Conflict Resolution and British Columbia\'s Great Bear Rainforest

In February 2006 British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell announced his government’s decision to protect the ecological values of a vast tract of temperate rainforest on British Columbia’s coast. “The agreement reached on these areas represents an unprecedented collaboration between First
Nations, industry, environmentalists, local governments and many other stakeholders in how we manage the vast richness of B.C.’s coast…[these] interests have come together in a unique partnership that will support economic opportunity while preserving some of B.C.’s most spectacular wilderness areas and protecting habitat for a number of species, including the rare Spirit Bear. I want to thank all the groups who have shown vision, foresight and patience in bringing us to this historic day,” said Campbell.
It took more than a decade of conflict, negotiation and planning to find the path to the premier’s announcement. Hailed at the time by Greenpeace as welcome news for the Great Bear Rainforest and a good start to protecting ancient forests worldwide, the agreement was proclaimed a Gift to the Earth by the World Wildlife Fund. The forest and paper industry praised the ratification of the agreements as an achievement that would bring certainty for businesses operating in the area and certainty for customers seeking environmentally appropriate forest products. Coastal communities looked at the agreements as an opportunity to improve the social and economic wellbeing of towns dependent on the region.
First Nations, who have made the region home for thousands of years, looked forward to a new relationship with the British Columbia government and the coast’s many stakeholders.
It would take three more years to fulfill the commitments made by Premier Campbell in 2006 and to take many of the steps required to secure the wellbeing of people, communities and the ecosystems of the Great Bear Rainforest. A lot of work remained to be done. As the months passed protected areas were legally designated, new laws governing ecosystem-based management of forests were enacted, the government-to-government relationship between the B.C. government and First Nations was secured, a $120 million (Cnd) fund financed by public and private sources to support conservation management and sustainable economic development in First Nations’ communities was established, and collaborative measures for governance and adaptation were put in place. At the end of March 2009 Greenpeace senior forest campaigner Stephanie Goodwin said of the foundation being built, “It’s a conservation model that other parts of the world can look to, a model that shows how protection of ecological values and human wellbeing can be advanced without undermining each other.”
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