B.C. vows to reverse ‘short-term thinking’ with pledge to protect 30% of province by 2030 - News Article (The Narwhal)

December 8, 2022 Ken Wu

BC Premier David Eby has committed to protecting 30 per cent of B.C. by 2030, doubling current protections. Photo: Province of British Columbia, Flickr

For years, our main campaign in BC has been that the province must commit to the federal protected areas targets (to protect 25% by 2025 and 30% by 2030 of Canada's land and marine areas) at a minimum and to provide conservation financing support for First Nations sustainable economic development linked to protecting the most at-risk, productive (big tree) old-growth forests and the most endangered ecosystems.

Today Premier David Eby committed BC to meeting the federal protected areas target of protecting 30% by 2030 of the land area (currently 15% of BC is in legislated protected areas), joining Quebec now which made the pledge much earlier.

Video: Nature Protection in Canada - Time for Ambition and Ecosystem-Based Targets

December 6, 2022 Ken Wu

Check out the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance's new 5 min video on "Nature Protection in Canada - Time for Ambition and Ecosystem-Based Targets" explaining key issues as 195 countries converge in Montreal to negotiate new international protected areas targets and policies at the UN Biodiversity Conference.

Most importantly SEND a MESSAGE to your provincial government and to the federal government to scale-up their protected areas ambition here.

Please donate to help us get this video out to millions of Canadians via social media ads - right now is THE greatest chance in history to pressure governments across Canada to protect native ecosystems!

And sign-up for our newsletter about our events, nature walks and news across Canada here.

SEND a MESSAGE: Protect Canada’s Endangered Ecosystems – the Provinces and Federal Government Must Act!

December 5, 2022 Ken Wu

Right now 196 countries are converging UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal to negotiate new, international protected areas targets and policies.

Please SPEAK UP to your provincial and federal leaders for strong protected areas commitments to protect the most endangered ecosystems across Canada!

SEND a MESSAGE: BC Must Fund Indigenous Old-Growth Logging Deferrals and Protected Areas ASAP and Ensure Ecosystem-Based Targets!

December 2, 2022 Ken Wu

British Columbia is the most ecologically and biologically diverse province in Canada, spanning from towering old-growth temperate rainforests to hot dry grasslands, from low elevation wetlands to high elevation alpine tundra, and from freshwater to marine ecosystems.

Currently, about 15% of the province is safeguarded in legislated protected areas, with ecosystems across the province at risk from a variety of industrial threats including industrial logging, suburban sprawl, oil and gas, mining, and agricultural conversion.

For almost 2 years, the BC and federal government have been negotiating a potential funding agreement to expand the protected areas system in BC.

If they do this, such a Nature Agreement could be the biggest game-changer for the protection of endangered ecosystems and old-growth forests in BC's history, finally ending the 50 year old War in the Woods!

PLEASE SEND a MESSAGE to the BC and Federal governments.

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

November 30, 2022 Ken Wu

EEA Executive Director Ken Wu in the Jursassic Grove on Southern Vancouver Island near Port Renfrew in Pacheedat territory

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.

Businesses ally with environmental groups to push B.C. to protect biodiversity - News Article (The National Observer)

November 21, 2022 Ken Wu

Businesses are urging the B.C. government to capitalize on Ottawa’s offer to invest 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 B.C.’s new Premier David Eby to stave off the extinction and climate crisis by backing the federal government’s 30x30 promise — to protect 30 per cent of the country’s land and waters by 2030.

Media Release: 250 Businesses Call on BC Government to Commit to Ambitious Targets and Funding to Expand BC’s Protected Areas System

November 15, 2022 Ken Wu

The Endangered Ecosystems Alliance has released a resolution signed by 250 businesses, including 228 based in BC, calling on the BC government to help avert the extinction and climate crises and to benefit our health and the BC economy by committing to meet Canada’s national and international protected areas targets (to protect 25% by 2025 and 30% by 2030 of Canada’s land and marine areas) at a minimum in BC and to ensure adequate funding to enable these goals. This includes protecting BC’s old-growth forests, ensuring protection targets for every ecosystem-type (ie. not just overall provincial targets), and to provide the necessary funding particularly for First Nations sustainable economic development that would enable new Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCA’s) to be established.

B.C. hasn’t taken $50 million federal offer for old-growth forest protections - News Article (The Narwhal)

November 14, 2022 Ken Wu

**Endangered Ecosystems Alliance Executive Director Ken Wu on a cedar stump in the Walbran Valley on Vancouver Island. Photo: TJ Watt**

The federal government has budgeted $2.3 billion to expand the protected areas system in Canada - of which BC's share would be between $200 to $400 million - including $55 million specifically allocated to prioritize protecting the most at-risk old-growth stands, contingent on a matching BC commitment.

That is, if BC provided matching funds of between $200 to $400 million, including $55 million of its own to help save the best old-growth stands, it would result in a total funding pot of between $400 to $800 million to expand protected areas in BC, with $110 million focused on protecting the best old-growth forests (still not enough mind you to protect all such stands, but the rest of the funds worth hundreds of millions of dollars can also be used to protect old-growth forests, along with other ecosystems). Additional funds from private sources and environmental groups, like the Nature-Based Solutions Foundation, could top it up by hundreds of millions. The total funding of $600 to $1 billion if targeted correctly would be a game-changer to protect much of the old-growth forests in BC and other vital ecosystems.

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

November 3, 2022 Ken Wu

**An ancient redcedar cut in the Caycuse Valley in 2021 on southern Vancouver Island in Ditidaht territory. Photo by TJ Watt**

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.

