Prime Minister John Horgan has promised to take steps to protect more primary forests, but ending the logging of primary trees could cost a billion dollars.
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Prime Minister John Horgan is under increasing pressure to stop the logging of ancient trees off the coast of British Columbia, a step that would come with a price tag of $ 1 billion to buy back existing timber rights, according to an analyst from the industry.
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In addition to the ongoing protests at Fairy Creek on Vancouver Island, the most recent pressure included an open letter from the environmental group Canopy, calling on Horgan to “protect irreplaceable old-growth forests.”
The letter, signed by leading scientists and celebrities, including Star Trek primatologist Jane Goodall and William Shatner, was published as an advertisement in The Globe and Mail newspaper.
In a rough estimate, industry analyst Jim Girvan calculated that it could cost $ 1.7 billion to cancel existing timber rights held by companies and First Nations to stop the felling of ancient trees, and old trees still account for the 50 percent of coastal timber extraction.
“There is an initial estimate from an analyst of what it would cost to buy an industry that William Shatner wants to shut down,” Girvan said. “So we are talking about a lot, a lot of money.”
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A Sierra Club of BC spokesperson said some of the economic impacts are being exaggerated before the government makes its decisions. Successive governments, however, have allowed “unsustainable (harvests) to remain very high,” according to activist Jens Wieting.
The Sierra Club was a supporter of another pressure point on the government, an international petition from the German environmental group Rainforest Rescue that collected some 260,000 signatures calling on the government to “stop the logging of ancient giants.”
The Horgan government has promised new forest management legislation as part of its legislative agenda this fall and the prime minister has alluded to “the people who will be affected by the decisions we are going to make” in media interviews.
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In an interview with CFAX radio in Victoria, Horgan said the government is doing its best to implement “the spirit and intent” of the recommendations of the old growth strategic review it commissioned in 2020, but noted that it has to be fair to those who were granted timber rights by previous governments.
In the radio interview, Horgan said that he would prefer that the signatories to Canopy’s letter “put down a couple of million dollars each” to help mitigate the impact of the postponements of older families, although his minister on file does not. offered his own estimate of what the costs might be in response to Postmedia News questions.
Katrine Conroy, Minister of Forests, Land and Natural Resource Operations, was unavailable for an interview, but her staff sent an unauthorized email response saying that the government agrees “on the need to measure impacts on people, and this work is underway. “
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Ministry staff did not refute Girvan’s rough estimate, but said in the statement: “A socioeconomic analysis on the issue is currently underway.”
The statement said the government created an old-growth technical advisory panel in June to help the province identify the highest-risk old-growth forests to be considered for two-year deferrals of logging, which would also involve a commitment to the rights and holders of First Nations. .
“We know that some forests are irreplaceable and in need of protection, and we are committed to moving in the right direction to ensure a better future for our children,” the statement said.
Girvan said the industry understands that logging postponements and greater protection of old growth are on the cards, but “fears there will be a massive disruption to the harvest.”
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Over the summer, Girvan, in an estimate compiled for a coalition of British Columbia pulp and paper producers, tried to estimate how much wood could be reduced to accommodate a variety of pressures facing the government, including the preservation of primary forests. .
“We forecast that they would close at least four sawmills on the coast,” Girvan said, estimating that the government could act on logging deferrals in forests identified by environmental groups as endangered ecosystems.
So a paper mill would also be at risk of closure, Girvan said, because pulp and paper rely on wood waste from sawmills to operate.
However, Wieting said no one knows the details of what is being considered.
“We’re talking about a certain portion of British Columbia’s forests that would be protected, not all forests, not all primary forests,” Wieting said. “We still have to wait to see what the British Columbia government is willing to do.”
Wieting did not downplay the fact that there will be a “significant impact on forestry jobs as we know it today”, which will require considerable public support to cushion it.
“There is a moment of truth for the British Columbia government to recognize that there is more value in keeping what remains intact standing and not destroying it for short-term gains,” Wieting said.
Reference-vancouversun.com