The forest industry has been a crucial part of British Columbia's economy for a very long time. Up until the 1970s, it was widely claimed that 50% of every dollar spent in BC was generated by the forest industry (from textbook, Farley 1972, 87). Today, this industry still remains the backbone of the economy of the Province as well as its individual communities and the regions. In 1993, the British Columbia Roundtable found that "94,000 British Columbians were directly employed in the forest sector and that the livelihoods of as many as 140,000 more depended largely on the forest sector" (p.43). Unfortunately, the emergence of sophisticated technologies and rules encouraging overharvesting has led to many conflicts and crisis in the forest industry. For many years, opposing views and interests have been creating a climate of uncertainty in the whole industry.
What are the main issues concerning forest harvesting in British Columbia and why are there different views about it? What are these opposing views and who is advocating them? Is it possible to reach a consensus or to find a long-lasting balance between these divergent interests?
[...] At the beginning of the 1990s, some environmental organizations such as Greenpeace (founded in Vancouver in 1972) expressed its concern regarding the forests on Vancouver Island. They started to develop international campaigns to warn people about the dangers of forest harvesting for the environment. These campaigns, which denounced the forest policy in British Columbia, were particularly active in the United States, Canada and Europe (Germany, United Kingdom). Their goal was to compel the consumers to stop buying forest products from the coastal rainforest of British Columbia. [...]
[...] Opposing views about forest harvesting in British Columbia, Canada The forest industry has been a crucial part of British Columbia's economy for a very long time. Up until the 1970s, it was widely claimed that 50% of every dollar spent in BC was generated by the forest industry (from textbook, Farley 1972, 87). Today, this industry still remains the backbone of the economy of the Province as well as its individual communities and the regions. In 1993, the British Columbia Roundtable found that “94,000 British Columbians were directly employed in the forest sector and that the livelihoods of as many as 140,000 more depended largely on the forest sector” (p.43). [...]
[...] Yet, I am aware that the issue is not as straightforward and that this could have important economic and social impacts, on employment for example. An idea is to develop other sectors to be more environmentally friendly, such as eco-tourism, to replace forest harvesting. Overall, forest harvesting in British Columbia is a very controversial issue, which opposes several groups of interests, such as the forest companies and the environmental NGOs. Although the conflict between these different groups seems to have gradually reached a consensus, many tensions persist. Although many efforts have [...]
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