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The B.C. government had tasked the advisory panel with identifying old-growth ecosystems at very high and near-term risk of irreversible biodiversity loss in response to recommendations of an old-growth strategic review, released in 2020.

The result was the panel’s mapping of 2.6 million hectares of unprotected old-growth, released in November 2021.

Province aims to strike balance

Parmar said Friday that he hadn’t yet reviewed the panel’s document in detail, but he planned to in the coming days.

He said he’d recently spoken with Merkel about the panel’s concerns, which he asked “them to outline” to him.

Parmar said he had asked his deputy minister to meet the panel members “to better understand what those challenges are and whether their frustrations align.”

The minister said his mission as forests minister is to ensure B.C. is striking a balance.

“That we’re living up to our commitments around old-growth protection while at the same time making sure that we are building a strong economy built around forestry.”

Speaking to The Canadian Press at the B.C. legislature last month, Parmar had said that upon receiving the report from the old-growth strategic review, “one of the first things that we did as a government was defer 2.6 million hectares of old-growth.”

In fact, the province announced deferrals in just over 350,000 hectares of old-growth in nine areas when it released the report in September 2020. The next year, it released the panel’s mapping and asked more than 200 First Nations if they supported the logging deferrals for an initial two-year period.

Deferrals for about half the 2.6 million hectares are “not currently supported by First Nations,” the Forests Ministry said in an email this month.

First Nations have supported deferrals for about 1.1 million hectares from the panel’s mapping and identified an additional 0.9 million as “priorities,” it said.

Parmar said the “core” of the old-growth review was to respect First Nations’ rights and title “and make sure they have a seat at the table, and we’ve done that.”

The message from the advisory panel this week says conservation financing, or funding in lieu of foregone logging revenues, “has not been part of the deferral conversation,” and the lack of alternatives “leaves First Nations with no real choice.”

“We ask the province to take responsibility for maintaining these exceptional forests and not place the burden of harvesting decisions entirely on [First] Nations,” it says.

In his interview on Friday, Parmar said the province was working with First Nations on resource planning in their territories.

“It is really important that we don’t speak for First Nations,” he said.

The panel’s message says the public needs to understand that every decision to log a deferral area is a decision to further increase the risks of “ecosystem extinction.”

The stability of the forest and wood products industry is also at risk, it says.

The Forests Ministry has said the deferrals were meant to be a temporary, short-term measure, and its focus is now on long-term management approaches.

That includes forest landscape planning processes underway in just over a dozen regions involving First Nations, community and forest industry stakeholders.

The development of each plan will be informed by “meaningful engagement with local communities, forest licensees and other interested parties … ensuring diverse voices help shape the future of B.C.’s forests,” the ministry said in an email.

The plans are to establish clear directions for managing old-growth, biodiversity, climate resilience, watershed health, wildfire risk and economic opportunities, it said in response to questions about logging in proposed deferral areas.

Planning still underway

Holt is involved in one of the regional forest landscape planning processes and notes they’re still underway, with the results yet to be finalized.

Under the old-growth strategic review, which B.C. has committed to implementing, priority old-growth was meant to be retained in the meantime, she said.

Yet she points to the government mapping showing the province’s own logging agency has proposed harvesting in areas throughout Vancouver Island that are specifically identified as containing what she describes as the “best of the best” old-growth.

Holt said she was “shocked” to see the extent of the overlap, especially in areas such as the Nahmint Valley. The area is prized by environmentalists for what Holt describes as its “extreme high value” old-growth forests, some of which have already been logged.

Responding to questions, the Forests Ministry said it was “inaccurate and misleading” to suggest B.C. Timber Sales is targeting the “best of the best” old-growth.

It said the agency’s policies and activities are “guided by an overarching commitment to sustainable forest management” and align with the old-growth strategic review.

“Many professionals, including professional foresters, geotechnical engineers, hydrologists and biologists, provide recommendations and input into the harvest practices, composition and location of timber sale licences,” the email said.

Where First Nations do not support old-growth deferrals, it said B.C. Timber Sales operations follow the requirements of government-to-government agreements.

In the absence of any agreement with First Nations, the ministry said the agency continues to defer logging for “remnant” old-growth forests, referring to heavily logged ecosystems with less than 10 per cent old-growth remaining.

“B.C.’s approach is focused on the full value of ecosystems — including the protection of watersheds, wildlife habitat, and areas of cultural significance,” it said.

Minister says due diligence conducted

Parmar said Friday that B.C. Timber Sales “does its due diligence in preparing cut blocks to be able to meet all of the obligations that have been laid out,” including the old-growth strategic review.

The agency “has a social and environmental objective and a license it must meet, and it’s my expectation as the minister responsible for this organization that it’s doing its level best to be able to meet that,” he said, adding that starts with relationships with First Nations.

Parmar said he was “very proud” of the B.C. government’s record since the release of the old-growth strategic review.

In February, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs passed a resolution condemning the provincial government for its “ongoing failure” to follow through on its commitment to implement the recommendations of the old-growth strategic review.

The resolution says the province has “stalled or abandoned” the key recommendations and continues to “misrepresent the status of old-growth management to the public, to First Nations, and to the international community.”

Holt notes a review of B.C. Timber Sales initiated by the province concluded its forest stewardship should follow the guidance of the old-growth review.

“Clearly, that’s not happening,” she said.