British Columbia commits $300 million to start an indigenous-led program to save BC old growth forests.
British Columbia Premier David Eby unveiled a $300 million conservation fund to enable substantial expansion of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCA) across the province. An initial $150 million from the provincial government combined with a matching $150 million contribution raised by the BC Parks Foundation form the underpinnings of this dedicated financing setup.
The mechanism aims to accelerate Eby’s administration goal of increasing BC old growth forest protected areas coverage to 30% by 2030, up from roughly 15% currently. If successful, the multiplied investments could facilitate one of the most ambitious provincial conservation efforts in recent Canadian history over the coming years. The targeted resourcing for First Nation-led stewardship provides means for Indigenous communities to secure formal conservation status across more of their ancestral land holdings as they see fit while potentially benefiting from emerging opportunities around ecotourism, sustainable forestry, and related nature-based economic ventures.
See also: Old Growth Trees Sequester More Carbon, Help Prevent Wildfires.
Eby framed the announcement as an initiative upholding pledges to safeguard biodiversity, tackle climate impacts, and respect Indigenous land stewardship. Recipients can utilize financing for capacity building, sustainable economic development aligned with conservation goals, and direct ecosystem protections via Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs), among other allowed uses. The fund signals the government’s willingness to incentivize alternatives that maintain BC old growth forests‘ value for climate mitigation, cultural heritage, and increasingly rare habitat compared to extracting short-term timber profits.
The move drew praise across political and civil society spheres, marking meaningful progress towards goals like protecting 30% of British Columbia’s land base this decade. However, some strains remain around the continued issuance of logging permits allowing deforestation of intact BC old growth stands, including within critical habitat for species at risk like mountain caribou. Conservation groups acknowledge most First Nations support protective measures but also wish to see firmer interim administrative actions limiting industrial encroachment on priority tracts of at-risk BC old growth forests while financing frameworks develop.
BC government officials highlight that only 0.4% of the 800,000 hectares of identified at-risk BC old growth forests in British Columbia was approved for logging in the past year. They emphasize respecting individual First Nations bands’ jurisdiction and leadership around conservation or forestry related decisions regarding their respective traditional territories as outlined through historical treaties or ongoing negotiations. Some bands like the Tla’amin Nation do partially rely on revenue from timber licensing including pockets of centuries-old trees to support economic livelihoods for their communities which face extensive poverty levels. For example, the Tla’amin partner with Western Forest Products on selective BC old growth logging subject to replacement tree replanting while investing profits in poverty reduction through housing, education and cultural revitalization initiatives as part of a government reconciliation process.
Nonetheless, conservation science advocates maintain that voluntarily deferring all logging even on licensed land tracts in the most critically endangered BC old growth stands containing the richest biodiversity during this transitional period would likely only represent a minor revenue loss for the province. Further, they argue for uniform moratorium implementation rather than a patchwork based on individual band decisions for improved environmental policy consistency.
However, some First Nations leaders push back strongly against calls for unilateral bans imposed over the wishes of local Indigenous governments. They state they were not adequately consulted and prioritize immediate community welfare concerns over external perceptions around grand preservation mandates. The issue underscores complex tensions between local Indigenous land management choices, provincial economic dependencies favoring the forestry sector, and climate policy aiming for increased protected area targets. Criticism also contends that rhetoric around “saving” BC old growth ignores historical realities of ecosystems intricately shaped by Indigenous land stewardship utilizing periodic burns, selective harvesting and sustainable foraging.
In debating these lingering details, participants across perspectives agree establishing this substantial conservation finance pool constitutes a historic turning point for enabling long-term, wide-scale environmental protections. The fund can support win-win pathways that merge ecological integrity with Indigenous-led regeneration of community wellbeing. It provides a means for local stewards to receive fair compensation for culturally grounded conservation initiatives preserving threatened biodiversity strongholds and carbon sinks.
As additional government, private sector, and philanthropic support expands the capital pool in coming years, British Columbia is positioned to become a global model for collaborative conservation policymaking that respects and rewards Indigenous knowledge and foresight in managing landscapes sustainably.
