New $300M fund aims to protect old-growth forests, other natural spaces in B.C. from development

B.C. has announced a new $300-million fundto protect threatened ecosystems in the province.

Premier David Ebymade the announcement from a part of Victoria's Beacon Hill Park framed byfir, hemlock and cedar trees, along with Minister of Forests Bruce Ralston and Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Nathan Cullen, and Minister of Environment and Climate Change George Heyman.

The province has committed $150 million to the project, which will be matched by the B.C. Parks Foundation.The money will be used to purchase and protect land from development or industrial activities, such as logging, by designating them asparks or Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas.

The funds will be managed by the foundation and will be overseen independently fromgovernment by a special committee made up of experts, half of whom will be from First Nations.

Eby says the fund, which the province hopes other groups or individuals contribute to, represents government, First Nations, conservationists and industry coming together to provide modern stewardship for the province's natural spaces and biodiversity,"to protect the beauty of this province for generations to come."

Thursday's announcement comes on the heels of the three-year anniversary of a provincially initiated report that made 14 recommendations to drastically shift the way old trees in biodiverse forests are logged, in order to prioritize ecosystem health.

WATCH | Eby explains collaborationwith First Nations in protecting old-growth forests:

Premier defends B.C.'s work to protect forests as old-growth logging continues

11 months ago

Duration 2:02

David Eby says his government is taking a collaborative approach to change the way old-growth logging is done in B.C. after announcing new conservation funding to protect at-risk ecosystems.

The 2020 reportA New Future for Old Forestscalls for engaging Indigenous leaders on forestry policies, increased transparency about forest conditions, and deferring development in old-growth forests until a new management strategy can be implemented.

Funding, like whatwas announced Thursday, wasalso part of the 14 recommendations.

"Conservation financing is a core tool that can help us to preserve options for the future and toadvance our ability to properly manage, maintain and conserve ecosystem health, biodiversity and our oldest and rarest trees," said Garry Merkel, co-author of the report also known as the Old Growth Strategic Reviewin a provincial release.

Thefinancing will enable the province, working withFirst Nations, toconserve criticalhabitat, better manage climate change, protectmore of B.C.'s lands and waters and implementthe Old Growth Strategic Review, those at the announcement said.

Conservation funding a 'critical piece': conservationists

For Ken Wu, executive director of the Endangered Ecosystem Alliance, the announcement comes after years of campaigning the provincial and federal governmentsto provide financial alternatives for First Nations looking to diversify their economies.

He said for communities that are reliant on logging revenue, providing funding for protected areas is a "critical piece."

"No major human population is just going to jettison their primary source of income and jobs for protected areas unless there is support for the alternatives," Wu said.

While the group's overall reaction to the funding is positive, Wu said there are still gaps when it comes to protecting old-growth logging. He wants to see the province create specific conservation targets regarding the types of ecosystems that will be protected.

"The protected areas will skirt around, potentially, the areas of big timber of high economic value for logging, and those areas will still get logged unless you have ecosystem-based targets," Wu said.

"That includes the areas with the big trees and the most at-risk and least represented ecosystems."

Potential for 'talk and log' to continue

Conservationists said Thursday they were pleased to see funding materialize.

Over the past three years, they have documented instances where logging continues in at-risk areas with old-growth trees. They want logging to be immediately deferred in those areas.

Torrance Coste, national campaign director with the Wilderness Committee, said the funding can't protect forests if they've already been cut down.

"We know that tens of thousands of hectares of the best old-growth forests have been cut down in the last three years and we know that's continuing today while the government announces new commitments and processes," he said.

"All the money in the world won't bring back forests and other ecosystems destroyed while funding mechanisms and planning processes are set up. Now that this money is on the table to enable a meaningful increase in protected areas, the B.C.NDP needs to step up and stop the 'talk and log' that undermines its conservation goals."

New stewardship plans

Ralston also announcednew forest landscape planning that replaces existing stewardship plans, devised under the Old Growth Strategic Review and in partnership with local First Nations.

They establish objectives for the long-term management of old growth, biodiversity, climate change andwildfire risk, the government release said.

"Indigenous sustainability teachings, such as Gwelx ye'enst[a Gitanyow sustainability principle]have much to offer the creation of new provincial land and water protection measures for salmon, water and wildlife resources," saidTara Marsden,with the Gitanyowhereditary chiefs, in a provincial statement.

The locations of five new forest landscape plans are the Bulkley Valley in the west-central Interior, 100 Mile House andWilliams Lake in the Cariboo, and east-central andwest-central Vancouver Island.

Past 3 years 'challenging' for forests sector

The B.C. Council of Forest Industries, which represents the majority of forestry industry companies in the province, called the fund a "new and innovative" approach to maintaining ecosystems and biodiversity in the province.

In a statement released by CEO Linda Coady, the organization said the past three years have been "challenging" for the sector in light of the province's deferral on logging in some areas of old-growth in November 2021.

The organization said they look forward to working with Indigenous and local communities on forest management and conservation"while also creating more predictability for workers, communities, and forest-related businesses across B.C."