RAN’s Statement Regarding the BC LRMP Consensus Agreement On April 4, 2001, four major logging companies ­ including Weyerhaeuser - and the British Columbia (B.C.) government agreed to explore with several environmental organizations, First Nations governments and a variety of stakeholder interests how establishing a network of protected areas and practicing new logging techniques could protect threatened species and promote biodiversity within the Great Bear Rainforest. Located south of the Alaskan panhandle and running down the Pacific mainland coast of B.C., the Great Bear Rainforest is the largest unprotected coastal temperate rainforest left on the planet, encompassing over 20 million acres.

The agreement proposed permanent protection of 20 intact rainforest valleys and a temporary halt to logging in 68 others. It further proposed the formation of a “Coast Information Team” to bring together the best available scientific, traditional, and local knowledge to develop science-based recommendations for protection priorities and new forestry techniques, called ecosystem-based management (EBM). In return, four environmental groups - including RAN - agreed to temporarily suspend all markets campaign activity focused on the B.C. operations of those four logging companies.

Through the B.C.’s government’s Land Use Planning process, the Great Bear Rainforest had been divided into three regional planning tables. The Kalum district plan was completed in early 2000. The North Coast planning process has reached a conditional consensus, with outstanding issues still to be resolved.

On the Central Coast, the culmination of research, planning and intensive negotiations between industry, four environmental groups and a variety of stakeholder interests over three years was announced in January 2004, declaring an “unprecedented consensus on land-use recommendations for B.C.’s Central Coast”. The consensus was presented in a 101 page report to First Nations and the B.C. government, who are now engaged in negotiations that will finalize the conservation plan for the coast.

RAN applauds the consensus as a necessary measure that could very well protect nearly 2.5 million acres of B.C.’s temperate coastal rainforests. We honor the work of thousands of students, retirees, scientists, and average citizens from around the world over the past decade to protect this global treasure. We welcome the fact that 106 watersheds/areas totaling more than 3.7 million acres (1.5 million hectares) have been recommended for varying degrees of protection in the southerly region of the Great Bear Rainforest and we look forward to a positive outcome following negotiations between the Province and First Nation governments.

RAN also acknowledges that the consensus failed to live up to the recommendations of the Coast Information Team and the balance of scientific opinion stating that the proposed plan leaves these fragile ecosystems and the life that they support at risk. Specifically, the consensus agreement fully protects only 22% of the central coast landbase, with a further 11% off limits to logging and hydro-electric development but open to mining and road building that could substantially erode forest habitat.

Moreover, RAN is deeply concerned that the central coast recommendations are being used to validate habitat destruction on Vancouver Island and elsewhere in the province. Already, companies like Weyerhaeuser are using the consensus in the media as a green-ticket for their old growth logging operations throughout Canada.

While RAN stands firmly behind recommendations that will likely provide the most durable protection to date for the coast, independent science tells us that the fragile ecosystems of B.C. need much more. It is in this spirit that RAN rededicates itself to do better for Vancouver Island, the rest of British Columbia, and all of Canada in the best way we know how: grassroots organizing, education and peaceful direct action in the marketplace.