Forest Caucus Report

A Newsletter of the Canadian Environmental Network Forest Caucus

The Great Bear Rainforest and the World Forestry Congress
Greg Higgs, Forest Action Network (FAN)

More than 4,000 participants from over 140 countries came to Quebec City for the World Forestry Congress (WFC) in September 2003. Thirty-eight theme sessions, countless panels and side events and 200 papers later, the conference officially ended on September 28. Amongst this maze of proceedings regarding frameworks and policy, could it have been possible for delegates to lose site of the forest. What about threatened forests like the Great Bear Rainforest?

The Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia is the largest contiguous expanse of temperate rainforest left in the world. It encompasses seven million hectares of pristine fjords, rivers, mountains, glaciers and valleys. Countless species depend on this vibrant ecosystem, from the humble murrelet to the infamous grizzly bear.

Seizing every opportunity available to campaign for protection of priceless treasures like the Great Bear Rainforest, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to attend the side event hosted by the BC government. Chief Forester Larry Pederson and Forest Minister Michael de Jong both gave speeches, not surprisingly purporting "the best forest practices in the world" and "a commitment to land use planning processes like the Central Coast, or Great Bear Rainforest."

Members of the audience including representative of BC-based Forest Action Network (FAN) and Greenpeace were quick to interject. "Nonsense," I stated, "Since elected, the BC Government has ignored the consensus-based recommendations of one land use planning process already (South Chilcotin). How can we trust that they will act in the best interests of the environment and people in regards to the Great Bear?" Needless to say, it was critical that NGOs were present in order to counter the BC Government's spin doctoring of the truth. Very rarely do NGOs get the opportunity to directly engage senior forestry officials in this manner.

Since that time – half a year later – the BC government is starting to take the issue more seriously. The question is are they taking it seriously enough?

Recently, the land use table put forward their recommendations for protection. Unfortunately, they call for less than half the protection proposed by the scientific body appointed by the Province, industry and NGOs. Meanwhile, 72% of logging is still done by clearcutting and 85% of salmon streams are logged to their banks, and the suggestions from the table do little to stop either of these practices.

Hopefully, by the time the next World Forestry Congress rolls around, we will have more positive news to report. Let's keep our fingers crossed.