Scientists call on BC's Premier Clark to speed protection of Great Bear Rainforest
Scientists from Canada and the United States are asking British Columbia Premier Christy Clark to speed up protection of the Great Bear Rainforest.
Dominick A. DellaSala, Ph.D. Chief Scientist and President Geos Institute, Ashland, Oregon, and Lead author of Temperate and Boreal Rainforests of the World, leads the signatories of the letter which says the Great Bear Rainforest plays an essential role in stablizing the earth's climate." The signatories are all contributors to DellaSala's book. Others include scientists from the zoology department of University of British Columbia, the biology department of University of Victoria, as well as UBC's Biodiversity Research Centre. They also reprsent conservation organizations like Northwest Institute and Skeena Wild Conservation Trust in Smithers, British Columbia, and Raincoast Conservation Foundation of Sydney, British Columbia.
The letter follows:
Re: Scientists’ Support for Great Bear Rainforest Agreements 2006 & 2009
We are a group of scientists and conservation professionals1 who are concerned about the state of implementation of the agreements to protect the Great Bear Rainforest, announced first in February 2006 and recommitted to in March 2009. We are writing to request that you fully implement the agreements to protect the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia in the next 12 months.
1A number of the signatories are also co-authors of an award-winning book on the world’s temperate rainforests: Temperate and Boreal Rainforests of the World: Ecology and Conservation which received recognition for “outstanding academic excellence” by Choice magazine in January 2012.
In the light of global environmental and economic challenges, 2012 is a critical year to find solutions that allow for sustainable development and sustainable management of the world’s forests as called for by the United Nations in their declaration on the International Year of Forests, 20112. In addition, 20 years after the historic Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the international community will come together in June of this year for Rio +20 to highlight new models as being pursued in the Great Bear Rainforest and present your government with an opportunity to demonstrate leadership.
While international efforts to protect the world’s forests for climate change planning and sustainable management have rightfully focused on tropical rainforests, protection of temperate rainforests is at least as important, and Canada is unique in having some of the most important rainforests on the planet, outside the tropics.
British Columbia is endowed with the Great Bear Rainforest and adjacent offshore archipelago of Haida Gwaii as one of the few remaining large blocks of comparatively unmodified landscapes on earth. This region includes over a quarter of the Pacific Coastal rainforests of North America that provide habitat for spectacular wildlife and wild salmon runs that are increasingly rare throughout the world. However, intact productive rainforests have been reduced by more than one-half throughout British Columbia and up to three-quarters on Vancouver Island3. Thus, fulfilling the terms of the Great Bear agreements is vital to ensuring that this rainforest system will remain integral to Canada’s natural legacy as it prepares for the challenges of natural resource demands in a changing global climate.
3 Estimates provided by Sierra Club, BC.
4Carbon storage estimates extrapolated from Keith et al. 2009, converted to CO2-equivalents, and then compared to annual greenhouse gas emissions in BC.
5Harmon, M.E., S. L. Garman, and W.K. Ferrell. 1996. Modeling historical patterns of tree utilization in the Pacific Northwest: carbon sequestration implications. Ecological Applications 6:641-652.
New information on forest carbon sinks shows that the Great Bear, Haida Gwaii, and Clayoquot Sound rainforests may play an important role in helping to stabilize the global climate, as these forests store an estimated 1.8 billion tonnes of carbon, the equivalent of nearly 100 times the province’s official annual greenhouse gas emissions4. When old-growth forests are cut down, up to 40 percent of their stored carbon is released as a global warming pollutant5. The Great Bear Rainforest agreements will protect an important global sink of forest carbon stores.
The history of how the provincial government of British Columbia, First Nations, conservation groups, and the timber industry joined together on the Great Bear agreements is an exemplary model of conservation that we hope will be replicated around the globe.
In closing, we request that you address the ongoing delays of interim conservation measures by fully implementing the outstanding conservation milestones of the Great Bear Agreements by March 31, 2013 as a global model for forest sustainability. Given the global importance of the Great Bear Rainforests and the imminent threats posed to intact rainforests around the world, we commend you for reaching these agreements and now urge you to demonstrate your commitments to fulfilling them.
Sincerely, Dominick A. DellaSala, Ph.D. Chief Scientist and President Geos Institute, Ashland, Oregon, USA Lead author of Temperate and Boreal Rainforests of the World
Also signed by:
(affiliations listed for identification purposes only)
Paul Alaback, Ph.D.,
Professor Emeritus of Forest Ecology
College of Forestry and Conservation
University of Montana
Missoula, Montana
Ketevan Batsatsashvili
Programme Officer, Caucasus Plant RLA
Assistant Professor, Institute of Ecology
Ilia State University
Tbilisi, Georgia
Harvey Blankespoor, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Biology
Hope College and University of Michigan
Holland, Michigan
Richard Bradley, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, EEO Biology
Ohio State University
Marion, Ohio
Peter F. Brussard, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Biology
University of Nevada, Reno
Reno, Nevada
John Cairns, Jr., Ph.D.
University Distinguished Professor Emeritus
Biological Sciences Department
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, Virginia
Kai Chan, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Institute for Resources, Environment & Sustainability
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC
Lance Craighead, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Craighead Environmental Research Institute
Bozeman, Montana
Chris Darimont, Ph.D.
Hakai-Raincoast Lab
University of Victoria
Victoria, BC
Paul K. Dayton, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor of Marine Ecology
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
La Jolla, California
David F. DeSante, Ph.D.
President
The Institute for Bird Populations
Point Reyes Station, California
Anton Drescher, Ph.D.
Institute for Plant Sciences, Systematics & Geobotany Dept. Herbarium GZU
University of Graz
Graz, Austria
Alejandro Frid, Ph.D.
Pacific Wildlife Foundation
Vancouver, BC
Stephen W. Fuller, Ph.D.
Professor of Biological Sciences
University of Mary Washington
Fredericksburg, Virginia
Steven Green, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology
University of Miami
Coral Gables, Florida
Håkon Holien
Associate Professor
Nord-Trøndelag University College
Steinkjer, Norway
Karen Holl, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair of Environmental Studies
University of California, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, California
Paul Hosten, Ph.D.
Ecologist
Kualapuu, Hawaii
Malcolm L. Hunter, Jr., Ph.D.
Libra Professor of Conservation Biology
University of Maine
Milford, Maine
Sterling C. Keeley, Ph.D.
Professor of Botany
University of Hawaii
Honolulu, Hawaii
Pavel V. Krestov, Ph.D.
Director, Botanical Garden-Institute
Vladivostok, Russia
James Kirkpatrick, Ph.D. Professor, Geography and Environmental Studies
University of Tasmania
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Jason A. Lillegraven, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor Emeritus
Geology and Zoology Departments
University of Wyoming
Laramie, Wyoming
Zoë Lindo, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biology
University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario
Jean-Louis Martin, Ph.D.
Senior Researcher
CEFE (Centre d’Ecol. Fonctionnelle & Evolutive)
University of Montpellier
Montpellier, France
Gary K. Meffe, Ph.D.
Consulting Editor, Conservation Biology
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida
Brian T. Miller, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology
Middle Tennessee State University
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Faisal Moola, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Forestry
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario
Prof. Dr. George Nakhutsrishvili
Focal Point, Caucasus Plant RLA
Head, Dept. of Plant Systematics & Geography
Institute of Botany, Ilia State University
Tbilisi, Georgia
Reed F. Noss, Ph.D.
Professor of Conservation Biology
University of Central Florida
Orlando, Florida
Sarah Otto, Ph.D.
Professor, Biodiversity Research Centre
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC
Paul Paquet, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist
Raincoast Conservation Foundation
Sydney, BC
Lee R. Parker, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, California
Gustav Paulay, Ph.D.
Curator, Florida Museum of Natural History
Professor of Biology, University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida
Timothy A. Pearce, Ph.D.
Assistant Curator & Head, Section of Mollusks
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Jana Petermann, Ph.D.
Zoology Department
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC
Chris Pielou, Ph.D.
Ecologist
Hon. LL.D. Dalhousie University, Halifax
Hon. D.Sc., University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Comox, BC
Jim Pojar, Ph.D.
Northwest Institute and Skeena Wild Conservation Trust
Smithers, BC
William Rees, Ph.D., FRSC
Professor, School of Community & Reg. Planning
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC
Richard Ring, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Entomology
Biology Department
University of Victoria
Victoria, BC
Scott Samuels, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology
University of Montana
Missoula, Montana
Melissa Savage, Ph.D.
Professor Emerita of Geography
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Fiona Schmiegelow, Ph.D.
Professor, Landscape Ecology & Conservation Sc.
Director, Northern Environ. & Conserv. Sc. Program
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
John Schoen, Ph.D.
Wildlife Ecologist
Anchorage, Alaska
Suzanne Simard, Ph.D.
Professor of Forest Ecology
Faculty of Forestry
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC
Diane Srivastava, Ph.D.
Professor, Zoology Dept. and
Biodiversity Research Centre
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC
Glenn R. Stewart, Ph.D.
Prof. Emeritus of Zoology & Env. Science
Cal. State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Pomona, California
Paul F. Torrence, Ph.D.
Prof. Emeritus of Chemistry & Biochemistry
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, Arizona
Henrik von Wehrden, Ph.D.
Centre for Methods, Institute of Ecology
Leuphana University
Lüneburg, Germany
Gregory Walker, Ph.D.
Professor of Entomology
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, California
Donald M. Waller, Ph.D.
John T. Curtis Professor of Botany
University of Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin
Richard T. Ward, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Ecology
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, Colorado
Neville Winchester, Ph.D.
Adjunct Associate Professor, Geography Department
University of Victoria
Victoria, BC
More in Environment
Related Content on the Vancouver Observer
Comments
