Conservation

Vancouver Island presents one of the best conservation opportunities in the world. At the current rate of industrial logging on Vancouver Island, there will be simply no options for protecting any more significant tracts of ancient forests on the Island within a couple of decades. As of 2005, only one-fourth of the original ancient forests of Vancouver Island remain - the other three-fourths have been logged off and largely converted into second and third-growth tree plantations that generally lack the old-growth dependent species of the original forests.

Currently, 13% of Vancouver Island’s land base is protected. However, that only translates into 6% of the Island’s low elevation, productive big-tree forests. Much of our protected lands are alpine tundra, subalpine forests, and coastal bog forests. While those ecosystems are important, it’s a simple fact that the low elevation productive forests are where most of the Island’s biodiversity lives, where most of the big trees grow, and where industrial development is the greatest threat.

The Vancouver Island Conservation Vision proposes 41% of Vancouver Island be fully protected from development. This is about the same percentage of land that conservation biologists have recommended be protected province-wide.