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Greenpeace helps make real change right now in the Great Bear Rainforest
Forest industry and environmentalists create change on the ground
In February of 2006, British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell and First Nations announced the Great Bear Rainforest agreements - a historic conservation plan for the Great Bear Rainforest, to take full effect in March of 2009.
Today, the Coastal Forest Conservation Initiative (CFCI) - an industry coalition of Western Forest Products, Interfor, BC Timber Sales, Canfor and Catalyst Paper – is implementing three groundbreaking milestones as part of a voluntary milestone agreement with Greenpeace, ForestEthics and Sierra Club BC. These new milestones bring us closer to our goal: full implementation of the Great Bear Rainforest agreements by 2009.
They also mean real change on the ground right away:
1) Immediate implementation of new logging regulations. In support of Government and First Nations who recently finalized new logging standards, the CFCI companies will start applying better logging standards in the Great Bear Rainforest right now - before they are legally required to do so!
2) CFCI businesses agree to temporarily maintain ecological options in one million hectares of rainforest. Between now and 2009, we are working to implement ecosystem based management (EBM) throughout the Great Bear Rainforest. In the meantime, CFCI logging companies have temporarily agreed not to harvest on one million hectares of rainforest in support of maintaining options for the next critical level of EBM planning.
3) Progress on Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification. We've recently held a workshop with the CFCI companies to identify the steps that need to be taken to establish FSC certified forest operations in the Great Bear Rainforest. FSC certifies forestry operations for environmental and social responsibility. It's the strictest forestry certification in the world, and the only one broadly endorsed by environmental organizations, including Greenpeace. At this time, no forestry operation in the Great Bear Rainforest is currently FSC certified.
Congratulations Greenpeace supporters! These innovative milestones were developed by CFCI logging companies, Greenpeace and our coalition partners. This bilateral initiative gets us closer to fully implementing the Great Bear Rainforest agreements by March 31st 2009, as agreed to by the government of British Columbia, First Nations and many stakeholders. It also demonstrates that – to make real change on the ground – action is required by all the players.
The Great Bear Rainforest agreements constitute one of the largest conservation initiatives on Earth . They provide protection for a swath of temperate rainforest more than three times the size of Prince Edward Island. Greenpeace continues to track the implementation of the Great Bear Rainforest agreements in the lead up to March of 2009 and you can too at: www.greatbearwatch.ca
