Implementation challenges : ecosystem based management on the North Central Coast of British Columbia

• Main Author: Harvey, Amanda
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Sustainable resource development; Coastal temperate rainforest; Great Bear Rainforest; Land use planning; Protected areas; First Nations
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/42715

Ecosystem based management is the holistic management framework being used on a portion of British Columbia’s North Central Coast that has come to be known as the Great Bear Rainforest. The Great Bear Rainforest arose from tensions between forest companies extracting timber in the region and environmentalists concerned with conservation as well as land use planning disagreements between the Government of British Columbia and local First Nations. Ecosystem based management seeks to develop timber resources in this coastal temperate rainforest in a sustainable manner by implementing new regulations and increasing protected areas; it further seeks to achieve high levels of human wellbeing for residents of the region. With these new timber development regulations came a host of implementation challenges due to a lack of primary data and clarity. These implementation challenges include the integration and interaction of social, economic and ecological concerns in the region; planning challenges include the integration of multiple scales of planning to meet objectives at varying levels; and mapping challenges include the availability and source of primary mapping data used to create the implementation guidelines in the regulations. Forestry, Faculty of Unreviewed Undergraduate