Logging Deferral Implementation Delays in B.C. Continue to Keep Old-Growth Forests at Risk

According to Torrance Coste, the campaign director for the Wilderness Committee, a West Coast conservation group, the B.C. government’s failure to immediately act on the old-growth forest deferrals (announced on November 2) has allowed logging companies to continue to clear cut at-risk old-growth forests previously identified by the government for protection.

Coste’s group has done mapping of the areas to be protected by the at-risk old-growth forest deferrals, and they have identified at least 50,000 hectares — an area four times the size of Vancouver — that is already approved for logging, has approvals pending, or may already be cut down since the deferrals were announced.

In a press statement released on Thursday (12-2-21), Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, said “While chainsaws are still roaring and old-growth forests continue to fall, First Nations must confront multiple, complex challenges around resourcing conservation and safeguarding their livelihoods.”

Phillip added that the province has thrown the problem of old-growth conflict into the laps of Indigenous people and must act urgently to fairly protect forests. “That means immediately deferring logging in at-risk old growth while resourcing communities to pursue permanent protection,” Phillip said.

Coste totally agrees with Phillips and added that that the public should not mistake deferrals with the enduring protection old-growth forests urgently and ultimately need. “Yes, logging deferrals are needed immediately, but they’re not a permanent solution — they’re a tourniquet.”