VANCOUVER 鈥� Bitter opponents faced with the realities of economics and endless protests shook hands Monday on a truce 20 years in the making to protect much of British Columbia鈥檚 magnificent Great Bear Rainforest.
The protections limiting logging and banning the commercial grizzly hunt were helped by the spiritual presence of the rare white bear that roams sa国际传媒鈥檚 central coast forests amid 1,000-year-old cedars.
鈥淲e kind of all grew up and understood we needed to work together to find solutions,鈥� Rick Jeffery, the president of the Coast Forest Products Association, said Monday after the agreement was released. 鈥淥ne of the successes and magic about today is we鈥檝e demonstrated to the world that collaboration and finding solutions can work.鈥�
Premier Christy Clark announced the deal between First Nations, environmental groups, forest companies and her government to protect 85 per cent of the largest intact temperate rainforest in the world from logging. The Great Bear Rainforest is located on sa国际传媒鈥檚 remote coast about 700 kilometres northwest of Vancouver.
It鈥檚 6.4 million hectares and stretches from the Discovery Islands northward to Alaska, and more than half is covered by ancient forests. The agreement ensures 3.1聽million hectares of forest ecosystem are permanently off limits to logging.
Environmental groups, First Nations and the forest industry admitted the hard-fought agreement was forged in conflict dating back to the 1990s, but painstaking negotiations where everybody knew there was no turning back sealed the deal.
鈥淥ther folks in other parts of the world in forestry and other natural resource sectors could do a lot to learn by what happened in this place,鈥� said Jeffery.
ForestEthics Solutions Val Langer said the agreement emerged out of the realization 鈥渙ne of us was going to die.鈥�
sa国际传媒鈥檚 pulp mills and lumber companies were feeling pressure from buyers who didn鈥檛 want to buy wood from protest zones and the environmentalists were told to find solutions that didn鈥檛 involve constant battles, said Langer.
鈥淭he change between the environmentalists and forest companies happened when the marketplace threw down the challenge to us and said, 鈥橶e need you guys to work it out,鈥� 鈥� she said. 鈥淲e just knew we couldn鈥檛 maintain this and we couldn鈥檛 be in conflict forever.鈥�
Jeffery largely agreed, saying customers didn鈥檛 want to sell products labelled as destroyers of the environment, despite industry attempts to explain their forest practices.
鈥淭hey just said to us, 鈥橶e want the conflict gone,鈥� 鈥� he said.
Clark鈥檚 government will introduce legislation this spring that enshrines the deal and includes benefit-sharing agreements with area First Nations.
The plan also ends the commercial grizzly bear hunt and protects habitat for the marbled murrelet, northern goshawk, mountain goat and tailed frog.
Langer said the Great Bear Rainforest鈥檚 white kermode bear, widely known as the spirit bear, became the galvanizing symbol of the area鈥檚 other-worldly quality and the necessity for its protection.
She said the eco-management deal to protect the area is complex and comprehensive but the spirit bear symbolizes its meaning and generational value.
鈥淚t鈥檚 iconic,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hat is simple is the understanding of what is at stake and the spirit bear is the icon of what鈥檚 at stake.鈥�
Twenty-six area First Nations signed the agreement.
Nanwakolas Tribal Council president Dallas Smith said three sa国际传媒 premiers, 94 First Nations chiefs and 183 councillors were involved in Great Bear Rainforest talks over the past two decades.
鈥淚t鈥檚 frustrating for us as First Nations people that it took the white spirit bear to draw the international attention that it did when my communities have been living in third-world conditions from the start,鈥� he said.
鈥淏ut we have a choice. We can either get mad about that or we can be proactive and use the opportunity to bring some awareness to the issues that our communities face.鈥�
