VICTORIA, British Columbia, Canada, May 23, 2000 (ENS) - British Columbia has passed regulations to establish 20 new protection areas for the white Kermode bear and its wilderness habitat in the rainforests of the central coast, known as the Great Bear Rainforest.

The new protection areas, approved Wednesday, total 441,000 hectares (1,000,000 acres). They were recommended by First Nations, forest companies, conservation groups, government, communities and others through cooperative land use planning, the British Columbia Ministry of Forests said today.

The protection areas are temporary, since boundaries may change as a result of stakeholder based planning, scheduled for completion in spring 2003.

White Kermode bear (Photo courtesy Spirit Bear Youth)

The number of white spirit bears existing in the wild is believed to number fewer than 400, with the greatest number living on Princess Royal and Gribbell Islands on the B.C. coast. An estimated one out of every 10 black bears in these areas is white.

The protected areas plan originated in March 2001 with the Kitasoo First Nation whose traditional territory is inhabited by the white bears. Threatened with logging, the Kitasoo invited the environmental community, the forest industry, and community and labor representatives to meet and attempt to resolve the conflicts between ecological protection and forest harvesting.

From the Kitasoo territory, the discussions moved to the entire central coast and its stakeholders. In the end, it was agreed to preserve a total of 700,000 hectares of wilderness with 900,000 hectares to be deferred from development - including the areas within the land of the spirit bear. On April 4, 2001, the B.C. government ratified this package with consensus from all sides.

Wednesday's government announcement of 20 new protection areas covers a little more than half this land area.

Great Bear Rainforest (Photo courtesy Ocean Adventures)

In this first step towards legal protection, the government established executive Orders In Council that safeguard these valleys from logging and development for the next 15 months. This period will allow First Nations time to complete planning processes for their ancestral lands, and ensure that economic opportunities for their communities are explored.

An independent C$35 million trust fund has been established to help workers and communities impacted by land use planning.

Agreements between the B.C. government and coastal First Nations establish a partnership role for First Nations in land use planning, and provide a basis for economic development.

ForestEthics, Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network, and the Sierra Club of British Columbia acknowledge the need for First Nations to direct planning on their lands and create sustainable economic opportunities that truly benefit the long term health of their communities. The four groups said Wednesday that they are "committed to working with provincial and First Nations governments, and the forest industry, to forge long term solutions and implement this groundbreaking agreement in its entirety."

Robert Prescott-Allen, a sustainable development consultant based in Victoria, has been appointed to head an independent Coast Information Team. Prescott-Allen is a member of IUCN’s International Assessment Team and of the Expert Group on Indicators of Sustainable Development for the UN Commission on Sustainable Development.

The Coast Information Team will help develop ecosystem based management to sustain healthy ecosystems and support communities along much of the province’s coast. Pilot projects are now under way to help define ecosystem based management.