Landmark deal protects huge swath of central B.C. coast from logging
VANCOUVER — A jewel in the crown of British Columbia’s magnificent landscape — the Great Bear Rainforest — has been largely protected from logging in a landmark agreement between First Nations, forest companies, environmental groups and the government, Premier Christy Clark said Monday.
The land-sharing deal 20 years in the making will protect 85 per cent of the largest intact temperate rainforest in the world, located on B.C.’s central coast about 700 kilometres northwest of Vancouver.
The Great Bear Rainforest, stretching from the Discovery Islands northwards to Alaska, is 6.4 million hectares, and more than half the region is covered by ancient forests. The agreement ensures 85 per cent of the forests — 3.1 million hectares — are permanently off limits to logging.
“This is what Vancouver used to look like,” said Clark as images of vast forests were displayed on screens during a news conference at the University of B.C.