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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

VICTORY: Canadian Old-Growth Forest Becomes Reserve

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05/06/00

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY

In validation of over a decade of ecological activism, a portion of

the temperate rainforests of Clayoquot Sound in British Columbia,

Canada has been dedicated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. This

incremental step is indicative of the power of good old-fashioned

grassroots organizing and people power. The battle now moves on to

limiting logging to be allowed in the reserve as well as the

province's other environmentally sensitive forested valleys.

g.b.

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Title: Canadian Old-Growth Forest Becomes UNESCO Reserve

Source: Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited.

Date: May 6, 2000

Byline: Allan Dowd

TOFINO, British Columbia (Reuters) - Environmentalists who squared off

against loggers in the rare old-growth rainforest of Clayoquot Sound

in British Columbia a decade ago got some official validation of their

efforts on Friday when Prime Minister Jean Chretien helped dedicate an

international conservation project for the area.

The dedication ceremony for the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere

Reserve also highlighted the continuing battle over land rights along

Canada's Pacific Coast, with members of a local Indian band briefly

preventing Chretien and other dignitaries from reaching the dedication

site.

``Clayoquot Sound is a place of wonder. It takes your breath away...

Small wonder its preservation has stirred such passion here in Canada

and around the world,'' Chretien told about 250 people gathered at the

Pacific Rim National Park on the west side of Vancouver Island.

Clayoquot Sound became an international symbol of the fight over old-

growth rainforests on Canada's Pacific coast in the late 1980s and

early 1990s. More than 800 people were arrested in 1993 as they

blockaded logging roads in the rugged area, about 250 kilometers

northwest of Victoria, British Columbia.

The biosphere reserve dedicated on Friday is designed to protect about

350,000 hectares (856,000 acres), including about 110,000 hectares

already within the park that are visited by thousands of international

tourists every year.

Logging will be allowed in some of the reserve, although it is to be

done in a manner designed to limit environmental damage. The amount of

logging done will be the subject of negotiations between loggers,

environmentalists and local Indian bands who have land claims over the

area.

``Biosphere is not about sweeping divisions under the carpet. It is

about facing them head on,'' said Larry Baird, a chief councilor of

the Ucluelet First Nation Indian band.

Baird and other Indian officials used the ceremony to chide federal

officials over stalled land claims negotiations. Tribes throughout

British Columbia are negotiating issues of resources and political

control left unresolved since Europeans first arrived here in large

numbers in the mid-1800s.

Members of the Tia-o-qui-aht First Nation briefly blockaded a road

leading from Tofino to the ceremony. They claim the small town's

airport is on their historic territory and are angry the federal

government did not consult them when it transferred the airport to the

town's control.

The incident caused some of the local Indians to threaten to withdraw

support for the biosphere reserve.

Not everyone at Friday's ceremony was pleased with the agreement for

Clayoquot Sound. The region's logging industry has suffered in recent

years, in part because of international boycotts organized by

Greenpeace and other groups.

``A lot of people are wondering how we can make a living and survive

this,'' said Erik Larsen, a town councilor from nearby Ucuelet, who

was mayor of the small community when the large protests began.

Environmentalists say the designation, aided by a C$12-million grant

from Ottawa, does not end their efforts to further limit logging in

the protected area.

``We haven't reached Utopia. There is a lot of work that remains to be

done,'' said Valerie Langer of The Friends of Clayoquot Sound, having

attended the event dressed in a frog costume to symbolize the area's

threatened animals.

The battle over cutting old-growth rainforests has spread to other

areas of British Columbia. Green groups and timber companies are now

negotiating a moratorium over logging in several environmentally

sensitive valleys in the province's Mid-Coast region, which is often

compared with Clayoquot Sound.

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