Ecosystem Based Management
Ecosystem-Based Management, or ‘lighter-touch’ logging, is a new system of forest management that is applied throughout the Great Bear Rainforest region, outside of Protected Areas. EBM Forestry is an approach that is designed to protect cultural and ecological values, by determining what must be left in the forest before deciding where and how much to log.
EBM implementation is accomplished through various measures, including the legislation of new logging regulations which are designed to protect important values such as biodiversity, aquatic habitats, and First Nations culture and heritage use.
These new logging regulations have resulted in:
- Protection for estuaries, streams, wetlands, and lakes, using increased forest buffers.
- Large portions of grizzly bear habitat will be maintained.
- First Nations cultural features will be protected, and monumental cedar for First Nations will be maintained.
- The amount of old growth forest that can be logged across the landscape, in each watershed, and in each ecosystem type will be restricted; over the entire region 50 percent of the natural level of old growth forest of each ecosystem type will have to be maintained (or restored where forests have been heavily logged). This translates into an additional 700,000 hectares of forest set aside from logging.
A landscape level reserve planning process is also underway to complement the new forestry regulations, by implementing a network of reserves throughout the EBM operating areas. This spatial reserve component is a technical planning effort that includes First Nations, licensees, the Provincial government, and other stakeholders.
Decisions about how EBM is implemented are made by decision making governments through the Government-to-Government Land and Resource Forum, using information gathered through a variety of committees and with input from various stakeholders.
Learn more about Ecosystem-Based Management:
Central and North Coast EBM Implementation
Coast Information Team – Ecosystem-Based Management
