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Report: BC government is putting nature at risk by labelling lands open for industrial development as “protected”

February 15, 2022

Report: BC government is putting nature at risk by labelling lands open for industrial development as “protected”

The province’s rich biodiversity is in danger without government action, a new report from CPAWS-BC and Ecojustice reveals

Traditional unceded Coast Salish Territory / Vancouver, BC – A new report from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society – British Columbia (CPAWS-BC) and Ecojustice exposes troubling flaws in BC’s accounting for its protected and conserved areas.

Right now, 15.5 per cent of the province’s landbase is protected in robust designations such as provincial parks and conservancies. However, the BC government has been reporting an additional four per cent as “other conserved” areas for a claimed total of 19.5 per cent. Unfortunately, BC’s claimed other conserved areas do not meet Canadian standards. On paper, this additional four per cent promotes BC’s progress towards Canada’s goal of protecting 25 per cent of lands and waters by 2025, but these designations fail at what they’re meant to do: defend biodiversity.

“Biodiversity is the backbone that our economy, health, and climate resiliency are built upon,” says Tori Ball, Terrestrial Conservation Manager (Acting) at CPAWS-BC. “The world is driving towards ambitious biodiversity conservation targets right now. We need to ensure that all the tools in our toolbox, including other conserved areas, will deliver on our shared goal to protect biodiversity.”

The report provides examples of these faulty designations, including Wildland Zones—some of which are in southern BC’s renowned Sea-to-Sky area. Though these places are managed with conservation in mind, they still permit mining, oil, gas, and other industrial activity that harms at-risk species like grizzly bears, marbled murrelets and spotted owls. According to the international and Canadian standards that BC has adopted, harmful industrial activities must be prohibited in all areas set aside for conservation.

“The BC government is misleading the public into thinking biodiversity is protected in large areas of the province when in fact, it is not,” says Sean Nixon, lawyer at Ecojustice. “The province still allows harmful industrial activities like logging, oil and gas, and mining in BC’s ‘conserved’ areas, which threatens wildlife and natural habitats. BC needs to change its flawed accounting to avoid undermining its present and future conservation efforts.”

How BC can clean up its protected area accounting and conserve 25% of its landbase by 2025:
1. Remove BC’s claimed “other conserved” areas from Canada’s protected area database. Protected areas are meant to safeguard ecosystems and the species they contain. When areas are included in protected area totals that don’t actually accomplish this, it artificially inflates the province’s estimates of its protected land and stunts support for protected area expansion, including Indigenous-led conservation proposals.
2. Upgrade the protection in other conserved areas to match international and Canadian standards. Depending on the area, this could include creating firm boundaries, barring industrial activity that harms biodiversity, and ensuring protection is long-term.
3. Invest in legislated protected areas and support Indigenous-led conservation proposals. Dozens of proposals from First Nations have been put forward to protect natural and cultural values. Supporting these proposals would advance the government’s goals to conserve biodiversity and further reconciliation.

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For more information, or to arrange an interview, please contact:

Rippon Madtha
Communications Manager, CPAWS-BC
rippon@cpawsbc.org
604-685-7445 (23)

Sean O’Shea
Communications Specialist, Ecojustice
soshea@ecojustice.ca
416-368-7533, ext.523

An Honest Accounting: Improving BC’s Approach to Claiming Other Conserved Areas

CPAWS-BC Media Release (PDF)

About CPAWS-BC and Ecojustice
The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society – British Columbia (CPAWS-BC) is part of one of Canada’s oldest non-profit conservation groups. We protect wilderness in every corner of BC and deep into the ocean. We have been defending BC since 1978, and are dedicated to keeping BC’s natural environment thriving forever. Our work to safeguard large parks, protected areas and wildlife corridors has been instrumental in protecting precious places across the province.

Ecojustice uses the power of the law to defend nature, combat climate change, and fight for a healthy environment. Its strategic, public interest lawsuits and advocacy lead to precedent-setting court decisions and law and policy that deliver lasting solutions to Canada’s most urgent environmental problems. As Canada’s largest environmental law charity, Ecojustice operates offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, and Halifax.

For interviews, please contact:
Jessie Corey, Terrestrial Conservation Manager
Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society – British Columbia
Jessie@cpawsbc.org
(604) 685-7445 x25

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 22, 2021

British Columbia can restore its status as a global leader in conservation: here’s how

Committing to international protected area targets and championing Indigenous-led conservation are key to saving nature, a new CPAWS report card reveals

Unceded Coast Salish Territory / Vancouver, BC – An inaugural report card from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) highlights limited progress on conservation in British Columbia over the last decade, but paves a way forward for the province to mitigate species extinction and its biodiversity crisis.

“With wildlife populations plummeting and biodiversity loss at its worst, the BC government has a huge opportunity to lead true change for nature,” says Jessie Corey, Terrestrial Conservation Manager at CPAWS-BC. “This has to begin with a promise to take action now and support First Nations and others working to permanently protect BC’s wildlife and ecosystems. The clock is ticking.”

The report card highlights that only one percent of BC has been added to its protected area system in the last 10 years, earning the province a C grade for its slow progress in safeguarding land and inland waters. In contrast, role model provinces like Québec received grades as high as an A- for making real progress towards the 2020 protection targets, capitalizing on federal conservation funding, and supporting conservation initiatives led by First Nations.

“It’s been proven, time and time again, that Indigenous leadership drives successful land protection,” says Annita Mcphee, Executive Director of CPAWS-BC. “Provincial commitments to reconciliation and to protecting land, air and water are instrumental in the fight against climate change. This is a golden opportunity for Indigenous communities to finally get the support and resources they need to advance important conservation initiatives across the province.”

In addition to grading each province and territory, the report card also applauds the federal government for its leadership and commitment to bringing First Nations, provinces, and territories together to tackle the global biodiversity crisis. Significant budget commitments made by the federal government in 2018 and again in 2021 have created the space to make real progress in protecting more of our lands and waters. This overarching federal support sets BC up well to re-establish itself within the global conservation space.

How BC can improve its grade

Prioritize nature by committing to protect 25 percent of BC by 2025. With multiple in-progress conservation initiatives such as Dene K’éh Kusān—which totals 40,000 km2 or 4 percent of BC’s land base that could be protected—this global land protection goal is fully achievable if the BC government promises to put nature first.
Support Indigenous-led conservation initiatives. In the last decade, 70 percent of BC’s new protected lands came from The Great Bear Rainforest Agreement, a collaboration between First Nations and the BC Government. Supporting Indigenous-led initiatives in the future will promote reconciliation with Indigenous communities and aid the recovery of species at risk.
Don’t cut corners by counting OECMs towards protected area targets. Currently, BC reports 4 percent of its landbase under Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measure (OECM) designations. While some of these areas meet agreed-upon IUCN and Canadian standards, many do not. In the future, protected areas—designations that conserve nature when well-managed and designed—should be BC’s core conservation tool when working towards protection targets.

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For more information, or to arrange an interview, please contact:
Jessie Corey
Terrestrial Conservation Manager, CPAWS-BC
jessie@cpawsbc.org
(604) 685-7445 x 25

The Grades Are In: A Report Card On Canada’s Progress in Protecting its Land and Ocean (PDF)

CPAWS-BC Media Release (PDF)

For interviews, contact:
Tori Ball, Terrestrial Campaigner
Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, BC Chapter
tori@cpawsbc.org
(604) 685-7445 x24

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 5, 2020

Traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples/Vancouver, BC — The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, British Columbia (CPAWS-BC) is applauding a new initiative to hire young people into conservation jobs in BC. These new jobs, announced today by Environment Minister George Heyman, will help to safeguard nature across the province.

“We’re happy to see more conservation jobs being created for young people at a time when our park system needs more support,” says Tori Ball, Terrestrial Campaigner with CPAWS-BC.

“In the short term, these new jobs will help manage the impacts of increasing visitation on the outdoor places we love so much, by addressing long standing capacity issues within BC Parks,” she adds.

BC’s provincial parks were forced to shut down this spring due to concerns with understaffing and overcrowding, following a recent budget cut to operations earlier this year. Decades of underfunding to BC Parks has created a concerning shortage of staff as well as a significant backlog of maintenance issues and major delays in management planning for parks.

“These new temporary positions will help provide much-needed capacity to support overworked park rangers, which will better safeguard nature and improve people’s experiences in the outdoors,” says Ball.

“We hope to see continued investment in nature-based jobs and a commitment to a longer-term capacity increase for BC Parks, as part of the overall strategy to recover the province’s economy,” she adds.

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For interviews, contact:

Tori Ball, Terrestrial Campaigner
Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, BC Chapter
tori@cpawsbc.org
(604) 685-7445 x24

Resources

BC Government Media Release: Program offers young people work experience with BC Parks, COS (August 5, 2020)

About CPAWS-BC:

Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society – British Columbia Chapter (CPAWS-BC) protects wilderness in every corner of BC and deep into the ocean. CPAWS-BC supports the creation of large, well-managed, connected protected areas where native plants and animals thrive, now and forever; and where people and communities can live off the land and ocean without impacting the ability of future generations to do the same.

In the past 50+ years, CPAWS has played a lead role in protecting over half a million square kilometres – an area bigger than New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador put together.

For interviews, contact:
Tori Ball, Terrestrial Campaigner
tori@cpawsbc.org
(604) 685-7445 x24

New report highlights opportunity to put nature protection at the heart of economic recovery in Canada

For Immediate Release

July 15, 2020

Unceded Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, BC — A new report from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) recommends that nature protection is put at the heart of Canada’s COVID-19 recovery strategies. The report highlights the enormous potential of BC’s provincial parks to provide accessible and affordable outdoor activities, and outlines urgent challenges posed by decades of underfunding.

“It’s become very clear that BC’s parks are essential to our health and well-being. Safe, accessible outdoor recreation in parks is a proven way to boost mental health and reduce stress,” says Tori Ball, Terrestrial Campaigner with CPAWS-BC.

“Unfortunately, decades of funding for BC’s parks has left communities with inequitable access to nature, and continues to put wildlife at risk,” she says.

The BC Parks budget was cut by 4% this year, exacerbating issues such as understaffing across the province. This has restricted or cut core functions such as monitoring and enforcement, research, and education.

The provincial and federal governments are making decisions on spending to restart the economy and recover from the economic downturn caused by COVID-19. CPAWS-BC is advocating for an investment of economic recovery funding into BC’s parks to better support the needs of communities across the province.

“This is our chance to get it right. We know that nature conservation is a driver of economic growth and provides essential community benefits that help build a resilient global economy,” says Ball.

”Now more than ever, we need to invest in these places so that our communities will be more resilient and better supported in the long run,” adds Ball.

CPAWS-BC’s recommendations to the Government of British Columbia:

Invest immediately in BC Parks, increasing staff capacity for visitor management, ecological monitoring, and management planning to better recognize the critical role that parks play in supporting our health, our communities, and our environment.
Support Indigenous-led conservation initiatives that enable reconciliation with Indigenous nations, protection and recovery of species at risk, and build sustainable long-term jobs in rural and remote communities

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For interviews, contact:
Tori Ball, Terrestrial Campaigner
tori@cpawsbc.org
(604) 685-7445 x24