What government and industry aren't telling you. At the start of the 21st century we are faced with the reality that only 22% of the world's original forest remains. Russia, Canada and Brazil hold 70% of that forest. In 1980's Conservation groups began campaigning in earnest for the protection of BC's. A decade later, while the area of land protected has increased, forest ecosystems throughout the province are in greater risk.

B.C.'s Endangered Forests

Wilderness Committee Educational Report Vol.22 - No.02, Spring 2003

Deregulation - Is anyone out there?

Public employees call it "Black Thursday." That's the day in January 2002 when the BC government announced that nearly 12,000 public servants would lose their jobs over three years.

The deepest cutbacks occurred in ministries charged with keeping watch over public resources. This was on top of major funding and staffing reductions throughout the 1990s. When the cutbacks are completed, there will be one field worker in the Parks Program for every seven parks. The area of ground to be covered by field workers has ballooned. One team - three officers and a supervisor - responsible for investigating industrial compliance with provincial environmental laws must cover 66 million hectares (165 million acres).

Cuts to Ministry of Forest offices will be equally severe. Forest ecologists working in the field to measure animal and plant life before and after logging will be gone. So will check scalers, who work to ensure that timber companies properly account for the trees they cut down and pay a fair price for them as well. Even auditors whose job is to ensure that companies comply with provincial forestry laws will be gone.

The provincial government's deregulation drive is cloaked in the argument that enforcement of various environmental regulations has proven too costly for business, and that if regulations aren't eased up business investment in the province will dry up. But this argument is belied by the facts.

Take the Forest Practices Code as one example. As a recent report by Sierra Legal Defence Fund and Forest Watch of BC reported, since the Code was introduced in 1995, the Ministry of Forests has collected only $5.68 million in violation tickets and penalties under the Code, a rate that puts it on par with the Vancouver Public Library's collections for overdue book fines.

With such low fine amounts, it's safe to say that many companies view this as a fairly marginal cost of doing business in BC. There's good reason to believe that the same companies look to reducing that business cost even further. It's hard to issue penalties to companies when people aren't there to watch what's going on.

To look after BC's public resources we need to sharply increase fines to companies violating environmental laws and use fine revenues to redirect adequate funding into resource ministries.

MADE-IN-BC Solutions

To facilitate the transition to a conservation economy, which protects endangered forests and preserves community stability, the BC government should:

  • Identify and protect endangered forests.
  • End all new road construction and logging in undeveloped watersheds and community drinking watersheds.
  • Reduce BC's rate of cut, diversify control through tenure re-distribution and ensure fair value for timber.
  • Legislate landscape-level biodiversity objectives, apply ecosystem-based management across the landscape & pass legislation that makes endangered species habitat protection mandatory.
  • Keep public lands in public hands and ensure public oversight of forest management and environmental law enforcement.

    • The BC timber industry also has a role to play in the transition. The industry should:

  • Identify and stay out of endangered forests.
  • Move decisively towards FSC certification outside of endangered forests.

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