2000-2005
2005-Present

1993

Protests over logging Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island, British Columbia culminate in the largest act of civil resistance in Canadian history – nearly 900 people were arrested. Global awareness about logging Canada’s ancient temperate rainforests spreads.

1994

The Nuxalk First Nation invites environmental groups to visit the Central Coast of British Columbia to witness the destruction of the Great Bear Rainforest and join their efforts to stop large-scale, clearcut logging on their traditional lands.

1995

The Great Bear Rainforest Campaign is launched. The goal is to protect the rainforests on the North and Central Coast of mainland BC, Canada – the largest remaining unprotected tract of intact coastal temperate rainforest in the world.

1996

BC government initiates the Central Coast planning table, which will determine future land-use on the Central Coast.  No environmental groups will participate because the scope of the land use planning is limited to current approaches to forestry and economics.

1997

Environmentalists organize an international markets campaign and new logging blockades. They denounce the Central Coast planning table as a "talk and log" process.

Blockades on Roderick Island place a temporary halt on Western Forest Products clearcutting, and a joint blockade with the Nuxalk First Nation at Ista (Fog Creek) on King Island halts Interfor logging of this culturally significant rainforest valley for 21 days before protestors – native and non-native – are arrested.

1998

Spring/Fall: Negotiations between Sierra Club, Greenpeace and coastal logging companies succeed in creating a temporary moratorium on logging in large, intact rainforest valleys in the Central Coast in exchange for environmental group participation in the Central Coast Land and Resource Management Planning (CCLRMP)process.

November 1998: Iisaak, a joint venture between Weyerhaeuser and First Nations at Clayoquot Sound, is established, providing a preliminary model for ecosystem-based timber harvesting. The Central Region Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations own 51 per cent of the forestry company; Weyerhaeuser owns 49 per cent.

1999

March 26: Negotiations with BC government completed regarding environmental group participation in the CCLRMP.  Government commissions some additional studies on ecological and economic issues and guarantees there will be no 12 per cent limit on land available for protection.  Environmental groups begin sitting at the CCLRMP Table and continue work in the marketplace.

August 26: After pressure by environmental groups, Home Depot announces it will phase out products made from endangered forests. At the same time, German pulp producers and magazine publishing associations support logging deferrals in the Great Bear Rainforest and urge companies, the Province of BC and environmentalists to find a shared solution.

November: In response to the success of international market campaigns targeting of forest products from the Great Bear Rainforest, four environmental groups—the Coastal Rainforest Coalition (now ForestEthics), Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network, and the Sierra Club of Canada, BC Chapter—begin to negotiate with four major coastal logging companies-- Interfor, Western Forest Products, WestFraser and Weyerhaeuser, plus two pulp companies Norske Canada and CanFor-- for a moratorium on logging intact rainforest valleys in all of the Great Bear Rainforest while land-use planning is underway.

photos: Adrian Dorst (banner), Globe and Mail (centre)