A male Williamson's Sapsucker clinging to a Pine Tree

Sapsucker housing crisis: endangered woodpecker ‘condos’ are being clear cut

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February 27, 2023
The Narwhal
By Sarah Cox

Almost two decades after the Williamson’s sapsucker was listed as endangered under Canada’s Species at Risk Act, the BC government continues to sanction logging in the bird’s old-growth forest critical habitat.

Biologist Les Gyug was working for BC’s environment ministry when a logging permit application caught his eye. A forestry company planned to clearcut rare old-growth larch stands in the province’s southern interior, set aside decades earlier as seed trees to allow for natural regeneration. “Rather than log them, let’s go look, and see what’s in them,” Gyug recalls saying.

He expected to find a suite of forest birds in the scattered 400-year-old western larch stands: birds like Townsend’s warblers, gaily-coloured western tanagers and brown creepers, a small songbird that spirals up tree trunks. Walking through the trees after dawn, binoculars in hand, he heard a mysterious bird drumming in staccato rhythm. “I had never heard this before. And I realized only afterwards, ‘Jeez, that was a Williamson’s sapsucker and it was in an old larch stand!’ ”

Back then, in the mid-1990s, little was known about Williamson’s sapsucker — the only one of the world’s 250 woodpecker species where the plumage of males and females is so strikingly different they were once thought to be two distinct species.

Gyug became a global expert on the bird, whose males have a lemon yellow belly and a distinctive cherry-red patch on their chin and upper throat. Females are banded in black and white, with a tawny head and a yellowish patch on their belly.

“I’ve found my niche,” Gyug says. “I could have just as happily worked on pelicans or something else. But this was a mystery bird. We didn’t have a clue how many there were. We only had a general sense of what their habitat needs were.”

Surveys conducted by Gyug and other biologists found only about 450 Williamson’s sapsucker pairs in BC, the only place in Canada where they live. Populations were dwindling. And the sapsucker’s old-growth habitat was vanishing, primarily due to logging. It all added up to an endangered listing under the federal Species at Risk Act in 2006.

But that wasn’t enough to protect the sweet-toothed bird, which migrates to BC every spring from Mexico and the southwest U.S. Nor did a BC Conservation Data Centre summary report, rating logging threats to the sapsucker as “high,” make any difference. The government-run data centre, which collects scientific data about species and ecosystems, singled out western larch logging in the woodpecker’s Okanagan-Boundary and Kootenay ranges as a particular concern.

The BC forests ministry continued to sanction logging in the sapsucker’s federally designated critical habitat — the habitat necessary for a species to breed and for populations to recover — including in western larch forests in the Okanagan-Boundary and Kootenay regions.

“Critical habitat is still being logged,” Gyug tells The Narwhal. “If we keep losing it, [the sapsucker] will never get off the endangered list … And right now, we’re just not doing enough.”

Sapsucker ‘condos’ are falling to the ground

Williamson’s sapsuckers often nest in a single old-growth western larch — a sapsucker “condo” — where they excavate holes the size of a toonie and raise three to five chicks.

Like maple syrup farmers, they tend sap trees, visiting a handful of Douglas firs, larches and pines several times daily during breeding season to tap new wells or keep existing wells flowing. Woodpeckers have barbs on their tongues to latch onto insects and grubs; the Williamson’s sapsucker has a brush-like tuft on the edge of long tongues for licking up sap.

Williamson’s sapsuckers also feed on carpenter and western thatching ants that hustle up and down tree trunks to tend aphid colonies on branch tips. The ants have a symbiotic relationship with the aphids. They protect them from predators, carry them to their nests at night and during winter and milk their antenna for sugar-rich liquid secretions called honeydew.

“You’ve got to have trees because they take ants off tree trunks; if tree trunks aren’t there, they can’t make a living,” Gyug explains. “They need the nesting trees and they need foraging habitat — you need the combination of the two in close proximity to each other.”

Gyug’s work saved the western larch seed stands from logging. Over time, he also helped secure the designation of about 150 small, scattered wildlife habitat areas for the sapsucker. But the wildlife habitat areas only represent about three per cent of the territory the sapsucker occupies in the province, leaving the majority open to logging and other disturbances.

In the Boundary region, about 15 per cent of the sapsucker’s federally designated critical habitat was clear-cut from 2017 to 2022, according to wildlife biologist Jared Hobbs. Sapsucker “condos” fell to the ground. Hobbs says logging is likely taking place at the same rate, or even more extensively, in the other two areas where sapsuckers live — the east Kootenays and the Merritt-Princeton area. “In the other regions they’re logging like crazy as well.”

Hobbs recently helped document 182 cutblocks, covering more than 3,000 hectares, in federally mapped Williamson’s sapsucker critical habitat within the Boundary area (a small portion of the Okanagan-Boundary region). He found a nest tree logged — “not an uncommon occurrence” — even though the slow rot and hard shell that makes the trees desirable for the sapsucker and other cavity dwellers means they are of little or no commercial value to the forest industry.

A map of the areas where Williamson's sapsucker's primary habitats are in the southern BC interior.

The BC government continues to sanction logging in federally designated critical habitat for the Williamson’s sapsucker, including in BC’s Boundary region.

“These trees are so valuable that with every one that’s lost, you are eroding the recovery potential of the population,” Hobbs says. “It takes hundreds of years to replace that tree cut down by the timber industry. It’s cut down as garbage and left lying on the ground. And that was gold for the Williamson’s sapsucker.”

If logging in the sapsucker’s critical habitat continues, Hobbs says populations will reach a critical tipping point. He points to the northern spotted owl as a cautionary tale. Only one wild-born spotted owl remains in Canada, despite years of warnings from biologists about impending population collapse following widespread industrial logging in the owl’s old-growth rainforest habitat in southwest BC.

When a species falls below what biologists call its minimum viable population, decline quickly becomes irreversible — as in the case of spotted owls, cod on the east coast and southern mountain caribou populations in BC Individuals struggle to find mates and reproduce, while genetic diversity — necessary for good health and adaptations, including to environmental shifts wrought by climate change — is lost.

