Cease-fire called in Canadian rainforest battle
Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited
July 28, 2000
By Allan Dowd
VANCOUVER, July 28 (Reuters) - Four major forestry firms and a coalition of environmental groups agreed on Friday on a temporary ceasefire in their long-running battle over Canada's west coast rainforest as they jointly develop a proposal for managing the region.
The two sides said the goal is to develop a ``a conservation-based ecosystem approach'' for using the forests on British Columbia's coast and to end a fight that includes an international boycott of some of the province's timber.
``We're going to try to push for some kind of a breakthrough in this gridlock that really has characterised the situation for several years,'' said Weyerhaeuser Co. (NYSE:WY - news) vice-president Linda Coady.
The two sides have been talking for several months and expect it will take at least another year to develop a proposal that could be presented to provincial officials, the area's Indians and others with economic stakes in the region.
The firms have agreed to defer logging in 30 sensitive valleys while the plan is being developed. In return, the environmental groups will stop targeting them in the worldwide boycott and public relations campaign.
Environmentalist have coined the name ``Great Bear Rainforest'' for the 70,000-square-kilometre (28,000-square-mile) region between the southern tip of the Alaska panhandle and Bute Inlet, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) northwest of Vancouver.
It is a sparsely populated area of rugged beauty, including glaciers, mountainous islands and small Indian villages that are accessible only by boat or float plane. The region's wildlife includes rare white-furred Kermode bears.
Green groups say logging is destroying old-growth trees in one the world's last temperate rainforests. Forest companies say they need the trees for lumber and paper products. Much of the region's lumber is exported to Asia.
The talks have drawn fire from loggers' unions, who worry it will cost jobs, as well as the region's Indians, who felt excluded from decisions about land they consider their historic territory.
The negotiators said that while they want to work with all parties in the region in developing a proposal, they felt had to press forward and end a conflict between environmentalists and industry that had become ``institutionalized.''
``I guess what we're saying today is that we are developing some proposals we think will work, but they're going to be a little bit unusual. They're probably not going to be consistent with current policies or approaches,'' Coady told Reuters.
Two major logging companies dropped out of the talks earlier this year and some environmental groups refused to participate, but Coady said she hoped others would join the process as progress is made.
In addition to Weyerhaeuser, Canfor Corp. (Toronto:CFP.TO - news), Fletcher Challenge Canada Ltd. (Toronto:FCCa.TO - news) and Western Forest Products (Toronto:DOMa.TO - news) have signed the pact. The green groups included the Coastal Rainforest Coalition, Greenpeace, the Rainforest Action Network and the Sierra Club of British Columbia.