Tracking the Great Bear
How Environmentalists Recreated British Columbia’s Coastal Rainforest
A detailed and conceptually rich account of how a landmark agreement was reached to save the Great Bear Rainforest.
Description
Encompassing millions of hectares of globally rare coastal rainforest, the Great Bear Rainforest in coastal British Columbia is home to ancient trees, rich runs of salmon, and abundant species. The area also supports small human communities, particularly First Nations. Once slated for clearcut logging, large areas were protected in 2006 by the signing of one of the world’s most innovative conservation agreements. This book provides a detailed account of the complex and contested process that resulted in the establishment of the GBR. It also shows how environmentalists’ deployment of a powerful actor network saved the area from status quo industrial forestry while still respecting First Nations’ right to economic development.
Reviews
This is an extremely important book, not only for explaining how collaboration has been achieved at a regional scale in mid- and north BC, but also as a symbol and example of what is possible in seemingly intractable conservation “stand-offs.” It will repay study by students of environmental history and by all involved in that wide-reaching, all-encompassing field of environmental politics.
- Ken Atkinson, University of York St John