“At that point, the crash is catastrophic and irreversible,” Hobbs says. “That’s what we did to the spotted owl. And we’re about to do that with the Williamson’s sapsucker. At that point, no matter what you do, and how much in recovery dollars you throw at it, like caribou and spotted owls, you’re not going to pull it back. The challenges become insurmountable.”

Williamson’s sapsucker populations in BC are genetically valuable because they’re at the northern extent of their range and have adapted to a different environment than U.S. populations, making them essential to help the species adjust to climate change and other stressors, Hobbs says.

“These are not populations that should be dismissed, they should be cherished.”

‘Nothing happens’ to save sapsucker

For Sean Nixon, a lawyer with the environmental law charity Ecojustice, the plight of the Williamson’s sapsucker is all too familiar. Many old-growth forest-dependent species in BC are in trouble, Nixon notes. “We know the causes of the decline. Generally commercial logging is the primary threat. We know what needs to be done to save the species. But then nothing happens.”

In large part, that’s because BC has no legislation dedicated to protecting and recovering the sapsucker and 1,340 other species at risk of extinction in the province. The BC NDP campaigned on a promise to enact endangered species legislation, but quietly reneged after coming to power in 2017.

The federal Species at Risk Act automatically protects critical habitat for most at-risk species only on federal land, a scant one per cent of BC.

The Act nominally protects migratory bird nests on provincial land. But enforcement is almost impossible, Nixon observes. Nests would have to be identified in advance of logging and other destructive activities and “there aren’t federal enforcement officers in most places.”

“Generally, industry and the provincial government do very little to survey an area in advance of logging to see if it contains nests and where they are.”

Forests occupied by the Williamson’s sapsucker could be safeguarded if the federal cabinet issued an order under the Act to protect the critical habitat of migratory birds, which fall under federal jurisdiction.

But Nixon doubts an order will be forthcoming. Reluctant to tread on the jurisdictional toes of the provinces, the federal government has issued emergency orders only for two species in the 20-year history of the Act — the western chorus frog in Quebec and the greater sage-grouse in Alberta. Federal cabinet will also soon consider issuing an emergency order to protect the northern spotted owl.

The provincial government will sometimes voluntarily designate wildlife habitat areas for the Williamson’s sapsucker and other at-risk species, Nixon notes. Yet road-building and some logging are still permitted in wildlife areas.

“They’re not required to follow objective scientific advice, like the advice in the federal recovery strategy, about how big those areas need to be, where they need to be, what kinds of activities they need to prohibit,” he says. “They’re just kind of ad hoc postage stamps on the landscape.”

When asked why the province allows federally designated critical habitat for the Williamson’s sapsucker to be destroyed, the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship did not respond directly. Instead, the ministry said the government has established many wildlife habitat areas for the sapsucker and best management practices are in place for timber harvesting, roads and silviculture.

The ministry also sidestepped a question asking why the province has turned a blind eye to to nest tree logging, saying trees occupied by the sapsucker are protected under the BC Wildlife Act, while the federal Migratory Birds Convention Act prevents nests from being disturbed or destroyed.

Asked what steps the government is taking to prevent further destruction of the sapsucker’s critical habitat, the ministry said the province is continuing work, in partnership with First Nations, to develop a declaration prioritizing ecosystem health and biodiversity conservation.

Biologist calls lack of action ‘disheartening’

Ecojustice says Ottawa has embraced a “dangerously narrow” interpretation of its duty to protect the critical habitat of at-risk migratory birds under the Species at Risk Act. Under that interpretation, the Act protects only nests, not any other habitat necessary for the survival and recovery of at-risk migratory birds. In the case of a secretive bird such as the at-risk marbled murrelet, which lays a single egg on a mossy branch high in an old-growth tree, nests are almost impossible to find.

“The key problem is that nests are very hard to identify from the ground for most species,” Nixon says. “The birds do a very good job of hiding them. And they’re generally quiet or they disappear as soon as people show up.”

Last year, on behalf of Sierra Club BC and the Wilderness Committee, Ecojustice announced it is suing the federal government for failing to live up to its statutory duties to protect habitat necessary for survival and recovery of migratory bird species.

If Ecojustice wins the case, scheduled to be heard in federal court this spring, Nixon says the federal government will be obliged to take steps to ensure protection of the sapsucker and other at-risk migratory birds.

A win would compel federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault to regularly recommend cabinet issue an order to protect migratory bird habitat on provincial land, including the old-growth stands where the Williamson’s sapsucker nests and feeds, according to Nixon.

“It would basically be the government stepping in and doing what the province hasn’t been willing or able to do: namely, set aside and protect and conserve the habitat that these species need to survive and recover.”

Hobbs says Williamson’s sapsuckers have an intrinsic right to live in the forest. That right is acknowledged in the preamble to the Species at Risk Act, which states, “Wildlife, in all its forms, has value in itself.”

“It’s really hard to find these old-growth patches that can sustain Williamsons’ sapsucker,” Hobbs says. You can spend days hiking around and not get into a patch that’s good enough. And then you do get to one and find that it’s just been logged. And then you find it’s in critical habitat, which the province is supposed to recognize and afford effective legal protection to.”

“Yet the BC forest ministry is approving the [cut]blocks in these habitats. It’s really disheartening.”

View the original article.

 

 

Two northern spotted owls sit side-by-side on a branch

BC extends ban on old-growth logging for two years to assist endangered spotted owl’s recovery

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March 3, 2023
CBC News 
By Winston Szeto 

The BC government says it’s extending an old-growth logging ban for part of the Fraser Canyon, located about 100 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, for another two years to help with the recovery of the endangered spotted owl.

On Friday, the province announced it had extended the suspension of old-growth logging activity in the Fraser Canyon’s Spuzzum and Utzilus watersheds — which span more than 300 square kilometres — until February 2025.

Two years ago, the BC and federal governments reached an agreement with the Spuzzum First Nation to hold off logging in the watersheds for a year while the governments continued working on a recovery plan. The agreement was later extended for another year.

The province says the two-year logging deferrals in the Spuzzum and Utzilus watersheds are part of its plan to bring back a “sustained breeding population” of the owl.

