2016 Great Bear Rainforest Order Saves 85 Percent of Old Growth Forest

Summary: The 2016 Great Bear Rainforest Order saves 85 percent of old growth forest through collaboratively-designed ecosystem-based management.

Spirit bear (Ursus americanus kermodei) with cub, Spirit Bear Lodge, Klemtu, British Columbia; Friday, Sep. 26, 2014, 01:15: Maximilian Helm from Dresden, Germany, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

The 2016 Great Bear Rainforest Order, legally established Thursday, Jan. 28, by publication in The British Columbia Gazette, saves 85 percent of old growth forest via ecosystem-based management designed collaboratively by the British Columbia government, environmental groups, First Nations and forest companies.

“This is a gift to the world,” Richard Brooks, forest campaign coordinator for Greenpeace Canada, tells CBC News Monday, Feb. 1, during the ceremonial announcement of the 2016 Great Bear Rainforest Order at the University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver. “An area larger than Vancouver Island will be conserved and set aside from forestry well into the future.”

The Great Bear Rainforest encompasses 6.4 million hectares (15.8 million acres) of coastal British Columbia. With an area almost equivalent to the size of Ireland, the Great Bear Rainforest stretches from British Columbia’s Discovery Islands northward to Alaska’s Tongass Rainforest.

Forest coverage of 3.7 million hectares (9.1 million acres) accounts for more than half of the Great Bear Rainforest. The 2016 Great Bear Rainforest Order allocates 15 percent, at 550,000 hectares (1.36 million acres), as managed forest and designates 85 percent, at 3.1 million hectares (7.7 million acres), as natural forest, off limits to logging.

The 2016 Great Bear Rainforest Order establishes ecosystem-based management that aims for concurrent maintenance of ecological integrity and of human well-being. Ecological integrity extends beyond preservation of old-growth forests and implementation of stringent commercial logging protocols to encompass habitat protection for faunal and floral wildlife. Human well-being recognizes the 26 First Nations residing in the region of the Great Bear Rainforest and their rights to shared decision-making and to improved economic opportunities.

“The Great Bear Rainforest -- a global ecological treasure -- has been home to our communities on the Central and North Coast and Haida Gwaii for more than 10,000 years,” Marilyn Slett, chief councillor of the Heiltsuk Tribal Council, notes Monday, Feb. 1, during the official announcement of the 2016 Great Bear Rainforest Order. “Today we celebrate the restoration and implementation of responsible land, water and resource management approaches in the Great Bear Rainforest. Ecosystem-based management is the modern term which describes what we have always believed and practiced: If we use our traditional knowledge to take care of our lands, waters and resources they will take care of us. Our vision for the future is one where ecosystems and potential developments in the Great Bear Rainforest are in balance.”

The 2016 Great Bear Rainforest Order strives toward the economic, environmental and social balance of sustained forest management recommended in Climate Change 2007, the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

“In the long term, a sustainable forest management strategy aimed at maintaining or increasing forest carbon stocks, while producing an annual sustained yield of timber, fibre or energy from the forest, will generate the largest sustained mitigation benefit,” states the Executive Summary contributed to the report by Working Group III (Mitigation).

As one of Earth’s largest intact temperate rainforests, the Great Bear is home to the Kermode bear (Ursus americanus kermodei). Known as the spirit bear, the iconic subspecies of the American black bear features individuals with cream-colored coats that result from a double recessive gene. The creamy color phase is found in up to 30 percent of the Kermode bear population.

The British Columbia government plans to introduce supporting legislation for the 2016 Great Bear Rainforest Order in spring 2016.

“This is a singular place -- a gift -- for us to preserve and this is the biggest statement we’ve ever made about our commitment to that,” Christy Clark, British Columbia’s 35th premier, tells reporters after a weekend hike in a section of the Great Bear Rainforest near the Heiltsuk community of Bella Bella. “To me, it’s an expression of our collective love of this land and this coast.”

spirit bear by Ian McAllister (left); Great Bear Rainforest (upper right) and moss-covered trees in Khutze Inlet (lower right) by Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press: CBC British Columbia @cbcnewsbc, via Twitter Feb. 1, 2016

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Spirit bear (Ursus americanus kermodei) with cub, Spirit Bear Lodge, Klemtu, British Columbia; Friday, Sep. 26, 2014, 01:15: Maximilian Helm from Dresden, Germany, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ursus_americanus_kermodei,_Spirit_Bear_Lodge,_Klemtu,_BC_2.jpg;
Maximilian Helm (My-mischievous-Max), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flkickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/130995712@N05/15782802834/

spirit bear by Ian McAllister (left); Great Bear Rainforest (upper right) and moss-covered trees in Khutze Inlet (lower right) by Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press: CBC British Columbia @cbcnewsbc, via Twitter Feb. 1, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/cbcnewsbc/status/694190531002376192

For further information:

"British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest." naturally:wood.
Available @ http://www.naturallywood.com/sites/default/files/Great-Bear-Rainforest-Factsheet.pdf

CBC British Columbia‏ @cbcnewsbc. "Great Bear Rainforest agreement creates 'a gift to the world.'" Twitter. Feb. 1, 2016.
Available @ https://twitter.com/cbcnewsbc/status/694257200185872385

Hunter, Justine. "Final agreement reached to protect B.C.'s Great Bear Rainforest." The Globe and Mail > News > British Columbia > Environment. Feb. 1, 2016.
Available @ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/final-agreement-reached-to-protect-bcs-great-bear-rainforest/article28475362/

McSheffrey, Elizabeth. "Premier Clark announces landmark Great Bear Rainforest agreement." National Observer > News. Great Bear Rainforest Special Report article 3 of 8. Feb. 1, 2016.
Available @ http://www.nationalobserver.com/2016/02/01/news/premier-clark-announces-landmark-great-bear-rainforest-agreement

Morrow, Fiona. "Great Bear Rainforest Agreement creates 'a gift to the world.'" CBC News > Canada > British Columbia. Feb. 1, 2016.
Available @ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/great-bear-rainforest-bc-agreement-1.3426034

Office of the Premier of British Columbia. "Globally significant landmark agreement reached." British Columbia Government News. Feb. 1, 2016.
Available @ https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2016PREM0011-000122

ProvinceofBC. "Great Bear Rainforest." YouTube. Feb. 1, 2016.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWtvgIUaerY