Premier Gordon Campbell has unveiled an agreement to preserve 1.8 million hectares of land along B.C.'s Central and North Coast, including one of the largest intact temperate rainforests in the world.



It is home to one of the world's last large populations of grizzly bears and a rare, white variation of the black bear – the Kermode or "Spirit" bear.

The area, widely known as the Great Bear Rainforest, is four times the size of Prince Edward Island

It includes new and previously protected areas, and there will be new parks inside the protected zone

The agreement involves the major players – the forest industry, First Nations and environmentalists – and is aimed at ending the years of logging protests along the coast.

The land-use plan will allow limited logging, and environmental organizations will contribute $60 million to help fund economic initiatives such as eco-tourism. The province will add $30 million and ask Ottawa to match it.

The premier says the landmark decision is not about what governments have done, but about the decisions made by the people of B.C.



"Spirit" bear (Courtesy: Ron Thiele
www.ronthiele.com )

"What's important is what the people of the province have done, what the First Nations of the Central and North Coast have done as they have walked across the chasm of trust to say, 'Let us join with you and plot forward a future for all of us in British Columbia.'

"It is what environmentalists and conservationists have done. It's what industry has done, and it's what coastal communities have done," said Campbell.

"I think we can look forward to a world where we are actually going to have one of the cutting-edge models for new forestry, a model that can be looked at elsewhere in the world," said Lisa Matthaus of the Sierra Club of Canada.

"I think we will have one of the most amazing success stories."

The Valhalla Wilderness Society is also applauding the agreement, saying it significantly increases protection for grizzly bears – tripling the size of the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Sanctuary.

Last year, environmentalists spent more than $1 million to buy the trophy-hunting rights in the area.