B.C. announces new funds for conservation

səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), and Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) Territories (Vancouver, B.C.) – Today, the provincial government announced a new fund of $300 million hosted by the BC Parks Foundation, aimed at supporting conservation initiatives and related activities.

While details about the fund are still forthcoming, including the members of an advisory committee and the outcomes of consultation with First Nations, Stand.earth welcomes increased funds to support important work – ranging from improved data collection, to healing the land and long-term stewardship programs.

“Increased funds are sorely needed to support work led by First Nations and communities, and hopefully this fund will be effectively used to uphold their leadership. But B.C. desperately needs to move beyond planning to make a plan.” said Tegan Hansen, Senior Forest Campaigner at Stand.earth. “The success of this fund will be measured on the ground, in the forests that are kept standing and the communities that are spared from having to make impossible choices between vital old growth and essential services.”

Alongside the announcement of a new Conservation Financing Mechanism, the B.C. NDP government delivered a disappointing update on old growth deferrals – repeating past failures to be transparent about ongoing logging in the most high risk old growth forests. At the time of today’s announcement, Stand.earth’s Forest Eye satellite monitoring tool has tracked 7,391 hectares of candidate old growth deferrals that have been logged, and an additional 5,148 hectares of other old growth logging. These numbers represent only a portion of recent old growth destruction, as Stand researchers continue to process a backlog of over 1,000 logging alerts – so far, 674 alerts have been confirmed and posted to the Forest Eye website. 

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Media Contact

Ziona Eyob, Media Director – Canada, canadamedia@stand.earth, +1 604 757 7279 (Pacific Time)