Five Years After Old Growth Strategic Review, BC Government Stalls Progress and Starts to Backslide

Conservation groups highlight five of the most shocking images of old-growth logging from the past five years, marking OGSR’s fifth anniversary with an urgent call for immediate government action to protect ancient forests

Victoria, BC — On the fifth anniversary of the Old Growth Strategic Review (OGSR), the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) and the Endangered Ecosystem Alliance (EEA) are highlighting five of the most shocking images of old-growth logging in British Columbia in the past five years since the BC NDP pledged a “new future for old forests”. The groups warn that provincial stalling and backsliding on policy progress is accelerating the loss of irreplaceable ecosystems and call for immediate, proactive action by the province to protect the remaining endangered old-growth forests and to transition towards a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry.

In 2020, the OGSR issued 14 recommendations to protect the most at-risk old-growth forests, ensure Indigenous involvement, enhance forest management transparency, and shift the forestry sector toward sustainability. The BC NDP committed to implementing all recommendations within three years. Yet five years on, progress has stalled, whilst logging of the most endangered old-growth forests in BC continues.

“The BC government promised an ecological paradigm shift in its system of old-growth forest management, but five years later, they have resumed their heel-dragging on policy progress to buy time for the destructive status quo of old-growth liquidation. Logging the last stands of forest giants today is like coming across groups of elephants or great whales and slaughtering them all. It’s both unethical and unnecessary, given the second-growth alternative. The BC NDP government can and must create a vibrant, sustainable, value-added second-growth forest industry while protecting the last old-growth stands: we can log 80 year old trees, instead of 800 year old trees, like the rest of the industrialized world, and we can and must do it sustainably while creating more BC jobs,” stated Ken Wu, executive director of Endangered Ecosystems Alliance (EEA).

“Instead of coming from a place of fear and insecurity about the rise of far-right, radical anti-environmentalists in the Opposition – and then starting to mimic their backwards, nature-destroying policies, though somewhat less intensively – the Eby and Carney governments need to have the inspiration, vision and backbone to implement an alternative reality that protects the last old-growth forests while quickly scaling up a modernized, sustainable second-growth forest industry. And they need to work proactively with First Nations, and engage working-class British Columbians in particular, to make it happen. Otherwise, they will eventually backslide into political oblivion by becoming a ‘Con lite’ version of their opponents, while the endangered ecosystems that support so much life, culture, and the health, well-being and economy of British Columbians go down,” Wu continued.

One of the most urgent gaps is the province’s failure to provide funding to secure logging deferrals for all 2.6 million hectares of the most at-risk old-growth forests identified by its own independent science panel. So far, less than half — about 1.2 million hectares — have been paused, while another 1.2 million hectares of more marginal stands are also under deferral. That leaves 1.36 million hectares of the best remaining old growth still on the chopping block.

“The BC government says it wants to protect old-growth forests but has left First Nations to make the hard choices without the ‘solutions space’ or interim funding for logging deferrals needed to make conservation economically viable. After decades of being excluded from land-use decisions and forestry revenues, many Nations now depend on logging – including old-growth logging – to support their communities. While the province has made billions from the logging of ancient forests, it has failed to address this barrier and has often supported initiatives that deepen economic reliance on old-growth logging. Until funding is provided for deferrals, the fight to protect BC’s biggest and most endangered old-growth forests will only intensify,” notes TJ Watt, campaign director of AFA. “We urgently need the government to treat old-growth protection like other provincial emergencies and channel the resources needed to secure a sustainable future for the ecosystems and forest industry in BC.”

The most critical, unfulfilled commitment from the OGSR is to embed ecosystem health and biodiversity conservation as a top priority in all land-use decisions. The framework to deliver this — the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework (BEHF) — remains unfinished, with no public timeline for completion. “Ecosystem-based targets”, that is, science-based protection targets for all ecosystems (that include protection for the biggest trees in the most productive sites) that guide both the establishment of regulatory conservation reserves and the larger, legislated protected areas, is the most critical component of an effective BEHF. Meanwhile, new Forest Landscape Plans are moving ahead without a legal mechanism to prioritize ecosystem health, leaving endangered ecosystems at risk of being logged.

“While we recognize the important steps the BC NDP has taken — including deferring logging on 1.2 million hectares of the most at-risk old growth, securing over $1 billion in federal-provincial conservation financing, and beginning the transition to value-added, second-growth forestry– action in the past year has largely stalled, leaving the remaining old-growth forests in BC at imminent risk,” said Watt. “We’ve been crystal clear with the BC government on what’s needed: funding for deferrals, protection targets for the most endangered ecosystems, and the development of a BC Protected Areas Strategy where the BC government develops a list of candidate protected areas in the highest conservation value areas and then proactively approaches local First Nations to discuss their potential protection with the adequate resourcing needed by the First Nations. By avoiding these critical steps, the results are devastating – giant, thousand-year-old trees continue to fall, and public frustration is reaching a breaking point.”

AFA and EEA’s full list of recommendations to protect the remaining endangered old-growth forests and transition toward sustainable, value-added, second-growth forestry is as follows:

• Establish a BC Protected Areas Strategy to proactively pursue the protection of candidate protected areas of highest conservation value through shared decision-making with First Nations.
• Develop Ecosystem-Based Protection Targets to ensure endangered ecosystems and big-tree old-growth forests are fully protected in both legislated protected areas and in conservation reserves (forest reserves). The forthcoming Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework offers the greatest opportunity to implement these targets.
• Provide “solutions space” funding to First Nations to help secure the remaining 1.3 million hectares of priority old-growth deferrals by offsetting lost forestry revenues.
• Ensure a transition to sustainable logging of second-growth forests, which now constitute the vast majority of forest lands in British Columbia.
• Close logging loopholes by ending logging in forest reserves such as Old-Growth Management Areas and Wildlife Habitat Areas, and ensuring commercial logging within parks or conservation reserves remains prohibited.
• Expand a smart forest industry by incentivizing value-added second-growth manufacturing, ending raw log exports, and promoting eco-forestry.
• Create a BC Conservation Economy Strategy to support eco-tourism, clean tech, and sustainable industries in protected areas.

“The devastating images released today expose the cost of government inaction on protecting old-growth forests,” said Watt. “If the Province carries on down the same road for another five years, the chance to safeguard these incredible ecosystems for biodiversity, species-at-risk, wildlife habitat, First Nations cultures, and future generations may be gone forever. Premier Eby now faces a choice: preside over the destruction of irreplaceable forests – or lead BC toward a lasting legacy of conservation. Which path will he take?”