“These deferrals are an important component of a complex process that will allow us to learn as much as possible to support the reintegration of the spotted owl into its habitat,” Nathan Cullen, BC’s minister of water, land and resource stewardship said in a written statement.

Northern spotted owls are endangered species

Northern spotted owls have been defined as endangered since 1986 and are under pressure due to habitat loss. They thrive in old, mature forests and help maintain the biodiversity of those areas.

Protection of spotted owls has fuelled decades-long disputes between environmental groups and the forest industry, as their future is often tied to saving old-growth forests where the birds live.

In a joint statement last week, environmental groups Ecojustice and Wilderness Committee and the Spuzzum First Nation said they had learned that the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, is recommending an emergency order to protect the spotted owl from imminent threats to its survival and recovery.

The statement said the minister has determined that logging must be prevented in the two Fraser Canyon watersheds within the Spuzzum First Nation’s territory, and that he is also calling for the protection of a further 25 square kilometres of forest habitat considered critical to the spotted owl’s survival but at a higher risk of being logged within the next year.

Forests Minister Bruce Ralston says further extending the logging deferral will support recovery efforts to increase the bird’s population.

Province’s measures not enough to save owls: advocates

Ecojustice staff lawyer Kegan Pepper-Smith says he welcomes the province’s latest move to help the endangered species, but it’s insufficient in light of Guilbeault’s recommendations.

“It’s laughable that the BC government suggests these two simple deferrals demonstrate a commitment to recovering the species, when it’s clear that [old-growth] logging continues,” Pepper-Smith said.

“Logging elsewhere is completely jeopardizing any kind of recovery of the species.”

The province says there are only three northern spotted owls known to live in the wild in BC, two of which were released by a breeding facility in Langley in August last year.

BC’s Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development says it spends $400,000 annually on spotted owls recovery programs.

TJ Watt, campaigner for BC environmental group Ancient Forest Alliance, says the province needs to spend even more to save the species.

“We’re calling for $120 million in short-term … funding that would help offset the loss of logging revenues for First Nations to accept deferral in the long-term,” Watt said.

“We’re calling for … $300 million towards conservation financing to support sustainable economic development, guardian programs and new Indigenous-protected areas.”

View the original article from CBC News.

A side profile of BC's premier, David Eby

BC moves to fast-track its overdue old growth protection commitments

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February 23, 2023
The Globe & Mail
By Justine Hunter
Photo by Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press

The BC government is seeking to harness the financial clout of non-profit conservation groups to protect endangered ecosystems, with a commitment to create a new trust fund to leverage charitable donations for nature with its own dollars.

Premier David Eby announced on Wednesday his plans to fast-track his government’s progress on protecting old growth, including $25-million to help First Nations participate in land-use decisions on old-growth forests, and $90-million added to the BC Manufacturing Jobs Fund to help forestry companies retool their mills to adapt to second-growth timber.

The new money pledged by Mr. Eby pales in comparison with the potential for philanthropic conservation. Even without the province as a partner, non-profits have slipped past the province’s slow decision-making process to secure environmentally important lands, from rare undeveloped Gulf Islands properties to threatened wetlands to unique pockets of mixed old-growth forests.

Earlier this year, however, the province announced a major new conservation area secured through financing by the Nature Conservancy of Canada in Incomappleux Valley, which it called the most significant new protected area in a decade. The Nature Conservancy of Canada is a non-profit organization that has works on large-scale, permanent land conservation.

Inspired by that model which secured Indigenous consent and financing from corporate, private and federal government sources, the province is now promising to establish a conservation financing mechanism within six months that it expects will tap into “hundreds of millions of dollars of philanthropic donations to fund conservation measures.”

Details of how much money the province will contribute have not been released, and may not be known until the next provincial budget is tabled on Feb. 28.

“This is significant – Premier Eby is paving the path for a major transformation in conservation,” said Ken Wu, whose Nature-Based Solutions Foundation was set up to secure endangered ecosystems. “There are hundreds of millions dollars out there – easily – but the province needs to contribute their own dollars to kickstart it.”

The NDP government made a commitment in the 2020 election campaign to protect old growth – officially recognizing that the value of old-growth trees left standing can be far greater than the value of those trees as timber products.

In November, 2021, the province announced a plan to suspend one-third of old-growth logging, however it said it would first consult with each of about 220 First Nations on any logging deferrals within each nation’s traditional territories.

Since then, Mr. Eby said, the province has implemented temporary deferrals to prohibit logging in 2.1 million hectares of old-growth forests. At the same time, more than 11,000 hectares of old-growth forests have been logged in areas that were earmarked by the government’s independent expert panel for protection, while negotiations on deferrals continue.

“This is an approach that puts Indigenous perspectives and First Nations’ perspectives at the centre of the planning,” Mr. Eby told a news conference. “And First Nations have different approaches to their territory when it comes to forestry. It is more challenging to do it this way, because there are so many nations across the province.”

The $25-million fund will pay for eight new “forest landscape planning” tables that will bring together communities, industry and 50 First Nations that will have the authority to prevent logging in old-growth forests that are deemed to be important for biodiversity, clean water or other priorities.

The province has also changed its regulations to allow such decisions to take precedence over the economics of forestry. Until now, the Forest and Range Practices Act would not allow objectives like water quality or wildlife habitat to “unduly restrict” timber supply. That clause has been stripped from the regulations, by a cabinet order signed on Tuesday.

Torrance Coste, national campaign director of the Wilderness Committee, said the regulatory change could have huge implications – but it won’t be clear until decision-making starts to change. In the meantime, he said, the Eby government continues to “talk and log,” he said.

“The pace is glacial,” Mr. Coste said. “We’re talking about planning for forests that aren’t going to be there anymore.”

Mr. Eby maintains his government is making progress. “We’re seeing real results on the ground,” he said. “The latest numbers show that logging of old growth has declined to the lowest level on record.” Since 2015, the amount of old growth logged in BC has steadily declined, from 65,000 hectares to 38,300 hectares in 2021. The tally for 2022 has not yet been calculated.

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A photo of the Incomappleux Valley, east of Revelstoke.

