D grade for BC on forest protection
April 28, 2005
(Vancouver, BC) – The B.C. government and coastal logging companies have been given failing grades for their handling of a land use agreement for the so-called Great Bear Rainforest.
Four environmental groups — ForestEthics, Greenpeace, the Rainforest Action Network and the Sierra Club — handed out D grades for protection of the central coast forests and an F for ecological management and planning on Thursday.
“Most British Columbians think the Great Bear Rainforest is protected because both the NDP and Liberal governments said they would do precisely that,” Merran Smith of ForestEthics said in a news release.
Recommendations on land use for the north and central coast regions were made last year by two planning groups composed of First Nations, resource industries and conservation groups.
In a separate agreement, several large logging companies agreed to voluntarily implement a set of new planning and practice measures in the region.
“Inaction threatens the stability of the agreements and leaves us no choice but to communicate these dismal grades to the Canadian public and international marketplace,” said Smith.