FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UNCEDED xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (MUSQUEAM), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (SQUAMISH) AND səlilwətaɬ (TSLEIL-WAUTUTH) TERRITORIES/VANCOUVER – Five years since the release of the independent Old Growth Strategic Review (OGSR) Report, 88 diverse groups, together with the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, are sounding the alarm about BC’s lack of progress on one of the Report’s key recommendations: enacting a new law for biodiversity and ecosystem health. 

The groups released an open letter today, previously sent to the Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship in March 2025, which calls on the government to deliver on its stated commitment to prioritize biodiversity and ecosystem health in all government decision-making across all sectors and to legislate this priority. Frustration with BC’s inaction prompted today’s release.

Fast-tracking resource projects without a plan for establishing a safe ecological “container” for development would be a dangerous mistake, say the groups, who urge BC to move forward on implementing the draft Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework and law as part of efforts to bolster the strength and resilience of BC’s economy.

“Implementation of the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework and law is an essential environmental guardrail needed for good projects to move forward in a way everyone can support,” said Jessica Clogg, Executive Director and Senior Counsel at West Coast Environmental Law. “Instead, BC rammed through Bills 14 and 15, raising concerns that environmental safeguards will be circumvented to fast-track projects, while their promise to develop a biodiversity and ecosystem health law languishes in the doldrums.”

The paradigm shift BC needs for a more resilient forest sector and resource economy was laid out in the OGSR recommendations, which BC has committed to implement “in full.” In the 2023 draft Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework, BC committed to co-develop the new law in partnership with First Nations, recognizing that First Nations have stewarded their territories for millennia and have inherent rights, interests and connections to their lands and waters.

“By fast-tracking resource projects without delivering on its commitment to co-develop a biodiversity and ecosystem health law with First Nations, BC is setting the stage for escalating resource conflict and unacceptable impacts on inherent rights and First Nations’ territories,” said Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs. “This approach is not consistent with the government’s stated commitment to align BC’s laws with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”

Fast-tracking natural resource projects in the absence of a biodiversity and ecosystem health law also risks adversely impacting businesses in BC’s tourism industry.

According to Kathy MacRae, President for the Wilderness Tourism Association: “Tourism is a cornerstone of BC’s economy, generating $22.1 billion in revenue annually and contributing $9.7 billion to provincial GDP. In 2023, tourism’s GDP contribution was greater than all other resource industries. Within that, BC’s adventure and wilderness travel sector accounts for approximately $3 billion in direct annual visitor spending. The sector’s success depends on healthy, intact ecosystems; accelerating natural-resource projects without appropriate ecological safeguards risks undermining the very assets tourism relies on.”

Other groups expressed concern that the government’s unfulfilled promise to finalize and implement the draft Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework is leading to further and rapid loss of old growth forests and their attendant species.

“The Esquimalt United Church Justice Team had great hopes when the draft version of the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health (BEH) Framework was released,” said Susan Gage on behalf of the Esquimalt United Church Justice Team. “It heralded a real reset of land-management priorities from resource extraction to proactive conservation and management of ecosystem health. So it’s disappointing that this document remains in draft form, while old growth forests and the species that inhabit them are fast disappearing.”

Elder Bill Jones from Elders for Ancient Trees added: “I wish I didn’t have to sound so critical, but five years after the Old Growth Strategic Review, so little has changed. The government talks and talks about protecting forests, but it feels like lip service. Old growth is still being logged, and people like us are left fighting in the courts just to defend what should already be safe. These forests aren’t just trees—they give us clean water and healthy air. Instead of making us battle for the old growth, the government should be stepping up to protect the ecosystems, not propping up industry. We have to start expressing our bitterness in our votes. These forests keep us all safe and well now, and in the future.”

On the fifth anniversary of the Old Growth Strategic Review, the 88 signatories, together with the Union of BC Indian Chiefs are renewing their call for BC to finalize the draft Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework and co-develop a corresponding law with First Nations. This would ensure resource development moves forward within a clear ecological framework, creating certainty for communities, First Nations, industry and future generations.

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