Rare swath of BC rainforest set aside for permanent protection

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January 26, 2023
The Vancouver Sun
By Derrick Penner
Photo by Paul Zizka

Nestled in the Selkirk Mountains the Incomappleux Valley is a rare 1,000-year-old Interior temperate rainforest

The province has committed to protecting the still-intact swaths of rare interior temperate rainforest in the Incomappleux Valley east of Revelstoke in a deal brokered by the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

The agreement, unveiled by Premier David Eby and Environment Minister George Heyman in Victoria Wednesday, calls for 750 square kilometres of the valley to be protected, 580 sq km outright as an official conservancy, 170 sq km as a restricted development zone.

The valley, nestled in the Selkirk Mountains 29 km east of Revelstoke, bears scars from logging in its lower portion, but its upper reaches that border Glacier National Park include pristine, 1,000-year-old stands of western red cedar and hemlock that are home to species at risk wildlife, including grizzly bears and mountain caribou.

“Incomappleux is one of the greatest treasures,” Eby said. “It’s home to old-growth cedar and hemlock trees that are four metres in diameter,” which the 6-foot-5 premier joked is “two of me sideways.”

And it’s home to 250 species, including rare lichens and rare bats. Eby characterized the conservancy as “one of the most significant protected areas established in the province in a decade.”

Conservation groups, including the Valhalla Wilderness Society, have campaigned for decades to protect the Incomappleux and raised the issue with Environment Minister George Heyman “continually almost since Day 1 of me holding this office,” he said.

Incomappleux Valley was one of nine old-growth zones identified for immediate deferral under the province’s old growth strategic review and former forest minister Doug Donaldson set aside 440 sq km to be considered for more formal protection.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada stepped into the discussions in 2018, recognizing it could play a role as a “facilitator and collaborator (to) bring together industry and governments and Nations,” according to Nancy Newhouse, the organization’s BC vice-president.

The conservancy is well known for brokering the purchase of private land for preservation, but Newhouse said it also works with companies on preserving connected ecosystems on public land.

In this instance, the conservation group raised $4 million via the Nature Canada fund from Environment and Climate Change Canada, mining company Teck Resources and two private foundations, the Wyss Foundation based in Washington, D.C. and Seattle-headquartered Wilburforce Foundation.

And the lumber company Interfor relinquished its cutting rights within the valley under timber licenses in exchange for a payment under terms of the deal.

Newhouse described the initiative as “a very important project in terms of the alignment with the global biodiversity framework,” under which Canada has committed to conserving 30 per cent of its lands as a means to protect biodiversity.

From the perspective of regional First Nations, the establishment of the conservancy means “we’re entering maybe into what should be just a stepping stone to improving what is actually happening,” in their traditional territories, said Kukpi7, James Toma of the Skw’lax te Secwépemcúlecw Nation.

However, while large parts of the Incomappleux with significant ecological values are being protected, much of the valley “is completely logged,” said forest ecologist Rachel Holt.

Holt, who sat on former Premier John Horgan’s old-growth expert panel, said groups have fought to preserve those high-value areas of Incomappleux for a long time, “which should have been, without question,” under existing policy.

“Nevertheless, a large conservancy is a positive step that will allow restoration of those ecosystems to occur,” Holt said. “That’s all good.”

As a first step, Holt said protecting the Incomappleux was a relatively easy decision because there was a rockfall about a decade ago that cut off road access to much of the valley “so it was not about to be logged.”

She added that the Incomappleux is bordered by other landscapes that are of equally high value as habitat where she hoped existing policy could also be used to scale back logging.

“What we have to do now is move these concepts forward and make some of the harder decisions,” Holt said.

Across the province, “all the valley bottoms, all the different low-elevation ecosystems are very under-represented in our protected areas,” Holt said.

“And that’s where the hard decisions are going to be in protecting ancient old growth that is absolutely irrecoverable,” Holt said.

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Biodiversity agreement to protect planet reached at UN conference in Montreal

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December 19
The Canadian Press

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault calls the agreed measures ‘an ambitious package’

Negotiators in Montreal have finalized an agreement to halt and reverse the destruction of nature by 2030, as the COP15 United Nations Biodiversity Conference talks enter their final official day.

An announcement issued early Monday morning says the gathering nations at the biodiversity summit have agreed to four goals and 23 targets.

The goals include protecting 30 per cent of the world’s land, water and marine areas by 2030, as well as the mobilization, by 2030, of at least $200 billion US annually in domestic and international biodiversity-related funding from all sources, both public and private.

There is also a pledge to reduce subsidies deemed harmful to nature by at least $500 billion by 2030, while having developed countries commit to providing developing countries with at least $20 billion per year by 2025, and $30 billion per year by 2030.

“Many of us wanted more things in the text and more ambition, but we got an ambitious package,” said Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change.

“We have an agreement to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, to work on restoration, to reduce the use of pesticides. This is tremendous progress.”

As the conference neared its final official day, Guilbeault said some countries were still asking for the inclusion of more ambitious numerical targets, while others in the global south continued to push for more funding.

The new agreement is titled the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework after the official host cities in China and Canada.

“We have in our hands a package which I think can guide us as we all work together to halt and reverse biodiversity loss and put biodiversity on the path to recovery for the benefit of all people in the world,” Chinese Environment Minister Huang Runqiu told delegates before the package was adopted to rapturous applause just before dawn. “We can be truly proud.”

Compromises reached, African negotiator says

The final agreement came after nearly two weeks of negotiations among 196 countries who are part of the UN biodiversity convention. They were seeking a new deal to halt the human destruction of nature and to begin restoring what has already been lost.

The United Nations says three-quarters of the world’s land has been altered by human activities and one million species face extinction this century as a result.

Climate change coupled with habitat loss, pollution and development have hammered the world’s biodiversity, with one estimate in 2019 warning that a million plant and animal species face extinction within decades — a rate of loss 1,000 times greater than expected.

Humans use about 50,000 wild species routinely, and one out of five people of the world’s eight billion population depend on those species for food and income, the report said.

“All the elements are in there for a balance of unhappiness, which is the secret to achieving agreement in UN bodies,” Pierre du Plessis, a negotiator from Namibia who is helping co-ordinate the African group, told The Associated Press before the vote.

“Everyone got a bit of what they wanted, not necessarily everything they wanted.”