Conservation group buys stand of majestic old-growth as gift for First Nation - News Article (National Observer)

October 13, 2022 Ken Wu

**Photo**: 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.

Read an article in the National Observer about our work at the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance in our collaboration with the Kanaka Bar Indian Band, the Nature-Based Solutions Foundation and the Ancient Forest Alliance to help protect the old-growth forests and native ecosystems in Kanaka Bar territory, via the Nature-Based Solutions Foundation.

Media Release: Conservation group buys one of BC’s most diverse Old-Growth Forests for First Nations

October 11, 2022 Ken Wu

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

One of our partner organizations, the Nature-Based Solutions Foundation (NBSF), has just completed the purchase of perhaps the most diverse old-growth forest in BC - with both dry-adapted old-growth Ponderosa pine and wet-adapted western redcedar growing side-by-side - to be gifted with a conservation covenant to the Kanaka Bar Indian Band whose unceded territory it is on.

Read their press release here.

B.C. Indigenous conservation plan gets private backing - News Article (The Globe and Mail)

October 11, 2022 Ken Wu

Celina Starnes of the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance stands under an old-growth Western redcedar near Kanaka Bar Indian Band, home to the T’eqt’’aqtn’mux, in British Columbia this past Sept. 21.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAFAL GERSZAK/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

Here is a new article in the Globe and Mail by Justine Hunter about the Nature-Based Solutions Foundation's (NBSF) purchase last week of potentially the most diverse old-growth forest in BC - with both dry-adapted old-growth Ponderosa pine and wet-adapted western redcedar growing side-by-side - on private lands, to be given back with a conservation covenant to the Kanaka Bar Indian Band south of Lytton. It also features the Kanaka Bar's Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) proposal that we are also supporting on Crown/ unceded Kanaka Bar lands, that would protect about 350 square kilometres of land in their territory, including 125 square kilometers of old-growth forests.

2022 EEA Year End Fundraising Progress Tracker!

September 9, 2022 Ken Wu

Collage, top-left to bottom right: American badger, old-growth woods, Carolinian swamp, grasslands

We are aiming to raise $200,000 as part of our year-end fundraising drive between September 1st to December 31st this year, so we can continue to expand our impact via major outreach to key parties and stakeholders, news and social media engagement campaigns to reach millions of Canadians, the development of our mini-documentary Amazing Ecosystems of Canada series, the coordination of the BC Old-Growth Solutions Initiative, and much more.

Kanaka Bar Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) Supported by the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance - News Article (Black Press)

July 20, 2022 Ken Wu

Read a new article about the amazing 35,000 hectare Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA), which will protect 12,500 hectares of some of the rarest and least represented old-growth forests in BC, planned by the Kanaka Bar Band (a Nlaka'pamux First Nation) in the Fraser Canyon near Lytton.

The Nature-Based Solutions Foundation (NBSF), Endangered Ecosystems Alliance (EEA), and Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) have been supporting this initiative as part of our Old-Growth Solutions Initiative to help protect old-growth forests across BC.

Kanaka Bar Indian Band to Protect Unique Old-Growth Forests and Endangered Ecosystems in Proposed T'eqt'aqtn Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area

July 8, 2022 Ken Wu

Over 12,500 hectares of some of BC’s most endangered and diverse old-growth forests will be protected in in the territory of the Kanaka Bar Band, a Nlaka'pamux First Nation in the Fraser Canyon near Lytton, when a major new Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) is finalized. The Kanaka Bar Band announced their vision today to protect a total of about 35,000 hectares of their unceded lands in British Columbia in this IPCA.

Earth Day observations: On Hope, Positive Solutions and Branching Out

April 22, 2022 Ken Wu

I’m writing this piece on Earth Day, with a belief that going forward in 2022 – with much of the world in the throes of a seemingly never-ending pandemic, expanding climate chaos, and now the potential prospects of World War 3 – that there is big appetite for hope and positive solutions. Plus, I believe this is the best approach in general.

Toronto Star: Mosaic defers logging of old-growth on Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii

April 7, 2022 Ken Wu

British Columbia’s largest private landowner, Mosaic Forest Management, is halting logging in nearly 100,000 acres of old-growth forest for the next 25 years.

The forestry company announced the deferral on March 16 and said it’s transitioning to a carbon credit program, which is expected to generate several hundred million dollars in revenue.

1.05 Million Hectares of the Most At-Risk Old-Growth Forests in B.C. Now Under Logging Deferrals

April 1, 2022 Ken Wu

Today a big step towards saving old-growth forests in BC was announced - with a significant way yet to go. An area about the size of Jasper National Park, about 1.05 million hectares of the priority, unprotected, most at-risk old-growth forests (the grandest, oldest and rarest stands), have now been placed under deferral from logging - with First Nations and the province having added 480,000 hectares recently, announced today.

CTV Vancouver Island: B.C. defers logging in additional 1.7 million hectares of at-risk old growth

April 1, 2022 Ken Wu

British Columbia's forests minister says the province has worked with First Nations to defer logging across more than a million hectares of at-risk old-growth forests, an area greater than 4,100 Stanley Parks.

Vancouver Sun: Environmental group gives guarded support for company's B.C. old-growth forest plan

March 26, 2022 Ken Wu

Mosaic Forest Management, which oversees the private lands of logging companies TimberWest and Island Timberlands, announced the deferral last week along with intentions to finance the plan through a carbon credit program that is expected to raise several hundred million dollars by 2047.

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