Ecosystem-Based Protection Targets, or “Ecosystem-Based Targets,” are an essential and much-needed tool to ensure the full range of diverse ecosystems and most threatened areas in BC are safeguarded from further degradation. Developed by scientific panels and First Nations Traditional Ecological Knowledge committees, these targets would guide the expansion of protected areas across the province. The forthcoming Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework (BEHF) offers the greatest chance of implementing these targets.
Historically, protected areas in BC have focused on ecosystems less sought after by industry—such as alpine, bogs, and northern landscapes with lower biodiversity and low-to-no timber values. Meanwhile, richer valley-bottom and southern ecosystems with greater biodiversity and productive forest lands, which are highly sought after by industry, have been left vulnerable to industrial extraction. It’s been a “save the small trees, log the big trees” approach.
While BC’s goal to protect 30% of land by 2030 (30×30) is a positive step forward, it isn’t enough. To truly safeguard biodiversity, we need protection targets for every ecosystem type—rainforests, grasslands, dry forests, wetlands, etc.—on a scale large enough to ensure their long-term health and stability.
Ecosystem-Based Targets would act like a GPS that aims protection toward the environments that need it the most. Send a message to the BC government calling for Ecosystem-Based Targets here.
Ecosystem-Based Targets should be developed by independent scientific committees, overseen by a Chief Ecologist or Biodiversity Office, along with First Nations Traditional Ecological Knowledge committees. Local First Nations would lead protected-area planning in their territories, ultimately deciding what gets protected in collaboration with the provincial government, conservationists, and other stakeholders.
To ensure success, Ecosystem-Based Targets must be legally binding, not merely aspirational. Government accountability and transparency are critical, with independent audits, public progress reports, and clear remedies for any shortfalls. Implementation plans should be crafted by expert policy committees.
Ecosystem-Based Targets must guide the creation of new parks and conservancies, not just conservation reserves like OGMAs and WHAs (as is currently being developed). The targets should also guide the expenditure of provincial-federal conservation funding, including the $1.1 billion BC Nature Agreement.
Protecting old-growth forests, especially high-productivity forests that support large, ancient trees, is essential. Forest productivity distinctions identify areas where trees grow more quickly to enormous sizes (e.g., Cathedral Grove, Avatar Grove, Carmanah Valley) versus slower-growing, small-tree forests on poorer soils, such as bogs or rocky sub-alpine areas. Logging has disproportionately targeted these high-productivity areas—akin to picking out all the chocolate chips from a trail mix—leaving behind less productive forests.
By incorporating forest productivity distinctions into its 30×30 protection plan, BC can ensure that the most at-risk, high-productivity old-growth stands are included in new protected areas.
The forthcoming Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework (BEHF) offers the greatest chance in BC’s history to direct the expansion of its protected areas system in the right direction via Ecosystem-Based Targets.
The current draft, put on hold in the lead-up to the 2024 provincial election, has many promising components that should be retained, such as creating a Provincial Biodiversity Officer. However, it is still missing key pieces to give it the teeth it needs to be transformational. See AFA’s detailed submission on BEHF recommendations. Help take action by sending an instant message calling on the BC government to enact those changes.
Without legally binding Ecosystem-Based Targets, protected areas in BC will continue to prioritize ecosystems with lower logging value, typically in alpine, subalpine, and northern areas. Meanwhile, the most endangered and least protected ecosystems, usually at lower elevations in southern BC, where biodiversity, species at risk, and endangered ecosystems are concentrated, will remain vulnerable to logging, development, and human settlement.
To end this pattern, BC must commit to protecting the full range of ecosystems in its 30×30 protection plan and ensure their long-term survival.
Instead of the current ad hoc approach to conservation, BC must develop a mandate to proactively pursue the protection of the most endangered, least represented ecosystems, including the big-treed old-growth stands. A Protected Areas Strategy (PAS), which the BC NDP government had in the 1990s, is needed and should guide this and its goals of protecting 30% of BC by 2030.
Using Ecosystem-Based Targets, the province should proactively identify areas for potential protection and then protectively engage and undertake shared decision-making with First Nations to find long-term conservation solutions, utilizing the significant conservation funding available to support this work. See AFA’s detailed policy recommendations for the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework here.
