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OUR VIEW: Provincial oversight missing in Cortes logging dispute

Dec 18 2012/in News Coverage

The current impasse over logging on private land on Cortes Island is unique by B.C. standards. In a province where wars in the woods have often been bitterly waged, the Cortes standoff stands apart.

Cortes environmentalists and Island Timberlands have been debating the company’s logging plans for about four years without coming to serious blows. The islanders are not trying to ban logging altogether, they are asking for Timberlands to adopt an ecosystem-based, selective logging harvesting plan that spares old growth.

And, Timberlands, which is owned by Wall Street giant Brookfield Asset Management, has exercised a measure of restraint and has not immediately sought an injunction to gain access to the property.

As encouraging as this is, there is something glaringly absent in the debate – provincial government stewardship. There can be no lasting resolution of the Cortes Island conflict unless it can be demonstrated that logging on the company’s private land is subject to diligent regulatory oversight. Private land logging companies claim they are subject to more than 30 provincial acts and regulations.

But, the environmentalists counter-claim that the industry uses a model of professional reliance which means that there is no real government oversight and private land foresters ultimately get to decide what constitutes compliance.

Further complicating the Cortes Island impasse are global investment forces over which Cortes has no control. China Investment Corp.(CIC), the state-owned investment arm of the People’s Republic of China, is interested in purchasing a significant percentage of Island Timberlands. CIC is an investment powerhouse with approximately $200 billion of China’s foreign exchange reserves to play with.

The notion that the fate of old growth stands on tiny Cortes Island will be debated and determined in part by faceless Communist Party plutocrats in Beijing is kind of scary. The scenario is made more scary by the fact that our provincial government seems to have abandoned all caring for commercial logging on private land.

Read article: https://www.campbellrivermirror.com/opinion/183084691.html

Global TV News – Echo Lake & Bald Eagles

Dec 15 2012/in News Coverage

Direct link to YouTube clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJcMg48bT10

Please SIGN our PETITION at: ancientforestalliance.org/ways-to-take-action-for-forests/petition/

Echo Lake is a spectacular, unprotected, lowland ancient forest near Agassiz, BC on the east side of the Lower Fraser Valley. It is in the unceded territory of the Sts’ailes First Nations band (formerly the Chehalis Indian Band). The area is home to perhaps the largest concentration of bald eagles on Earth, where thousands of eagles come each fall to eat spawning salmon in the Harrison and Chehalis Rivers and hundreds roost in the old-growth trees at night around Echo Lake. It is also home to bears, cougars, deer, mountain goats, and osprey, and was historically populated by the critically endangered northern spotted owl.

The vigilance of local landowners on the east side of Echo Lake, whose private lands restrict access to the old-growth forests on the Crown lands on the west side of the lake, have held-off industrial logging of the lake’s old-growth forests for decades. Local conservationists are interested in increased protections for eagles in the Harrison/Chehalis area and the protection of the Echo Lake Ancient Forest where the eagles roost at night.

Giant Douglas-fir trees tower between boulders on Island Timberlands' private lands at Stillwater Bluffs near Powel River

China Investment Corporation Eyes BC Forests, Spells FIPA Danger

Dec 14 2012/in News Coverage

The China Investment Corporation (ICI), one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, is set to become a powerful landowner in British Columbia if a $100 million deal with Island Timberlands, the second-largest owner of private forests in the province, goes through. The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is concerned that closure of the deal, especially in light of Canada’s pending ratification of the Foreign Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement (FIPA), could have negative consequences for protection of BC’s treasured old-growth forests, forestry jobs, and the rights of First Nations, according to an AFA press release.

“The Communist Party of China is about to become one of the biggest landowners in British Columbia if this deal goes through,” said Ken Wu, executive director of the AFA.

“In light of the proposed Canada-China investment treaty, this could be at the expense of BC’s environment, forestry workers and First Nations,” said Wu, adding, “Chairman Mao’s spirit is seemingly being channelled by Chairman Harper these days, as it’s hard to see how this proposed agreement will be a net benefit to Canadians.”

Chinese investment in Canadian resources has taken on a new significance since the Harper government announced the possibility of entering into a strict trade agreement with China. The deal, an investment treaty with a 31 year lifespan, would strongly dissuade municipal, provincial and federal governments from making any decisions that might affect the profit margin of Chinese investors.

“The China-Canada FIPA would allow Chinese investors in Canada to sue the federal government for lost profits due to new regulations, taxes, and environmental laws enacted federally or provincially. This would undercut the ability of future federal and provincial governments to enact new regulations or policies that might result in a lawsuit by Chinese companies which are accountable to the Chinese government,” says the press release.

The Harper government has yet to ratify FIPA, but the consequences of the trade deal have gained new significance after the rushed approval of China’s takeover of Canadian oil-producer Nexen. Although Harper promised the sell-out of Canadian resources to foreign state-owned enterprises signals the ‘end of a trend and not the beginning,’ he did not mention that such acquisitions will continue and that all such sales occurring under a $330 million mark will receive no federal review.

If Island Timberland successfully deals with China, the CIC will own a 12.5 percent in Island Timberland’s 254,000 hectares of private forest land on Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast.

Under the banner of FIPA the deal between the CIC and Island Timberlands could have significant consequences for how those forests are managed. The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the government to establish a $40 million annual “park acquisition fund to purchase and protect endangered ecosystems on private lands.” BC has not had an acquisition fund of this kind since 2008.

“While private land trusts are vital for conservation, they simply don’t have the capacity to quickly raise the tens of millions of dollars needed each year to protect most endangered private lands before they are logged or developed —only governments have such funds,” stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer. “More than ever, considering the potential future difficulties to strengthen environmental laws on private lands under FIPA, the BC government must fund the purchase of the last endangered old-growth forests on private lands before they are logged.”

According to the Ancient Forest Alliance, the combination of FIPA with Chinese investment in BC forests could prove disastrous for the conservation measures needed to ensure responsibly stewardship of the land.

Among other possible concerns, the AFA says the Island Timberlands sale, when considered in tandem with FIPA, raises these immediate concerns:

– The future obstruction of “new regulations or taxes to curtail unprocessed ‘raw’ logs from being exported from BC to sawmills in China and abroad.”

– The undermining of “stronger Forest Protection regulations on private forest lands.”

– The move away from the establishment of a “Forest Land Reserve” which mirrors other popular conservations strategies such as the “Agricultural Land Reserve.”

– The obstruction of “implementation of First Nations land-use plans and shared decision making measures that may require legally-binding orders from the BC government to protect sacred sites, important cultural use sites, and natural resource areas.”

Communities across Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast, where Island Timberlands holdings are located, are fighting the company’s plans to harvest in the region, suggesting the area’s unique and highly-prized ecosystems should warrant the land a no-go zone. Island Timberlands should forego logging in these “forest hotspots” and practice “community, ecosystem-based forestry standards” elsewhere.

The company temporarily halted logging plans earlier this month on Cortes Island after protestors blocked operations. The island’s community members are currently raising funds for the purchase of a 250 hectare “Children’s Forest” that will be protected from future logging.

In a recent interview with trade investment lawyer Gus Van Harten, he told DeSmog that FIPA is preparing Canada “to play the role of the supplier of raw resources to feed the Chinese industrial machine. We will have difficulty competing with Chinese manufacturing because of the extremely low cost of labour in China.”

He added, “The real economic benefits is not taking the resources out of the ground, it’s adding value by manufacturing the resources and then exporting the manufactures.”