March 21st being International Day of Forests, some BC-based old-growth advocates have expressed their concerns about the BC government not keeping promises of protection for the province’s oldest and most at-risk tree ecosystems.
The Endangered Ecosystems Alliance (EEA) and Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) say they hope the Province doesn’t backslide on its previous policy progress, but also recognize the strides that have been taken in recent years.
“Despite significant conservation policy progress over the past year since Premier Eby came in, including his commitment to essentially double the protected areas system by 2030 and his allocation of major funding to enable this to happen, we’re concerned by what appears to be recent backsliding by the BC government on old-growth conservation,” said Ken Wu, Executive Director of the EEA.
Wu says that the Ministry of Forests has been focussed on saving smaller trees, dishonest with public relations regarding forestry in BC, promoting “weak protection standards” he believes are full of loopholes and increasing economic dependency of Indigenous communities on old-growth logging.
“The forces of the old guard within government are working strategically to contain change and limit any paradigm shift to minimize the impacts of new conservation policies on the available timber supply — that is, enabling industry to ‘log until extinction,’” said Wu.
“Eby is in charge, and he needs to do a selective harvest or controlled burn to cleanse the politics, policies, and bureaucracy in BC of these old, unsustainable logging mindsets ASAP.”
Despite their hopes, the AFA and the EEA acknowledge progress for old-growth protection that has been brought in under this BC government.
The five positive steps they have seen include:
- Incrementally protecting 30% of BC by 2030 – The AFA say that currently, 15% of BC is protected
- Securing over $1 billion to expand protected forest regions
- Bringing forth a draft Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework (BEHF) that may aim protected areas establishment correctly
- Establishing the Ministry of Water, Land, and Resource Stewardship
- Supporting several Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCA) plans
However, they say that there are three key issues which may threaten this progress.
Firstly, the AFA and EEA agree that many of the priority, most at-risk old-growth groves that were identified by the Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) were missed. They say these still need deferrals, meanwhile some of the zones that have been secured and protected by the province are not in fact old-growth.
Secondly, these organizations say they would like to see the Province provide “solutions space funding” to help cover lost revenue to First Nations who have come to rely on logging money to support their communities.
Lastly, they accuse the Province of misleading and using loopholes to allow logging companies ways of getting around would-be deferrals.
They also say the Ministry of Forests is “lumping together the TAP priority deferral areas with forests that are already protected in provincial parks and conservancies to get credit for ‘deferring’ forests that had been protected for decades.”
According to the AFA and EEA, this isn’t the end of the problems, only the ones that would be easiest to address.
“We’re in a global biodiversity and climate crisis, with the planet just experiencing its hottest year on record,” said TJ Watt, AFA campaigner and photographer.
“Endangered old-growth forests in British Columbia, which store vast amounts of carbon and are havens for diverse species, are the antidote for what ails our world. On International Day of Forests, Premier David Eby and the BC government must renew their commitment to ensuring the old-growth forests identified as most at-risk are protected.”
Wu and Watt agreed that in terms of saving old-growth, the Province is at a crossroads in the strength of their policies and regulations.
The Province’s position
The Ministry of Forests told Victoria Buzz that their approach to conservation is focussed on the whole of the ecosystem, which includes the protection of watersheds, wildlife habitats and areas of cultural significance.
“People who live here share a deep connection to our forests,” said Bruce Ralston, Minister of Forests.
“In the face of devastating wildfires, climate change and the impacts of the mountain pine beetle, we are taking urgent action to better care for our forests.”
Ralston says previous short-sighted approaches to forestry and conservation in decades past have led BC to many of the issues being dealt with today, such as decisions to boost raw log exports.
To the AFA’s and EEA’s points of concern, Ralsoon pointed out some progress which has been made in the last year.
“2.42 million hectares of old growth forests are deferred or newly protected since November 2021. This includes 1.23 million hectares of priority at-risk old growth identified by the Technical Advisory Panel,” Ralson told Victoria Buzz.
“We’ve been clear that while some First Nations support TAP-identified deferrals, others have said that based on their expertise, alternative old growth land outside of TAP areas should be deferred instead.”
He added that some First Nations don’t support the proposed deferrals and prefer to continue benefiting from forestry activity in their territory.
Ralston says that all recommendations from the Old Growth Strategic Review are being acted upon in the name of sustainability and partnership building with BC’s First Nations.
He specifically noted the $300 million conservation financing fund launched with the BC Parks Foundation, the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework initiative as well as supporting communities, ecosystems and wildfire prevention with BC’s new Forest Landscape Planning endeavour.
“We will keep working alongside First Nations, communities, advocates and the sector to conserve more ancient forests for our children and grandchildren,” Ralston concluded.
