Publication - February 1, 2016
The Great Bear Rainforest is a spectacular part of the world. It is home to many First Nations communities. Together, the B.C. and First Nations governments along with environmental organizations and several forestry companies worked hard to move from conflict to a shared outcome rooted in 15 years of collaboration and negotiation. The vision for Ecosystem-Based Management committed to in 2006 is now established with legal and policy agreements as of February 2016.
Eighty-five per cent (3.1 million hectares) of the remote wilderness region’s coastal temperate rainforests will be permanently off-limits to industrial logging. The remaining 15 per cent (550,000 hectares) of the forest will be subject to the most stringent legal standards for commercial logging operations in North America.
The plan solidifies First Nations shared decision-making with the province over land use in their traditional territories and contains measures to improve the well-
being of their communities.
The conservation and human well-being initiatives, which were set into motion in the 2006 Great Bear Rainforest Agreements are widely acknowledged as a global model for collaborative solutions to help resolve conflict over land use, indigenous rights and for large-scale conservation.