Conservation financing is a game-changer for BC’s old-growth forests
by Ken Wu
Read a new Opinion Piece by the Endangered Ecosystem Alliance’s executive director Ken Wu in the Georgia Straight HERE
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by Ken Wu
Read a new Opinion Piece by the Endangered Ecosystem Alliance’s executive director Ken Wu in the Georgia Straight HERE
Premier says fund represents modern stewardship between government, First Nations, conservationists, industry
B.C. has announced a new $300-million fund to protect threatened ecosystems in the province.
Read moreThe new funding is welcomed by conservation groups that say the province has voiced support for old forest protections while continuing to allow clearcut logging in rare ecosystems and in the habitat of endangered species
Read more$300-million investment aims to save B.C.'s old-growth forests by offering First Nations sustainable economic alternatives to industrial logging.
Read moreBC Launches Vital Conservation Financing Mechanism to Protect Old-Growth Forests and Ecosystems
Starting with an initial $300 million of provincial and philanthropic funding, the indispensable fund that will “fuel” or power the creation of new protected areas by supporting First Nations protected areas initiatives will continue to grow with additional federal, provincial, and private funds. Conservationists give thanks to Premier Eby for fulfilling a key commitment.
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Read moreSee our video series summarizing BC old-growth policy progress and the loopholes that still must get closed:
And see our most recent media release on the BC old-growth situation
And our earlier submission to the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework (if you are a real policy wonk who wants to understand how things work).
Today on the three-year anniversary of the BC government’s September 2020 acceptance of the Old-Growth Strategic Review Panel’s 14 recommendations to ensure a “paradigm shift” in the conservation and management of old-growth forests in the province, the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance (EEA) and Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) are urging the BC government to hurry up and close the gaps in old-growth protection in BC.
“The BC government under Premier Eby has taken some great steps forward in policy commitments: pledging to double protected areas from 15% to 30% of BC’s land area over the next seven years (it took over a century to protect the first 15%), bring major conservation financing support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas, and to target protection for biodiverse areas, which would naturally include the productive old-growth forests with big trees. Premier Eby started off strong nine months ago with these commitments, and now he needs to pick it up and close the remaining gaps to secure old-growth logging deferrals in all of the most at-risk old-growth forests and to ensure that funding and protection go to the right areas,” stated Ken Wu, Endangered Ecosystems Alliance executive director.
Read moreNational Biodiversity Strategy feedback
What are the key features of a successful National Biodiversity Strategy?
Protected areas must constitute the foundation to reach the 25% by 2025 and 30% by 2030 minimum targets – not less stringent “conserved areas” that lack the protection standards (eg. may allow commercial logging and other industrial activities) and permanency (many are readily removable) of protected areas.
Ecosystem-based targets must be set by ecological science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge committees to protect the full diversity of ecosystems on a sufficient scale to ensure the long-term ecological viability of each ecosystem.
The motion, submitted by Liberal MP Patrick Weiler this week, aims to end old-growth logging on federal lands and halt the export of ancient logs and related products.
A B.C. MP representing the longest named riding in Canada has introduced a motion to ban the export of old-growth logs and any products made from them.
Patrick Weiler, Liberal MP for West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, introduced the private members’ motion Thursday. The motion calls for an end to the export of old growth as soon as possible but no later than 2030.
Read moreThese comments highlight the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance’s (EEA) key input for BC’s forthcoming Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework (BEHF).
We greatly commend the BC government for moving forward with this initiative, which potentially could be the framework for a paradigm shift - which the Old-Growth Strategic Review recommendations called for - that puts ecosystem health first in all land-use and forestry decisions. If done well, the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework could be a globally recognized leading policy framework for protecting biodiversity, old-growth forests and endangered ecosystems - or it can fall flat if the myopic and pervasive forces of the status quo continue to undermine progress and squander the opportunity for all.
Read moreStand up to Support MP Patrick Weiler's Motion to Protect Old-Growth Forests!
Member of Parliament (MP) Patrick Weiler has introduced a federal motion that launches an enhanced BC old-growth protection fund of $82 million, increased from the original $50 million - contingent on matching BC funds, that would bring the total to $164 million.
