In a move applauded by environmental groups, the BC government has adopted all of the Clayoquot Scientific Panel's forest management recommendations. This will mean key changes to the way forests are managed in Clayoquot Sound, including:
Work will begin immediately on watershed assessments and biological monitoring programs. The 19-member international scientific panel was appointed by the BC government in 1993 to develop world-class sustainable forest practices for Clayoquot Sound's unique characteristics, based on the best scientific knowledge available.
With the tabling of Bill 53 - the Park Amendment Act on July 4, 106 protected areas in BC totaling nearly 2.4 million hectares were permanently protected as Class A provincial parks.
The amended Park Act increases the amount of land to be protected to 7,300,000 hectares, and will further increase this amount to 10,000,000 hectares of protected land in BC by the year 2000.
The 6th annual Save the Strait fundraising water marathon will take place August 11, 12 and 13, 1995. There will be 3 routes of varying length, all departing from and returning to Rathtrevor Beach in Parksville: to Lasqueti Island and back - 16 miles; down Nanoose Peninsula and back - 10 miles; and, to Jedediah Island and back - 22 miles. Jedediah Island is BC's newest provincial park.
Participants travel the routes under human power: they swim, row, paddle, pedal, wind-surf, scuba, or any combination thereof. Marathoners can go solo, in teams, or relay-style. To quote the marathon brochure: "The marathon brings people together from around Georgia Strait to celebrate their love for coastal waters and to increase public awareness of the need to protect, preserve and restore Georgia Strait's ecosystem."
Marathon day is August 12th, with check in and a mandatory attendance briefing on the 11th, and a breakfast and Englishman River Estuary walk on the 13th. Participation costs $100, which is refundable if $400 in pledges is brought in. There is a sliding scale for teams. The participation price includes a T-shirt, camping, meals and a dance.
For information contact Eleanor Taylor of the Save Georgia Strait Alliance, 201 - 195 Commercial St., Nanaimo, BC, V9R 5G5 (604) 753-3459, (604) 753-2567 fax.
In a marathon weekend, two West Coast staffers and a large dog traveled to the Nelson/Kootenay Lake area last week to meet with two EDRF applicants.
EDRF liaison lawyer Patricia Houlihan and WCELA system administrator Chris Heald logged well over 1,500 kilometers in three days of driving. They left Vancouver on Friday, July 7, and after many animal-related delays - it was the dog's first major road trip, and a moose sideswiped the car between Christina Lake and Castlegar (neither the moose nor the car was hurt) - they arrived in Nelson twelve hours later and eventually found a place to camp.
After a short night, on Saturday morning they met with Gladys McIntyre, founding director of the Applied Ecological Stewardship of BC, who took them to see a stand of old-growth forest known as the Singing Forest. Gladys is seeking protection from logging of the Singing Forest, based on its spiritual value, its age, its scarcity in the region, and its contribution to biodiversity. She is currently negotiating with the Ministry of Forests and the logging company.
Gladys lives without power or running water in a glass-roofed house built by herself and her partner. The couple runs an organic mountain farm, using horse-drawn ploughs. Gladys has to travel several kilometers just to use a telephone. She has been almost single-handedly running and funding the campaign to save the Forest.
The Singing Forest, highlighted recently in a W5 report, is located 60 k north of Argenta, near the junction of Howser and Tenise Creeks. Seeking protection based on spiritual value could have important consequences. The provincial government has already protected areas of spiritual value to First Nations. If successful, this would be the first time an area was protected on the basis of non First Nation spiritual values.
Chris and Patricia later met with John Beerbower, at his home in Queens Bay. John represents the Queens Bay Residents' Association, which is evaluating the effects of logging in the Kootenay Lake area, and participating in the region's forestry planning process in conjunction with the Ministry of Forests and the logging company. John has previously worked with WCELA in the CORE process.
Patricia and John discussed issues raised in the Residents' Association's application to the EDRF. Chris introduced John to ELIB and they discussed how to best use the Internet for information-gathering for environmental concerns. After spending the night at John's house, Patricia and Chris drove back to Vancouver early Sunday morning. The return trip proved to be restful in its uneventfulness, since there were no close encounters with moose, and by then the dog was somewhat accustomed to road travel. WCELA hopes to have representatives meet with clients on a more regular basis.
- Christopher Heald
What does the Clayoquot Sound Scientific Panel Report have to
do with international law? A lot! By tying its recommendations
to commitments made by governments at the international level,
the Panel has shown the influence that international law can have
on local resource management issues.
Report Four of the Scientific Panel for Sustainable Forest Practices in Clayoquot Sound is titled "Vision and its Context: Global Context for Forest Practices in Clayoquot Sound." This report, one of five that the Panel has issued, reviews international agreements on forestry and the environment, and describes how the Scientific Panel's work explicitly incorporates the principles of recent international agreements and expresses them as specific actions.
This report is a fascinating example of how international law is translated at the local level. Far too often, international agreements are negotiated by diplomats and heads of state, while ignored by local policy makers. There are many reasons why the BC provincial government is to be congratulated for implementing the recommendations of the Clayoquot Sound Scientific Panel Report - respecting the international concern for forests in which Canada has played such a large part is one of those reasons.
The report begins with a review of how forest values have changed over time, and then goes on to describe recent international agreements that seek to improve forest practices to reflect those changing values. At the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, four agree-ments were reached concerning forests:
As the Panel notes "these documents are a major step in translating global concern for sustainable development into collective local action." Of the four agreements, the most relevant for Clayoquot Sound is the Guiding Principles on Forests (a substitute for the Forest Convention which nations could not agree to sign). The Scientific Panel Report picks out several of these principles directly relevant to its mandate, including:
The Panel also examines the international efforts related to certification of sustainably managed forests. A number of efforts are currently underway, the most prominent (from an environmental viewpoint) being the Forest Stewardship Council. The Council is primarily composed of social, environmental and indigenous organizations, rather than the forest industry groups dominant in other certification processes.
