In the late 1990s, virtually every valley in the Great Bear Rainforest was slated for road-building and clear-cut logging. Today, two million hectares of the Great Bear are protected from logging. Logging in the remainder of the rainforest will be guided by Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM).

Today, two million hectares of the Great Bear are protected from logging. Logging in the remainder of the rainforest will be guided by a lighter-touch approach, called Ecosystem Based Management (EBM).

EBM is logging that strives to maintain healthy, fully functioning ecosystems as well as vibrant human communities. EBM aims to determine ecological and community requirements before harvest decisions are made.

The first step in EBM is an Ecosystem Spatial Analysis, which gathers information on species within an ecosystem. It focuses especially on the habitat different wildlife species need in order to maintain viable populations, as well as the distribution of representative ecosystems.

Grizzly bears need large swathes of undisturbed habitat and connecting corridors between them. Marbled murrelets (see left)can nest only in old-growth trees. Salmon need pure water and spawning beds clear of silt and debris from logging.

An Ecosystem Spatial Analysis also identifies rare and endangered plants and animals—as well as intact habitat left untouched by resource extraction such as mining or logging, or by human settlement.

EBM offers significantly more conservation measures than provincial environmental legislation and regulations.

In the Great Bear Rainforest, switching to EBM will mean that:

• smaller amounts of cedar and other wood will be removed

• fewer roads will be built

• streams will be afforded more protection

• viable habitats for different species will be maintained

• communities in the Great Bear Rainforest will have input into a new, conservation-based economy that provides long-term livelihoods.

Learn more about the principles and goals of EBM. 
 
As part of the land use announcement in February 2006, it was agreed that all parties would work collaboratively to implement EBM in phases over a three-year period, achieving full implementation by March 31, 2009. This includes the establishment of legal requirements to change logging practices in the region. It also includes development of a regional planning system that recognizes the biological interconnectedness necessary to maintain the forest’s ecological integrity over time.

The B.C. government has committed to legislating changes in logging practices in the Great Bear Rainforest. Full implementation of EBM will occur by March 31, 2009.

The Sierra Club of BC will consider EBM to be successful when ecosystems are guaranteed long-term protection, when resource extraction is sustainable, and when communities in the Great Bear Rainforest benefit socially and economically from conservation economies.

EBM was developed by the Coast Information Team, a group of independent scientists jointly commissioned by government, logging companies, First Nations and environmentalists. Their reports are available on the CIT-website. Each report published by the science team underwent peer review.