Disagreement over financing

But the countries struggled for nearly two weeks to agree on what that protection looks like and who will pay for it.

The financing has been among the most contentious issues, with delegates from 70 African, South American and Asian countries walking out of negotiations Wednesday. They returned several hours later.

Developed nations insisted on the 30 by 30 target, while developing nations accused wealthier countries of setting high ambitions without offering enough cash to help pay for them.

Europe and most developed countries, including Canada, preferred to use the existing Global Environment Fund (GEF) and argued that creating a new fund would take too much time.

Developing nations in Africa, Latin America and Asia wanted a new dedicated biodiversity fund and said the GEF was inefficient, slow to get money out the door and oversubscribed.

A compromise of sorts was reached, with a new, dedicated biodiversity fund to be created within the GEF.

Tensions won’t affect agreement, Guilbeault says

Still, the financing disputes added drama and tension to the final moments of negotiations, when several nations, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon and Uganda, accused Huang of forcing through the deal despite their objections.

Huang’s gavel fell shortly after the Congo’s representative said his country couldn’t support the agreement because of concerns about funding.

But a legal adviser from the UN secretariat for biodiversity said that it wasn’t a formal objection, so it didn’t prevent the deal from being finalized.

Francis Ogwal, a Ugandan delegate and one of the co-chairs of a working group helping with the negotiations, said later Monday that he clarified with the Ugandan team that their objections were procedural and not about the agreement itself.

“Uganda is fully behind and supports the global biodiversity framework,” Ogwal said.

Guilbeault said outreach has already been made to Congo government representatives to address their concerns. He said he doesn’t think the tension will undermine the agreement or affect its implementation.

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Old-growth activists commend BC Premier Eby on lofty land conservation goal

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December 13, 2022
Victoria Buzz
By Curtis Blandy

Old-growth activists in BC are looking forward to Premier David Eby’s lofty goals of eco-conservation within the province.

With Premier Eby’s new cabinet officially sworn-in, their intentions and goals have been receiving some attention from activists throughout BC.

Specifically, the Ancient Forest Alliance is commending the newly elected premier on his mandate letter to Nathan Cullen, Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship in which he outlines the expectation for the creation of new Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) and committing to the protection of 30% of lands the in BC by 2030.

Protection of 30% of BC’s land would double the total current protected land.

“The commitment to double legislated protected areas in BC has the potential to be a major step towards protecting endangered old-growth forests, ecosystems, and species across British Columbia,” said Ancient Forest Alliance Campaigner & Photographer, TJ Watt.

“The new premier should be commended for this. To ensure these promises can be made a reality, it’s imperative that major conservation funding is secured through the much anticipated BC-Canada Nature Agreement.”

“We have the framework, now we just need the funding to implement it.”

In addition to committing to this goal of protecting 30% of BC lands, the province has also acknowledged the need for conservation financing in order to protect areas with the most ecological diversity.

To achieve this, Minister Cullen says he will work with Indigenous communities as well as the government to establish stewardship programs and prioritize economic development for the conservation of old-growth.

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Conservationists optimistic over David Eby’s commitments to protect BC’s biodiversity

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December 11, 2022
CBC News
By Chad Pawson

Land stewardship mandate letter calls for 30 per cent of BC’s land base to be protected by 2030

In mandate letters to his land stewardship and forestry ministers, BC Premier David Eby says he wants to double the amount of protected land in the province, support new Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas, and move faster on recommendations around the logging of old growth trees.

They’re conservation goals advocates have been calling on for years to protect BC’s unique biodiversity, which has thousands of species at risk due to development and climate change.

“This is potentially a major leap toward protecting endangered ecosystems and the most at-risk, productive stands of old-growth forests left in BC,” said Ken Wu in a release from the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance.

Experts say protected areas help mitigate the worst effects of climate change, contribute to diversifying local economies and advance reconciliation with First Nations.

This week, Eby named his first cabinet as premier, with former energy and mines minister Bruce Ralston taking on forestry and Nathan Cullen replacing Josie Osborne as the minister for water, land and resource stewardship. The new ministry was put in place in February.

The tone of the letters appears to usher in the type of science-based, holistic approach to conservation and biodiversity in the province that people like Wu have been asking for from the BC government.

“We have seen the impacts of short-term thinking on the British Columbia land base — exhausted forests, poisoned water, and contaminated sites,” wrote Eby is his mandate letter to Cullen.

“These impacts don’t just cost the public money to clean up and rehabilitate, they threaten the ability of entire communities to thrive and succeed.”

The highlight is finding ways to partner with the federal government, First Nations, industry and communities to protect 30 per cent of BC’s landbase by 2030, including Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs).

IPCAs are lands and waters where Indigenous governments have the primary role in protecting and conserving ecosystems through Indigenous laws, governance and knowledge.

“Research shows that biodiversity thrives on Indigenous-managed lands and waters,” said Tori Ball with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, British Columbia.

Canada is committed to protecting 25 per cent of lands and 25 per cent of oceans by 2025,and 30 per cent of each by 2030.

Currently protected lands cover around 15 per cent of BC’s land base. Critics say ecological zones with the highest biodiversity are underrepresented.

Old growth

Both letters also ask for the ministers to implement 14 recommendations made more than two years ago in a review of how old growth trees are logged in BC, specifically transitioning to an industry that prioritizes the health of ecosystems.

Critics say the government has so far moved too slowly on action items as old growth trees in ecologically-rich areas continue to be logged.

Cullen’s mandate letter also calls for the development of a “new conservation financing mechanism to support protection of biodiverse areas,” but does not expand on what that might be or how it would work.

BC has yet to announce matching funding from the federal government, which ear-marked $55.1 million over three years to establish a BC “Old Growth Nature Fund” in its budget earlier this year.

The Sierra Club of BC said that reaching the commitments in the letters will depend on immediacy, proper funding, and transparency over timelines and milestones.

“Without immediate change on the ground the window of action to safeguard biodiversity as we know it is rapidly closing,” said Jens Wieting with Sierra Club BC.