Canada played a major role in the negotiation of all these international agreements, and is committed to acting on these commitments at all levels of government. The UN Commission on Sustainable Development will examine progress made by nations on translating these international commitments into action (see WCEL Newsletter 19:01).
The Clayoquot Sound Scientific Panel has accomplished a difficult task with admirable skill - they have "thought globally" and "acted locally." The Panel has demonstrated that international law can and does affect local resource management - a valuable lesson for policy makers and the public.
- Linda Nowlan
On August 1st, British Columbia's Class Proceedings Act comes into force. A key benefit of new Act is that it has the potential to facilitate claims which might not otherwise go forward.
In a situation where many people have suffered the same wrong, but it is not economically feasible for any one of them to bring a claim, (either because the claim is relatively small or because of the prohibitive cost of litigation), the Class Proceedings Act allows two or more people to come together in one action. The claim is then carried forward by a "representative plaintiff" who is able to "fairly and adequately represent the interests of the class," has a plan for advancing the proceeding on the part of the class, and doesn't have conflicting interests with other class members on common issues (s.4(e)).
In other jurisdictions, for example, claims brought by "all" women who had similar silicone breast implants have been certified as class proceedings. Members of a class must be notified that a proceeding has been certified, and may also opt out of the proceeding.
One difficulty in using the Class Proceedings Act in an environmental context, such as seeking redress for health effects resulting from exposure to pesticides, is to show that the claims of all the individuals involved raises common issues.
For example, was the time frame for exposure similar? Were all people exposed to the same chemicals? Was the state of knowledge about the pesticide the same when exposure occurred for different people?
On the other hand, unlike some class proceedings acts, the BC legislation clearly stipulates that as long as people's claims raise common issues, it does not matter whether these common issues "predominate over issues affecting only individual members" (s.4(c)).
The Class Proceedings Act has the potential to be an important tool in advancing environmental claims - it remains to be seen how this potential plays itself out.
- Jessica Clogg
The Queen's Printer for BC has asked WCELRF to resume negotiations toward a licence agreement regarding the use of BC statutes on the Environmental Legal Information Base (ELIB). The negotiations have been dormant since October of 1994, when nine months of negotiations toward a licence agreement fizzled out.
On December 31, 1993, the Queen's Printer responded to WCELRF's request for permission to put ASCII (plain text) copies of BC statutes in ELIB, by stating that, "the policy of this government is that the Province wants to ensure ... that public access to legislative material, to the greatest extent possible, is provided." It continued, "since WCELRF is a non-profit organization and provides general public access to environmental information, the Government of British Columbia would like to assist you and is prepared to license, on a non-exclusive basis, the right to access and use certain government information."
The Queen's Printer also specified that "the two key conditions of this license agreement" would be that disclaimers be included and that the statutes not be modified before distribution.
Subsequently, the Queen's Printer introduced additional demands, such as that WCELRF pay $20 per statute, that the Province could unilaterally cancel the agreement and not pay back the fee, and that WCELRF indemnify the Province against any legal actions.
In a response to the Queen's Printer's latest interest in this issue, WCELRF has proposed a simple non-exclusive licence agreement in which the Province would provide copyright permission in exchange for the service of making the statutes publicly available.
In its response, WCELRF noted that it would prefer to see the Government itself put the statutes on the World Wide Web. The Queen's Printer does have an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) site on the Internet containing bills and other legislative information but not the Revised Statutes of British Columbia.
The Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks would like to put both its Statutes and Regulations on the Internet, but has not yet been able to obtain agreement from the Queen's Printer.
However, as noted in a recent newsletter article of June 29, the Ministry of Forests has recently posted the Forest Practices Code Act, Regulations and Guidelines on its WWW site.
- Bill Andrews
The WCEL organizations are all non-profit and independent. We rely on donations and memberships to support our work. For $20 a year, you can become a member and receive the bi-weekly WCEL NEWS. For a donation of any amount we will send you a tax-creditable receipt. You can also specify that your United Way donation come to West Coast. Please support this important work and invest in environmental protection. Send your membership or donation to:
WCELRF, 1001 207 West Hastings, Vancouver, BC, V6B 1H7, Canada. Phone (604) 6847378; fax (604) 6841312; email wcelrf@unixg.ubc.ca. Printed on 100% recycled paper (not secondarily bleached or de-inked).
WCELRF Newsletter (ISSN #0715-4275), copyright 1995, is
published by the West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation
and represents the work of the West Coast Environmental Law Groups.
West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation (WCELRF) does
research and education and maintains an environmental law library.
West Coast Environmental Law Association (WCELA) provides legal
representation and promotes law reform. The West Coast Environmental
Dispute Resolution Fund Society (WCEDRFS) provides assistance
and funding to citizens to help solve environmental problems in
their communities. The mission of the West Coast Environmental
Law groups is to provide legal services to protect the environment
and to foster public participation in environmental decision-making.
We are grateful to the Law Foundation of British Columbia for
core funding of the West Coast Environmental Law groups. Donations
to West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation and West Coast
Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund Society are tax creditable.
This issue was produced by Mary Abbott, Bill Andrews, Morgan
Ashbridge, Jessica Clogg, Chris Heald, Ann Hillyer, Patricia Houlihan,
Ted Lewko, Catherine Ludgate, Lisa McBain, Alexandra Melnyk, and
Linda Nowlan.