45% of BC rainforests being sold to corporations

Subject: Action Alert 45% of BC rainforests being sold to corporations

Date: Thu, 01 May 2003 16:22:15 +0000

ACTION ALERT!

45% of British Columbia’s Coastal Temperate Rainforests and other habitats being sold to corporations!

Dear friends,

On Tuesday last I discovered some shocking news –the Liberal provincial government of British Columbia are planning to sell off 45 million hectares of public lands, half of the landmass of British Columbia, which is rich in temperate rainforests, minerals and wild salmon, to private corporate interests.

To make a difference PLEASE TAKE 3 MINUTES TO EMAIL the following stating your opposition to the government’s ‘Working Forest’ initiative:

Premier Campbell of BC premier@gov.bc.ca

Federal Trade Minister Pettigrew Pettigrew.P@parl.gc.ca

Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management WorkingForest@Victoria1.gov.bc.caCanadian

Canadian Ambassador, Dublin@fait-maeci.gc.ca

Proposed text

To whom it may concern,

I wish to express my strongest opposition to the ‘Working Forest’ initiative proposed by the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management, British Columbia. Public lands should be kept in public hands, not sold to private interests. I also encourage federal negotiators to keep parks and public lands out of the GATS agreement.

Yours sincerely,

PS... Let the decision-makers need to know THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING!

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

On January 22, 2003 the provincial Liberal Government of British Columbia, Canada announced they were giving away 45 million hectares of public lands, half of the landmass of British Columbia, to private corporate interests. This initiative, called the “Working Forest” is the most anti-environmental, regressive legislation in the history of British Columbia.

As some of you already know, I worked in British Columbia from 1993-6 for an end to clearfell logging and to secure indigenous people’s land rights. During this time British Columbia and Canada witnessed its biggest ever mass demonstrations, legal actions, and civil disobedience actions, arrests and convictions of those trying to prevent the destructions of the last of the temperate oldgrowth rainforest of the Pacific Northwest.

Ten years on I am horrified to discover that, following a change in government, and in line with North American globalization efforts the current government is moving beyond the illegal leasing of logging rights to actually sell off the land itself. This will end in the elimination of unique habitat and wildlife, and also fails to address community rights and First Nations’ claims to their traditional lands and resources.

More on BC -the home of the last of the temperate rainforests - the Great Bear Rainforest BC has the last remaining rainforest in the Pacific Northwest and a significant proportion of the world’s remaining temperate rainforest. The rainforests of California, Oregon and Washington states are 95% decimated, as is 50% of the rainforests in southern BC, including Vancouver Island* - all destroyed forever. Also known as the Great Bear Rainforest (GBR), the coastal rainforest extends northwards from the mid-Coast of BC to Alaska, nestled between the Pacific Ocean and the Coastal Mountains, west of the Rocky Mountains. 72% of logging in the Great Bear Rainforest is still done by clearcutting, 85% of salmon-bearing streams are still logged to their banks, and most of the area still remains unprotected.

*Vancouver Island has more than 100 watersheds of which only 7 remain intact and unlogged. 5 of these 7 remaining watersheds are situated on the west coast of the island, in a unique lowland coastal area known as Clayoquot Sound. In 1993/4 Clayoquot Sound was the site of huge local international protests, almost 1500 people were arrested in BC, USA and Europe as tens of thousands protested against a government decision to log Clayoquot. The campaign later extended northwards onto the BC mainland to the Great Bear Rainforest.

WHAT ELSE CAN I DO? Visit all the WEB SITES and publications listed below for more information: Wilderness Comittee.orgSaveOurParks.ca

Write to the Canadian embassy:

The Ambassador, Canadian Embassy, 65 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2

WRITE to BC Premier Campbell and let him know how strongly you feel about keeping public lands in public hands.

Rm. 156, Parliament Bldg Victoria, BC V8V 1X4 Phone: 250 387-1715 Fax: 250 387-0087

Email: premier@gov.bc.ca

WRITE to Federal Trade Minister Pettigrew and let him know how strongly you feel about keeping parks & public lands out of the GATS agreement.

House of Commons Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6 Phone: 613 995-8872 Fax: 613 995-9926 Email: Pettigrew.P@parl.gc.ca Or Submit directly through the online comment form

The official contact information for the Working Forest is below: Mail Address: Working Forest Initiative Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management PO Box 9352 Stn Prov Govt Victoria BC V8W 9M1 Fax: (250) 953-3481 Website: Working Forests Initiative

Email: WorkingForest@Victoria1.gov.bc.ca