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BC vows to reverse ‘short-term thinking’ with pledge to protect 30% of province by 2030

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December 8th, 2022
The Narwhal
By Sarah Cox

Advocates say Premier David Eby’s conservation mandate is an ‘important step’ in the fight against biodiversity loss in BC, which is home to nearly 700 globally imperilled species

The BC government has committed to protecting 30 per cent of the province’s land by 2030, joining global efforts to protect nature and reverse potentially disastrous biodiversity loss.

The commitment to double BC’s current land protections was made in Premier David Eby’s mandate letter to Nathan Cullen, BC’s new Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship. Eby instructed Cullen to ensure land operations in the province guarantee sustainability for future generations and to work closely with Indigenous communities to achieve that goal.

“We have seen the impacts of short-term thinking on the British Columbia land base — exhausted forests, poisoned water and contaminated sites,” Eby’s letter states. “These impacts don’t just cost the public money to clean up and rehabilitate, they threaten the ability of entire communities to thrive and succeed.”

The letter instructs Cullen to partner with the federal government, industry and communities, and to work with Indigenous communities to reach the 2030 protection goal, including through the creation of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas. Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) are gaining recognition worldwide for their role in preserving biodiversity and securing a space where communities can actively practice Indigenous ways of life.

“By planning carefully, we can ensure our province enjoys the best of economic development while conserving wild spaces,” Eby writes. “Indigenous partners in this critical work can bring their expertise, knowledge and priorities to the table to ensure this effort lasts for generations.”

BC is poised to announce a long-awaited nature agreement with the federal government that will include a commitment to new protected areas and, according to internal documents obtained by The Narwhal, new protections for “high profile” species such as boreal caribou and spotted owls. The agreement is referenced in Cullen’s mandate letter, but no details are provided other than that it includes the goal to protect 30 per cent of the province by 2030.

About 15 per cent of BC’s land is currently conserved in provincial and federal protected areas.

All members of BC’s new cabinet received mandate letters Dec. 7 following a cabinet shuffle that saw Cullen’s predecessor Josie Osborne moved to the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation.

In Cullen’s letter, Eby also asks the MLA for Stikine to work with other ministries to develop a “new conservation financing mechanism to support protection of biodiverse areas.”

Conservation groups were quick to applaud the commitments — made as delegates from around the world gather in Montreal for COP15, the United Nations biodiversity conference — calling the news “very encouraging,” “fantastic” and “worthy of international and national attention.”

“It’s great to see provinces like BC and Quebec recognizing that the environment and protecting nature is critical, not just for nature, but for the well-being of people and the prosperity of our society,” Dan Kraus, director of national conservation for Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, told The Narwhal, referring to a recent commitment by the Quebec government to protect 30 per cent of its territory by 2030.

Ken Wu, executive director of the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance, said BC should be commended for committing to federal targets for protecting nature and biodiversity.

“It’s more than what most provinces have done,” Wu said in an interview. “With the exception of Quebec, most provinces have been conservation laggards both in terms of target and in terms of providing funding. So this is an important step.”

Gillian Staveley, director of land stewardship and culture with the Dena Kayeh Institute, said she is pleased the BC government is “finally” talking about Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas. She praised the “cross-government approach” and called the minister’s letter a “strong mandate.”

“We look forward to rolling up our sleeves and meeting with Minister Cullen as soon as possible to get discussion underway in the work with BC to really make our proposed IPCA a reality for the benefit of all British Columbians,” Staveley texted as she boarded a flight to Montreal to attend COP15.

The Kaska Dena aim to protect a wildlife-rich area in their territory, known as the “Serengeti of the North,” through a proposed Indigenous protected area that would conserve a 40,000 square-kilometre region.

The Kaska protected area in northern BC would surround or connect to six existing protected areas, conserving watersheds and critical habitat for caribou and other species at risk of extinction while creating sustainable jobs. Staveley noted that Cullen has always been supportive of Dene K’eh Kusān, which in Kaska Dena means “always will be there.”

“Having 30 by 30 as a policy priority is also a big step towards the action we need,” Staveley said. “It leaves us hopeful that Premier Eby intends to be an activist premier and he understands the urgency to getting these protections in place to address climate change and loss of biodiversity.”

BC called the ‘biodiversity jewel’ of Canada

Wu and Kraus said they will be watching closely to see which areas of BC are protected, noting it’s of paramount importance to conserve areas at the highest risk of biodiversity loss.

Kraus called BC the “biodiversity jewel” of Canada. The province has almost 700 globally imperilled species, more than any other province or territory, and a high number of globally threatened ecosystems — 88 at last count, but Kraus noted that ecosystems are not tracked nearly as well as individual species. BC also ranks number one in Canada for endemic species, which top 100. Endemic species do not occur naturally in any other part of the world.

“What happens in BC is critical for meeting both national and global biodiversity targets,” Kraus said.

Places with high numbers of threatened species and globally imperilled ecosystems include the Lower Mainland and Okanagan area in BC’s interior, as well as the provincial capital area of Victoria where almost nothing remains of the now-rare Garry Oak ecosystem that once carpeted the region.

“We do know where those places are,” Kraus said. “And that focus on biodiversity areas allows us to protect habitat that will [conserve] a whole bunch of species at risk — globally imperiled species [and] nationally imperiled species that aren’t yet listed under the Species At Risk Act … we can be proactive in conserving them by protecting those habitat areas.”

Eby’s letter also instructs Cullen to “protect wildlife and species at risk.” It makes no mention of enacting a stand-alone law to protect BC’s growing number of species and ecosystems at risk of extinction, as promised in the 2017 mandate letter for BC Minister of Environment and Climate Change George Heyman — but then quietly dropped by the BC NDP government.

Instead, Cullen is asked to protect and enhance BC’s biodiversity by implementing the recommendations of an old-growth strategic review panel and a somewhat vague, previously announced strategy called Together for Wildlife.

Wu said Eby’s commitment to create a new conservation financing mechanism “may just be words” but the words signify the province is on the right path to establish economic development funding for First Nations tied to protecting places at the greatest risk of biodiversity loss.

“If they follow through with that, without spin, then that is a monumental leap forward,” he said, cautioning that the province has undertaken “creative accounting” in the past regarding how it counts protected areas. Designations such as old-growth management areas, ungulate winter range and wildlife habitat areas lack permanence or the standards of legally protected areas, Wu pointed out.

