Canada Just Protected A Rainforest Twice The Size Of Belgium

[tecelote]

Great Bear is one of the last temperate rainforests on the planet.

Environmentalists are hailing the Canadian government's landmark deal to protect 85 percent of the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia from logging and development -- an area more than twice the size of Belgium.

The agreement, struck in partnership with First Nations and logging companies, permanently protects a vast swath of the largest coastal temperate rainforest on Earth. Commercial logging will be permitted in 15 percent of the region, but under a sustainable plan that won't remove more wood from the area than the ecosystem can withstand.

"This is huge, the fact that this isn't just a conservation agreement, that we've integrated the concept of an economy that can sustain itself within an ecosystem,"said Valerie Langer, a director at ForestEthics, one of the leading environmental groups behind the deal. "Our goal was to [figure out] how we were going to shift our economy so we don't destroy what we live in."

The 26 indigenous groups that live within the area were prime negotiators surrounding the terms of the agreement for the Great Bear Rainforest, which is home to many of Canada's unique species, including the spirit bear, a rare sub-species of black bear with white fur.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/great-bear-rainforest-canada_us_56b18b10e4b01d80b2448824