The Globe and Mail
Wednesday 17 October 2007
Province declares nearly 400,000 hectares off-limits to logging to boost dwindling population of mountain animals.
Vancouver - In an effort to save a dwindling and endangered population of mountain caribou, the British Columbia government is putting nearly 400,000 hectares of forest off-limits to logging and road building.
The area that will get new protection will be included within 2.2 million hectares of specially managed caribou range, much of which is already protected within parks.
The plan calls for greater controls on human activities - such as snowmobiling - in mountain caribou habitat, control of wolf and cougar populations which prey on caribou, restrictions on resource industries and the boosting of some small herds by transplants from other, larger herds.
The move, announced by Agriculture and Lands Minister Pat Bell, comes after a campaign by ForestEthics and other environmental groups brought international attention to the plight of mountain caribou in Canada and led to market boycotts.
Limited Brands, which spends $100-million a year on paper and publishes the Victoria's Secret catalogue, last year heightened tensions when it announced it would no longer buy paper derived from caribou habitat in Canada.
Mountain caribou numbers in B.C. have plummeted 25 per cent since 1992, to reach a population of about 1,900 animals - down drastically from historic levels of about 10,000.
The goal of the recovery plan, which will be funded with $3-million over the next three years, is to restore B.C.'s 12 mountain caribou herds to the pre-1995 population level of 2,500 animals.
"The decline in mountain caribou did not happen overnight, and neither will the recovery," Mr. Bell said in a statement.
"It will take several generations of mountain caribou before they reach pre-1995 levels. However, together with our partners, we are committed to doing whatever it takes."
B.C. has virtually the world's entire population of mountain caribou, a subspecies of the more widespread woodland caribou.
Mountain caribou are found in the inland rain-forest region of southeastern B.C., where they are dependent on old-growth forests.
Environmentalists have been calling for the government to set aside large tracts of forest.
"The mountain caribou is endangered because the old-growth forest is endangered," the Valhalla Wilderness Society stated in a report last year.
Shane Simpson, environment critic for the NDP, praised the government but said a broader action is needed to protect other threatened species in B.C.
"I'm glad the government is doing this. It's the right thing to do for mountain caribou. But what the government should really be doing is looking at an ecosystem-based approach for other ... animals and plants that are at some degree of risk in B.C.," he said.
"This announcement is significant, but we have to keep in mind this was a response to a crisis situation. ... We need to act much, much sooner and not wait until a species is at death's door," said Faisal Moola, director of science for the David Suzuki Foundation.
He said the government should introduce an endangered species law that protects animals before they are at risk of extinction.
"There's a lot in it we quite like. There is almost 400,000 hectares of new protection so we're seeing it as a pretty major step forward," said Candace Batycki, endangered forest program director for ForestEthics.
Ms. Batycki said she hopes the announcement marks a shift in environmental policy by the Liberal government.
"I think that this government sees that it needs to do more on the environmental side.
"They realize that's what the voters want. I'm thinking this is going to be the beginning of perhaps quite a shift," she said.
The B.C. government has been working on a caribou recovery strategy for years, appointing a scientific panel to study the issue in 2005. But a draft plan released last November, which relied heavily on killing predators and suggested management of small herds could be abandoned, came under intense criticism.
The final plan reflects months of consultation with representatives of more than 80 different groups including native bands, resource industries, communities and environmentalists.
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