Land Base – but which get added in (ie. will still get cut) as old-growth forests are logged-out in adjacent areas, thus making previously uneconomic stands economic to then harvest (ie. being outside the Timber Harvesting Land Base is not secure nor a conservation designation).

Old-growth forests are vital to support endangered species, the climate, clean water, wild salmon, First Nations cultures, tourism and recreation. Old-growth forests possess distinctive structures, biodiversity, and functions that are not replicated by the ensuing second-growth tree plantations that they are being replaced with, which are re-logged every 50 to 80 years in BC, never to become old-growth again. Virtually all industrialized countries are now logging second and third-growth forests (eg. 100 year old not 1000 year old trees), as is much of the rest of Canada, and BC is one of the last industrialized jurisdictions that supports the large-scale commercial logging of old-growth forests.

“For over a decade now we have been telling successive BC governments that the only pathway forward for old-growth protection in BC is to provide conservation financing for First Nations communities and to implement a provincial land acquisition fund to protect private lands,” said TJ Watt of the Ancient Forest Alliance “Now, since we have not seen the necessary funding put on the table to offset lost revenues from forgoing logging, we are seeing the BC government failing to keep its own promises to protect our most at-risk forests. My before and after photos of giant old-growth trees standing and then cut reveal exactly what that looks like on the ground.”

Ancient Forest Alliance Photographer & Campaigner, TJ Watt, beside a giant redcedar tree before and after it was cut in an old-growth forest recommended for deferral in the Caycuse watershed in Ditidaht territory on Vancouver Island, BC.

“The province seems to be returning to its ‘bad old days’ of terrible PR-spin and sophistry when it comes to the state of old-growth forests in BC, inflating the amount that remains and masking the amount at risk to deflect for their lack of progress in protecting them. It’s disingenuous for the province to somehow insinuate that the drop in old-growth harvest levels from 2015 are due to their policies – they weren’t even around in 2015 and it wasn’t until late 2020 when they committed to the Old-Growth Strategic Review panel recommendations – while total harvest levels have been dropping for about 15 years due to overcutting (ie. running out of old-growth from logging) and climate-change driven impacts of pine beetle and wildfires. Similarly, the classic spin of playing with statistics – of removing the context of how much has already been logged, and then cobbling together a variety of disparate and misleading categories to beef up the numbers of how much old-growth they’ve ‘saved’ signals that they are hiding their lack of progress and trying to contain change against the status quo of old-growth liquidation”, stated Ken Wu, Endangered Ecosystems Alliance executive director. “But with the political will and major new funding, with an incoming new leader, they can change this quickly. Let’s see what happens here.”

The Endangered Ecosystems Alliance and Ancient Forest Alliance have been working with the Nature-Based Solutions Initiative to help fund First Nations old-growth protection initiatives and to buy old-growth forests on private lands, a project known as the Old-Growth Solutions Initiative.