“Some of these conservation regulations are sort of like the cryptocurrency of protected areas,” he said.

New initiatives could end BC’s ‘war in the woods’

Other key elements of Cullen’s mandate include working with First Nations to “improve the protection and stewardship of forest resources, habitats, biodiversity and cultural heritage in the Great Bear Rainforest Agreement” and to “work toward modern land use plans and permitting processes rooted in science and Indigenous knowledge that consider new and cumulative impacts to the land base.”

Cullen was also instructed to work with the Ministry of Forests to begin implementation of recommendations made by an old-growth strategic review panel, which called for a paradigm shift in the way BC manages its forests and immediate deferrals from logging for old-growth forests at the highest risk of biodiversity loss.

In a 2019 United Nations report, scientists warned global biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, with about one million species facing extinction. They also said there is still time to turn things around with transformative change.

At the biodiversity conference underway in Montreal, close to 200 countries are working to finalize an agreement to reverse biodiversity loss and avoid devastating outcomes from the sixth mass extinction event in the Earth’s history, caused by human activity.

The global agreement aims to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 and achieve its full recovery by 2050.

Wu said BC must develop protection targets for all ecosystems and prioritize protection for the most endangered and least represented ecosystems. Economic development funding for First Nations should be tied to the protection of the most at-risk most productive old-growth forests, he said. Old-growth forests with the highest productivity — the biggest trees and the most species at risk of extinction — are found in valley bottoms.

Wu said the province will “get the job done” with a land acquisition fund that can also be used to buy private lands with endangered ecosystems.

“If they protect the valley bottoms, southern parts of the province, lower elevations most at risk, [and] old-growth forests and ecosystems, then they could put an end to the 50-year-old war in the woods.”

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Canada accused of putting its timber trade ahead of global environment

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December 2nd, 2022
The Guardian

Weeks before Cop15 in Montreal, leaked letter to EU shows host tried to water down deforestation regulations

The Canadian government has been accused of putting its domestic timber industry ahead of the global environment, following a leaked attempt to water down the world’s most ambitious regulations on deforestation-free trade.

Weeks before the United Nations biodiversity conference, Cop15 in Montreal, the host nation sent a letter to the European Commission asking for a reconsideration of “burdensome traceability requirements” within a proposed EU scheme that aims to eradicate unsustainably sourced wood products from the world’s biggest market.

The letter from the Canadian ambassador to the EU, Ailish Campbell, also called for a “phased” approach that would slow down implementation, and a review of plans to include “degraded” forests among the areas considered at risk.

Green MPs and conservation groups said the lobbying effort showed the government of Justin Trudeau placed more of a priority on its paper, timber and wood products industry than the international commitment it made at last year’s Glasgow climate conference to “halt and reverse” forest loss and land degradation by 2030.

“In this letter, you can perfectly see Canada wanted to protect its economic interests rather than the forest,” said the French MEP Marie Toussaint, one of the initiators of the new regulations. “For a country that is supposed to be in favour of conserving natural resources to say ‘don’t go so fast’ is surprising, especially when they will be at the forefront of the biodiversity issue in Montreal in a couple of weeks.”

Toussaint, who is a deputy leader of the Green group in parliament, said the proposed new regulations, which are in the last stage of negotiation this week between the European Commission, council and parliament, are designed to tighten controls and checks on forest products coming into the EU. This would include geolocation requirements so that buyers can know the exact origin of wood for decking, furniture or paper. Unlike previous measures the draft does not focus solely on illegal deforestation but also legal, unsustainable practices.

It is an important step that shows the EU is serious about the 2030 target, Toussaint said. “The EU can be proud. We are doing it in an ambitious way,” she said. “This is long overdue. For decades, we’ve tried to rely on voluntary reporting and commitments, but we can see this hasn’t been working.”

The US-based environmental advocacy group Mighty Earth said the proposed regulation was a potential turning point for protecting forests because it would set a new global standard. “This legislation could be a gamechanger. It’s too bad that Canada is working to gut the single most-important piece of forest legislation that we have seen in the past decade,” said the group’s founder and chief executive, Glenn Hurowitz.

Negotiations are at a critical stage. After this week’s talks, a deal should be hammered out by the end of the year, but the level of ambition is under dispute. Sweden, another supposedly green nation with a large logging industry, is said to have raised concerns about some human rights clauses. Poland and Italy are reportedly reluctant to include rubber among the products covered. Others, such as Germany, Belgium and Slovenia, are strong supporters of tough regulations.

Canada’s lobbying efforts are under particular scrutiny before the Montreal conference, which will put a spotlight on the country’s green reputation as well as a darker environmental side. Canada is a base for some of the world’s biggest mining firms, including Belo Sun, which aims to open a huge gold pit in the Amazon rainforest. Canada’s exploitation of tar sands in Alberta has also been widely criticised as out-of-step with efforts to keep global warming to between 1.5C and 2C above pre-industrial levels. The sustainability of the country’s forest-products firms, such as Paper Excellence and Resolute, has also been questioned.

The letter from Campbell notes that the country’s annual deforestation rate is less than 0.2%, so Canada should be given special consideration as a “low-risk” nation.

But reports indicate that some of the nation’s exports come from old-growth forests, which are far more important than secondary woodland for biodiversity protection and carbon sequestration.

Environmental groups say the timber industry often cuts under the canopy, which is categorised as “degradation” rather than “deforestation”. It has identified fragmentation of the remaining natural forests as a major threat to biodiversity, including the nutritional intake of caribou, which now have to be given supplementary feeding from humans in one area because the lichen they usually rely on is scarcer, partly as a result of industrial logging. The situation is worst in British Columbia, where the population of caribou has declined from about 40,000 to 17,000 in the past century, with the steepest fall in the past few decades.

In the letter, Campbell insists there is no agreed definition of degradation so it should not be included in the EU’s new regulations. But scientists insist that degraded land must be included and industrial logging of old-growth forests must be halted to align with a climate-safe world.

