Dr. Peter Pare: Where is the Old Growth Advisory Panel report?

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Just over a year ago, in September 2020, the British Columbia NDP government released its Strategic Review of Old Growth and committed to adopting all 14 recommendations.

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The most urgent recommendations were to provide the public with timely and objective information on forest conditions and trends and, second, to respond immediately to very high-risk ecosystems. This included that there should be an immediate reduction in timber extraction in ecosystems with ‘high risk of biodiversity loss’, ancient forests older than 500 years and in biogeoclimatic ecosystem areas with less than 10% remaining ancient forest.

Campaigning on this commitment helped the prime minister and the NDP win a majority in the October 2020 provincial elections. But more than a year later, the implementation never materialized. This adds to a series of clichés that now span decades, beginning with a 1992 strategy for old growth by the NDP that was never implemented.

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In June of this year, nine months after their last engagement, the NDP appointed another advisory panel. The new panel opened with fanfare that read: “This new technical panel will ensure that we are using the best available science and data to identify old growth ecosystems at risk and prioritize areas for deferral.”

Its terms of reference stated that “the government will support regular updates of information on the panel’s work through press releases … and by posting regular updates online on the government’s old growth website.”

The panel submitted its report to the BC NDP government 12 weeks ago, on August 1, but we have not seen any press releases, updates on the old government growth website, and no reports.

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The forest type recommended for deferral in the panel report almost certainly includes the endangered former coastal rainforest in and around Fairy Creek and the unprotected Middle Walbran Valley.

While we awaited the report, the NDP has supported tens of millions of dollars in RCMP actions in these public forests that have brutalized the citizens of British Columbia and resulted in the arrest of more than 1,000 people for peacefully camping in these ancient forests. which will probably be recommended for postponement.

It is sometimes difficult to imagine that a colonial policy established in the first half of the 20th century, that is, the goal of ‘liquidating’ primary forests using an unsustainable rate of logging and replacing them with impoverished tree plantations, is still aggressively defended in 2021. .

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We are in an era where climate change is a modern reality and biodiversity is in crisis around the world. The value of primary forests in buffering these two threats has been identified by hundreds of scientists and many foresters. The province’s continued support for industrial logging in primary forests is out of step with global scientific consensus and political goals.

When will we see the last old growth report and, perhaps more importantly, when will the prime minister act on its recommendations?

Dr. Peter Pare is a retired professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia.

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