Great Bear Rainforest Conservation Partnership

Great Bear Rainforest Conservation Partnership



Feb 2007 - A public-private partnership has raised C$120 million to 
conserve part of the largest coastal temperate rainforest left 
on Earth. The Great Bear Rainforest with its 1,000 year old 
cedar trees shelters the endemic white spirit bear, black 
bears, grizzlies, wolves, deer, and eagles. 
From the northern end of Vancouver Island, across Queen 
Charlotte Strait, and up the central coast of British Columbia 
to the Alaskan border, the Great Bear Rainforest stretches 
more than 250 miles. Tall Sitka spruce trees fringe streams on 
valley bottoms where salmon still run. 
The white spirit bear, also called the Kermode bear, Ursus 
americanus kermodei, is unique to the central British Columbia 
coast.  
Today, nearly 60 percent of the world's coastal temperate 
rainforests have been logged or developed. The Great Bear 
Rainforest represents one-quarter of what remains. 
Over the last two years, the Nature Conservancy and its 
partners have raised C$60 million to help leverage matching 
funding from governments in Canada for conservation in the 
Great Bear Rainforest. 
Late in January, the Canadian federal government committed 
C$30 million for work in the rainforest. Those funds, combined 
with C$30 million previously committed by the provincial 
government of British Columbia, make up the public funding 
component of the Great Bear Rainforest project. 
“The economic challenges facing the people of the Great Bear 
Rainforest are as important to address as the area’s 
conservation challenges,” said Steve McCormick, president and 
CEO of The Nature Conservancy. 
Together, the commitments from the governments and the private 
support raised by the Conservancy and a core group of U.S. and 
Canadian foundations will create two public-private funds 
totaling $120 million. 
The contributions of the foundations and environmental groups 
will provide an endowment fund for conservation management and 
research projects to be known as the Conservation Endowment 
Fund. 
The Great Bear Rainforest is indicated in yellow on this map 
of British Columbia. (Map courtesy Environment Canada) 
Governmental funding will provide financial support for an 
economic development fund for Coastal First Nations 
communities and for sustainable development initiatives known 
as the Conservation Investments and Incentives Initiative, 
CIII. 
The combined federal-provincial contribution to this fund will 
be directed toward economic development opportunities for 
First Nations businesses involved in activities such as 
sustainable fisheries, forestry and tourism. 
Examples of businesses that may be eligible for funding under 
the CIII fund include tourism, including cruises and wildlife 
viewing; non-timber forest products and ecosystem-based 
management forestry operations; green building projects, and 
fisheries. 
Activities that will not be eligible include open net-cage 
finfish aquaculture; trophy hunting; any activity associated 
with the large scale extraction of subsurface resources; and 
unsustainable exploitation of fish and wildlife in the area. 
Carver Guujaaw stands in front of a culturally modified giant 
cedar tree. Guujaaw serves as president of the Council of the 
Haida Nation, one of the Coastal First Nations.  
The two funds are intended to transform the economies of the 
21 million acre Great Bear Rainforest and support land use 
agreements announced last February with First Nations. 
"By working together governments, foundations and First 
Nations have created a unique approach to sustainable 
development on B.C.'s coast," said Art Sterritt, executive 
director of the Coastal First Nations. "The funds will ensure 
the well-being of our people, lands, and waters. We look 
forward to working closely with all our partners as we move 
forward to create an economically and ecologically sustainable 
coast." 
"We've been waiting a very long time for this federal funding 
and I'm pleased it has finally come," said Kitasoo First 
Nations Elder Percy Starr. "This would not have happened 
without the leadership of the provincial government who 
facilitated and brokered what I hope will be a long-lasting 
relationship that will bring many benefits to our people." 
Brew Island and Laredo Inlet are part of a new 75,000 hectare 
reserve in the Kitasoo Plan for biodiversity protection. 
 
"This initiative is a clear illustration of the partnerships 
and cooperation that are necessary to build a diversified 
economy on the coast," said Dallas Smith, chair of KNT First 
Nations. 
"We know there is a strong link between a healthy ecosystem, a 
healthy society and Canada's economic prosperity," said 
Canadian Environment Minister John Baird. "This ambitious and 
collaborative initiative will achieve just that, and we are 
committed to work closely with First Nations and 
non-government organizations to bring it to life." 
British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell said, "This 
commitment recognizes that this unique part of our province 
truly is a national treasure and that we must work in 
partnership to advance economic opportunities for First 
Nations who have been such strong partners in charting the 
future of the coastal regions of B.C." 
A coalition of environmental organizations - Greenpeace 
Canada, ForestEthics, Sierra Club of Canada-British Columbia 
Chapter and the Rainforest Action Network - has worked to 
build consensus for long-term conservation of the Great Bear 
Rainforest. 
Merran Smith, B.C. Coast program director for ForestEthics, 
said, “The challenges of our age require innovative approaches 
that place a premium on a healthy environment. With today’s 
announcement we’re proving that conservation can attract 
investment and actually support jobs that won't threaten the 
living systems that we depend upon." 
A conservationist overlooks a 1998 Interfor clearcut into 
Rivers Inlet in the Great Bear Rainforest.  
Until April 4, 2001, industrial clearcut logging was 
destroying the Great Bear Rainforest, with industrial salmon 
farming, trophy hunting of grizzly bears, mining, and offshore 
oil and gas exploration on the horizon. 
On that date, the B.C. government, some forestry companies and 
some environmental groups came to a negotiated interim 
agrement to set aside 16 valleys and several key ecological 
areas for possible protection. Other intact rainforest valleys 
were put under temporary moratorium from industrial 
development, and a planning process was established to define 
and implement ecosystem-based planning. 
From that tentative step have grown the new funds and plans 
for conservation and economic development that go 
hand-in-hand. 
The Nature Conservancy's McCormick said, “Protected areas are 
vital to the future of the Great Bear Rainforest, yet they 
alone are not enough to ensure the long-term survival of the 
rainforest and the human and natural communities within it. 
The establishment of this public-private fund is a global 
model of what conservation must become - an inherent part of 
economies, environments and cultures." 
The Great Bear Rainforest protected areas network includes:
  55 percent of estuaries 
  54 percent of wetlands 
  40 percent of all documented salmon-bearing streams 
  About 30 percent of all habitat for northern goshawks, 
  marbled murrelets and grizzly bears 
  34 percent of all remaining old growth forest 
  39 percent of mature forest 
Kermode bears in the Great Bear Rainforest  
Also conserved is the only habitat of the spirit bear, also 
called the Kermode bear. This is a unique subspecies of the 
North American black bear in which about one in every 10 bears 
is colored white or cream. Some have orange or yellow colors 
on their backs, but Kermode bears also can be all black. 
The scientific name, Ursus americanus kermodei, honors 
naturalist and museum curator Frances Kermode of the British 
Columbia Provincial Museum. 
The term spirit bear comes from First Nations tradition, which 
holds that the white bears are to be revered and protected.

---