Campbell, who has more of an industry than environmental background, put the priority on trade in her letter. “We are greatly concerned that some elements of the EU’s draft regulation on deforestation-free products will lead to significant trade barriers for Canadian exporters to the EU. In particular, the requirements in the Regulation will result in increased costs, add burdensome traceability requirements (eg geolocation requirements) and risks negatively affecting trade, including well over C$1bn in forest and agricultural products exported from Canada to the EU,” she wrote.

Hurowitz said Canada should accept tighter controls and higher standards if it wants to live up to its green reputation, otherwise its appeal for special “low-risk” treatment will smack of double standards for rich northern nations compared with poorer tropical ones.

“Developed countries know how to speak the language of sustainability. Even when they are bulldozing old-growth forests, they’re good at slapping a green veneer on it,” he said. “Trudeau presents himself as green but in lobbying to weaken the EU’s forest protection rules, he is aligning himself with the likes of [former president] Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. Canada needs to decide which side it is on.”

More trade-focused MEPs involved in the negotiations expressed hope that Canada would live up to its green reputation. Christophe Hansen, secretary general of Luxembourg’s Christian Social People’s party, said the letter should not detract from the Montreal Cop. “Canada being a host of the UN biodiversity conference does not prevent it from having its own preoccupations, but I am confident they will carry out their role as an honest broker and neutral host as they have done many times before.”

The Canadian foreign ministry and embassy to the EU have been approached for comment.

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At COP15, Indigenous leaders to show how their conservation efforts can shape global biodiversity agreement

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December 2nd, 2022
The Globe and Mail
By Wendy Stueck

Indigenous leaders are hoping COP15 will be an opportunity to showcase how Indigenous-led conservation can be at the heart of a new global biodiversity agreement.

Over the past few years, Indigenous-led conservation has picked up momentum in Canada and abroad, reflecting a growing body of research that highlights the connections between traditional Indigenous territories and biodiversity.

Ahead of COP15, the international conference kicking off in Montreal Wednesday, Canada has set ambitious targets to protect biodiversity, saying it will conserve 25 per cent of land and water by 2025 and 30 per cent of each by 2030.

Protected areas in Canada sit at about half of those levels. And if the country has any hope of reaching those goals, it lies in working with Indigenous peoples, says Tyson Atleo, Natural Climate Solutions Program director with Nature United, the Canadian affiliate of U.S.-based environmental group, the Nature Conservancy.

”We cannot hit those targets without Indigenous leadership in conservation,” said Mr. Atleo, who is based in BC and a member of the Ahousaht Nation.

One oft-cited statistic, dating back at least to a 2008 World Bank report, says Indigenous peoples’ traditional territories encompass up to 22 per cent of the world’s land surface, areas that hold 80 per cent of the planet’s biodiversity.

In 2018, a government-commissioned Indigenous Circle of Experts set out a vision for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) in its final report, defining them as “lands and waters where Indigenous governments have the primary role in protecting and conserving ecosystems through Indigenous laws, governance and knowledge systems.”

Often, IPCAs feature guardian programs in which local Indigenous people are involved in monitoring, research and protection of the designated sites.

Three large-scale IPCAs have been finalized since 2018, says a November update from the Indigenous Leadership Initiative (ILI), a group that works with Indigenous communities on land use plans.

Those three sites, all located in the Northwest Territories, cover more than 50,000 square kilometres.

Scores of other proposed IPCAs could protect an additional 500,000 square kilometres, the group says.

The preamble to the draft text of the new framework acknowledges “the important roles and contributions of Indigenous people as custodians of biodiversity” and says the new framework must be implemented in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

Both British Columbia, in 2019, and the federal government, in 2021, have passed legislation to implement UNDRIP.

With the targets for 2025 and 2030 looming, IPCAs are seen as a key part of future plans.

“That [conservation] target is a really important tool for motivating countries to partner with Indigenous nations – but it’s also a very important lever for us as Indigenous communities to be able to advance our own vision, for our people and for our land and the future of our communities,” Gillian Staveley, Director of Land Stewardship and Culture with the Dena Kayeh Institute, said this week in a media briefing by Canadian Indigenous leaders ahead of COP15.

Dena Kayeh has proposed an IPCA called Dene K’eh Kusan, which would consist of 39,000 square kilometres of northern BC, and is seen as a way to protect a largely untouched territory – creating economic opportunities through tourism, hunting and guide-outfitting.

“So even though IPCAs are seen as a really important conservation strategy – protecting healthy lands, waters, plants, animals – it also supports our cultures and our way of life and our knowledge systems and community well-being,” Ms. Stavely said.

At COP15, the ILI is scheduled to host the Indigenous Village, a site meant to showcase Indigenous conservation initiatives and provide a welcoming space to Indigenous participants.

“The global community is catching up to Indigenous ambitions,” ILI director Valérie Courtois said during the media briefing, adding that Canadian examples show the benefits of Indigenous-led land planning.

“When Indigenous peoples are holding the pen, the protection rates in those land use plans tend to be more than 50 per cent and often two-thirds of the landscapes,” she added.

Guardian programs are also gaining momentum. In June, the Kitasoo Xai’xais and Nuxalk First Nations, located in BC, announced a pilot project with BC Parks to designate some Indigenous guardians with the same legal authorities as BC Parks rangers.

Indigenous communities are looking for ways to conserve traditional territories – along with their accompanying biodiversity – while providing for economic benefits to support local residents, Mr. Atleo said.

“It won’t look the same everywhere. But there are some critical elements that might be consistent. And one of those is the need to ensure that conservation action is resulting in access to economic opportunities, or economic outcomes, that benefit Indigenous and local communities – as well as the Canadian public more broadly,” he said.

He wants to see long-term financing for conservation projects and increased focus on natural climate solutions – in general, conservation, management and restoration activities that can increase carbon capture or reduce emissions.

As an example, he cites the Great Bear Forest Carbon Project, through which nine First Nations share revenue from carbon credits from the Great Bear Rainforest, a protected area on BC’s central coast.

Such projects could be part of a necessary shift in how humans engage with forests, oceans and other landscapes, he maintains.

“I personally think natural climate solutions are an approach that can re-orient people to recognizing and upholding the values that ecosystems provide to us – beyond their efficient, harvestable value.”

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