BC’s old-growth forests are still in peril despite the province’s commitment to work with indigenous nations to temporarily ban logging in specific areas, according to a new report from Stand.earth.
More than 55,000 hectares of BC’s proposed old-growth deferrals are at “extreme risk” of being logged, Stand.earth’s spatial analysis revealed. Satellite imagery analysis shows that some postponements have already been destroyed or are in the process of being removed.
“The bottom line is that the province is not actually preventing the timber industry from harvesting mature trees anytime soon,” Angeline Robertson, author of The report, he said at a Zoom news conference on Tuesday.
last novemberthe provincial government recognized that 2.6 million hectares, 226 times the area of Vancouver, of old-growth forests are at high risk of irreversible loss of diversity and should be deferred from logging while First Nations and the province develop a new approach to forest management.
Released on August 30, the report overlays 2.6 million hectares of proposed deferrals with active and pending cutting permits issued to the forestry and oil and gas sectors to determine which areas are at immediate risk.
says the province Postponements have been put in place on 1.7 million hectares of old-growth vegetation, but Stand.earth noted that the government did not specify whether those postponements are protecting areas that would otherwise have been cleared. The province also did not disclose what type of old growth is included in the deferrals. Forests on steep slopes at high elevations are of less value to the forestry industry, while valley bottoms with large trees and easily accessible mature trees are highly sought after, according to the report.
“Forests that actually require the province to defer logging are still at immediate risk of being lost, meanwhile the province is constantly trying to make itself look good by informing deferrals in areas that are not actually at risk of being logged… All of this it’s just loud speaking,” Robertson said.
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As an earlier Stand.earth report found, a handful of private companies pose the bulk of the threat to these forests.
Canfor alone poses a greater risk to old-growth forests than all 127 First Nations-owned logging companies combined, according to that report. West Fraser and Sinclar Group are the second and third biggest threats, respectively, with TransCanada ranking fourth thanks to their logging to make way for the Prince Rupert gas transmission line and Coastal GasLink project.
“While provincial officials promote their supposed achievements, we are watching more old growth being destroyed forever,” Judy Wilson, secretary-treasurer of the British Columbia Union of Indian Chiefs, said at the Kukpi7 news conference.
More than 55,000 hectares of British Columbia’s most at-risk old growth forests are still in danger despite the province’s commitment to work with indigenous nations to temporarily ban logging in specific areas, according to a new report from @StandEarth.
This destruction affects nations, the environment and future generations for decades to come, Wilson said.
“The felling of mature trees has caused flooding, landslides and destruction of our land in our territories, and has worsened forest fires. These disasters disproportionately affect First Nations, who have been forced to evacuate,” he said.
“It is very important that old-growth forest canopies remain intact because of their ecological value,” Wilson added, emphasizing the role forests play in mitigating the climate crisis.
In 2020, the province promised to implement 14 recommendations from an independent body old growth strategic review. Stand.earth says that to date, none of the recommendations have come to fruition. The province did not respond to a request for comment by the deadline.
Chief James Hobart of the Spuzzum First Nation said the province must abide by and commit to all 14 recommendations, the simplest of which is to temporarily ban logging in the rarest and most at-risk old-growth forests.
“You can make excuses or you can make a difference about this. But you can’t do both,” Hobart said at the news conference.
With the BC NDP leadership race underway, he wonders if the next prime minister will deliver on old promises or stand by and let the industry have its way.
Natasha Bulowski / Local Journalism Initiative / Canadian National Observer