The deadline for a final agreement on the Great Bear Rainforest – a precedent-setting pact between the B.C. coastal forest industry, First Nations and environmentalists – is expected to be missed because the provincial government has not yet finalized its commitments.
The agreement that ended the “war in the woods” in British Columbia would preserve large swaths of old-growth trees and the home of the Kermode bears on B.C.’s mid-coast.
Talks began in 1999 on logging and wildlife – and more recently the well-being of First Nations communities in the region. A tentative agreement was announced in 2006, but a series of targets for completion of the deal have slipped.
Now, Greenpeace Canada says the provincial government needs to demonstrate the political commitment to complete the deal soon before the goodwill between the parties gives way.
The agreement would result in the protection of 70 per cent of the land base in a rugged coastal region that covers 6.4 million hectares of the province’s mid-coast.
It was forged to end logging conflicts marked by blockades, mass arrests and a marketing campaign that advocated boycotts of B.C. forest products