In the Great Bear Rainforest, $120 million was indispensable to help ensure the legislated protection of over 2 million hectares (an area two-thirds the size of Vancouver Island, or triple the size of Banff National Park) - so $164 million will be no small deal on the ground.
Read moreThe Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) and the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance (EEA) give great thanks to Member of Parliament Patrick Weiler (West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country) for his new motion to help protect old-growth forests in BC and Canada.
Weiler has crafted a motion, introduced into federal Parliament yesterday, calling for the $82 million BC Old-Growth Protection Fund (increased from $50 million previously, and contingent on matching BC funding that would bring it to $164 million), to end the international export of old-growth raw logs and wood products from across Canada as quickly as possible (and by no later than 2030), and to protect old-growth on federal lands on Department of National Defense and National Park lands from any destructive infrastructure developments.
Read moreThis year, EEA is aiming to raise $30,000 in grassroots fundraising by Environment Day June 5th, 2023. These funds will help us in making a series of mini-documentary films on the amazing, most endangered ecosystems across Canada, drafting key environmental legislation with lawyers and ecologists, undertaking major outreach to businesses, unions and faith groups, and undertaking major public mobilization nationally and across Canada to ensure politicians hear from Canadians on the need to expand the protected areas system with an emphasis on the most endangered ecosystems.
Read moreHave you ever seen a tree so big it would take 10 people to wrap their arms around its trunk – and that still wouldn’t be enough? A tree as tall as a downtown office building?
These trees exist and, in British Columbia’s coastal rainforests, are measured and even tracked by the people fighting to protect them.
Read moreHere's a new video by the EEA's Executive Director Ken Wu on a BC Old-Growth Policy Update **Note: it was filmed before the new forest policy progress announcements by Premier Eby a couple days ago, which we have included in the write-up below. Please watch and SEND a MESSAGE to the BC and federal governments asking them to keep moving forward at: https://www.endangeredecosystemsalliance.org/news/bc-needs-an-effective-federal-provincial-nature-agreement
The short summary: The new BC Premier David Eby is undertaking major and much needed policy overhauls to develop the framework and funding that will enable a massive expansion of protected areas in BC shortly, via First Nations initiatives (***NOTE: in BC, the province legally cannot unilaterally establish protected areas and "just protect the old-growth" - the support of local First Nations governments is a legal necessity in their unceded territories. Old-growth logging deferrals and protected areas move at the speed of local First Nations - the government's policies and framework can facilitate or hinder, help speed up or slow down, the abilities of First Nations to protect ecosystems, if they choose. This is a vital fact to understand for conservation and old-growth advocates).
Read moreA “war in the woods” has simmered for decades in B.C., sometimes erupting into high-profile protests and arrests over plans to log ancient trees in places like Clayoquot Sound and Fairy Creek.
This week, the provincial government unveiled a suite of new measures that aim to accelerate old-growth protection and broker a truce. Measures include new initiatives to finance old-growth forest protection, more Indigenous participation in land-use decisions and an end to prioritizing timber extraction over all other values, including biodiversity and carbon storage.
Read moreThe B.C. government is seeking to harness the financial clout of non-profit conservation groups to protect endangered ecosystems, with a commitment to create a new trust fund to leverage charitable donations for nature with its own dollars.
Premier David Eby announced on Wednesday his plans to fast-track his government’s progress on protecting old growth, including $25-million to help First Nations participate in land-use decisions on old-growth forests, and $90-million added to the B.C. Manufacturing Jobs Fund to help forestry companies retool their mills to adapt to second-growth timber.
Read moreThe BC NDP government has removed the “unduly restrict clause” from forest planning that has limited forest conservation measures for decades, committed to developing a conservation financing mechanism to support First Nations economic development linked to new Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCA’s), committed more support to expand value-added forest industries, and with First Nations has added about 200,000 hectares of additional old growth forests into logging deferral areas.
Read moreHear a quick summary overview by the Endangered Ecosystem Alliance's Executive Director Ken Wu about some of the progress for protected areas expansion policies and funding that were announced from Canada and several provinces during the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal between Dec.7 to 19, 2022.
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