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Conservancy areas defined on B.C. Coast
by Tom Fletcher - Black Press •
Thursday May 04, 2006 at 04:25 PM
The B.C. government’s new land use plan for the central and north coast began to take shape Monday with the announcement of 24 new “conservancy” areas that allow more economic activity than traditional provincial parks.
prince George Citizen Conservancy areas defined on B.C. Coast By Tom Fletcher
Black Press VICTORIA – The B.C. government’s new land use plan for the central and north coast began to take shape Monday with the announcement of 24 new “conservancy” areas that allow more economic activity than traditional provincial parks.
The protected areas total 541,000 hectares of coastal and inshore island territory, extending from south of Prince Rupert down the Inside Passage. The centrepiece area is the 103,000-hectare Kitasoo Spirit Bear Conservancy on Princess Royal Island. Environment Minister Barry Penner said 85 more conservancies are expected to follow in the vast region, making a total of 1.8 million hectares, an area three times the size of Prince Edward Island. “The new conservancy designation will preserve some of the world’s largest intact temperate rainforests, protecting some of B.C.’s most spectacular landscapes and securing habitat for a number of species, including B.C.’s official mammal, the rare spirit bear,” Penner said. After tabling the legislation to create conservancies in the legislature, Penner was joined by three aboriginal representatives for a news conference. Art Sterritt of Hartley Bay, executive director for Coastal First Nations, said aboriginal communities wanted a new category that is less restrictive than a Class A provincial park. The region has unemployment of up to 90 per cent, and aboriginal groups also needed an agreement that recognizes their rights and title, he said. While commercial logging, mining and power dams are prohibited in conservancies, run-of-river power generation is permitted. Developments such as fishing resorts are allowed, and roads may be built through conservancies to reach resources that lie beyond them. Conservancies can also be used for seeded shellfish beds and other traditional harvesting activities. Commercial fishing and sea-based fish farms will continue as before, subject to existing provincial and federal regulations. Government officials said no existing resorts would be displaced by the new conservancies. While the establishment of protected areas in what environmentalists called the Great Bear Rainforest gained international attention, about two thirds of the central and north coast land use plan area will continue to be available for logging and other industrial development. Agriculture and Lands Minister Pat Bell said developments in the area outside the conservancies will also be worked out in consultation with aboriginal communities, under an as-yet undefined system called “ecosystem-based management.”
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