Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Huge Canada park an animal haven

By Jeremy Hainsworth
Associated Press

February 8, 2006

VANCOUVER -- Canada unveiled a 16 million-acre preserve Tuesday, including parkland twice the size of Yellowstone, teeming with grizzly bears, wolves and wild salmon in the ancestral home of many native tribes.

Ending a battle between environmentalists and loggers, the Great Bear Rainforest will stretch 250 miles along British Columbia's Pacific coastline. The accord is the result of negotiations among governments, aboriginal First Nations, the logging industry and environmentalists.

"The result is a strong marriage that balances the needs of the environment with the need for sustainable jobs and a strong economic future for coastal communities," said Premier Gordon Campbell, who was accompanied by Indian dancers and drummers for the announcement and formal First Nations blessing.

Campbell said 4.4 million acres would be protected outright and managed as parkland, with 11.6 million more acres run under a management plan to ensure sustainable forestry with minimal impact on the environment.

Full implementation of the project is expected by 2009. Yellowstone National Park is 2.2 million acres.

British Columbia's lush evergreen forests have been the scene of decades of confrontation between environmentalists and loggers. Boycotts in the 1990s led to international corporations turning away from British Columbia paper and wood products, adding pressure to a negotiated solution.

"This innovative rain forest agreement provides a real world example of how people and wilderness can prosper together," said Lisa Matthaus, coast campaign coordinator for the Sierra Club of Canada's British Columbia chapter.

The region is home to hundreds of species, including grizzlies, black bears, wolves, cougars, mountain goats, moose and deer. It also sustains a white bear, called the spirit bear, found only in British Columbia.

A central component of the Great Bear Rainforest project will be a $104 million conservation financing package to support the land-use agreements.

To date, Greenpeace Canada, the Sierra Club of Canada, ForestEthics, the Nature Conservancy, Tides Canada Foundation and several private U.S. and Canadian foundations have raised $52 million to help establish the financing package.

The provincial government has committed $26 million. Project partners are working to secure the remainder from Canada's federal government.

Speaking on behalf of the 25 aboriginal groups involved in the project, Art Sterritt of the North Coast First Nations said the deal allows Indians to continue traditional lifestyles.

"It wasn't an easy job," he said. "Everyone had to make compromises here and there."

Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-0602080079feb08,1,6682042.story?coll=chi-homepagetravel-hed

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