Conservation Financing

Conservation financing is needed to support communities in the large-scale protection of ancient forests and other endangered ecosystems while developing sustainable economic alternatives to old-growth logging. Read on below to find out more.

Why is Conservation Financing Necessary? Recent Campaign Progress What Funding is Still Needed? History & Success in BC

What Is Conservation Financing?

Conservation financing is a broad umbrella term used to describe the practice of raising and managing funds to support parties, groups, and activities that steward and protect nature. This term has become increasingly important following international negotiations (COP27 and COP15) that highlighted the urgency around addressing the global funding shortage needed to conserve biodiversity and mitigate the extinction and climate crisis.

Approaches vary from region to region and are often based on geographically specific environmental challenges and socio-political contexts.

In alignment with the group Coast Funds and its approach, we define conservation financing as “an economic model that helps communities, especially First Nations, fund the capacity, stewardship, and management of new protected areas initiatives, including [Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)].”

This approach works to create prosperity for both people and old-growth ecosystems by helping to build economies where endangered old-growth forests are worth more standing.

The aim is also to work to provide conservation funding to help Indigenous sustainable economic development and diversification linked to new protected areas, such as in tourism, clean energy, sustainable seafood, non-timber forest products (e.g. wild mushrooms), value-added second-growth forestry, carbon offsets, and more. Conservation financing funds can also be used for important infrastructure, health, education, and housing projects.

Why is Conservation Financing Necessary?

In BC, successive court rulings regarding the governing authority of First Nations on land-use changes in their territory mean that the provincial government cannot unilaterally “just save the old-growth” without the support of the local First Nations. First Nations support and consent is also a legal necessity for the province to establish any new legislated protected areas in their unceded territories, such as to protect old-growth forests.

The province has also taken a position that First Nations support is necessary for any temporary deferrals (pauses) on logging in their territories. We have heard from several First Nations that this is an important step to creating the goodwill needed for future negotiations over subsequent potential legislated protected areas in their territories.

However, many or most First Nations have an economic dependency on timber industry jobs and revenues in their territories, including in old-growth logging — a dependency facilitated and fostered by successive BC governments.

To ensure that logging deferrals and subsequent new protected areas are economically feasible for communities, both short- and long-term funding must be provided to First Nations to help offset lost logging revenues, create land-use plans, develop stewardship and guardians programs, and, most importantly, transition to more sustainable and prosperous economies built around businesses such as tourism, sustainable seafood, clean energy, non-timber forest products like wild mushrooms, value-added second-growth forestry, etc.

Recent Campaign Progress

After years of effort by the Ancient Forest Alliance and Endangered Ecosystems Alliance — the two groups who in 2017 spearheaded and then drove forward the call for conservation financing — major conservation funding packages arrived in 2023 from the provincial and federal governments with support from the private and philanthropic sectors as well.

The $1.1 billion BC Nature Agreement was announced in November 2023, a tripartite agreement between the provincial and federal governments and the First Nations Leadership Council. This fund, which will continue to grow over time, will be used to support First Nations to establish Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) and conservation initiatives, endangered species recovery, compensation of resource licensees, and habitat restoration, with a central mandate to achieve the 30% by 2030 protection target of BC in line with Canada’s national protection target. This is the largest provincial funding package for nature conservation in Canadian history!

A subset of the Nature Agreement includes the $100 million BC Old-Growth Fund (soon to grow to $164 million) which is mandated to protect the most at-risk old-growth forests (i.e. grandest, rarest, and oldest stands) in the Coastal and Inland Rainforests, and the Coastal Douglas-fir biogeoclimatic zone. These are the regions you typically see featured in all of our photos with big trees. This approach is akin to ecosystem-based targets and includes a goal of protecting 400,000 hectares to 1.3 million hectares of the “biggest and best” old-growth forests by supporting First Nations conservation initiatives.

A $300 million Conservation Financing Mechanism was also announced in October 2023 by the provincial government under the leadership of Premier David Eby. The indispensable fund will “fuel” or power the creation of new protected areas by supporting First Nations protected areas initiatives and will continue to grow over time with additional federal, provincial, and private funds. Importantly, this is the only funding package which can be directed toward “building a low carbon economy.” This means supporting First Nations sustainable economic alternatives in ecotourism, clean energy, sustainable seafood, non-timber forest products (eg. wild mushrooms), and other industries, linked to the establishment of new protected areas. We give great thanks to Premier Eby for fulfilling this key commitment!

Lastly, in 2022, the province committed $185 million over three years for forestry workers and contractors, industry, communities, and First Nations to adapt and respond to the impacts of the recommended deferral of 2.6 million hectares of the most at-risk old-growth forests as identified by the province’s own independent science panel, the Technical Advisory Panel (TAP).

BC Nature Agreement Nov 2023

What Conservation Funding is Still Needed?

Despite the announcement of more than a billion dollars in conservation financing to support the long-term protection of ecosystems, there is still no funding available to support the deferral of logging in old-growth forests in the short term. This is the biggest conservation gap that must be closed.

Therefore, we’re calling on the BC government to provide an estimated $120+ million in deferral or “solutions space” funding for First Nations communities to offset any lost revenues from accepting logging deferrals in the most at-risk old growth stands in their territories. The province must provide these funds immediately if these vital deferrals are to be secured for the full 2.6 million hectares of the most at-risk old-growth forests (currently 1.3 million or roughly half the deferrals have been agreed upon by First Nations).

These funds can be tied to stewardship and Indigenous Guardians’ jobs, Indigenous land-use planning initiatives to develop new protected areas, and longer-term investment in sustainable businesses congruent with new Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas.

Governments must also ensure that a greater portion of the conservation financing streams goes to support economic funding for Indigenous-owned sustainable businesses linked to new protected areas, as alternatives to economic dependency on old-growth timber revenues and jobs.

Importantly, when developing new protected areas to achieve conservation commitments, such as protecting 30% of the land area in BC by 2030, the province must link conservation funding to “ecosystem-based protection targets” for all types of ecosystems that include forest productivity distinctions. These targets would be set by science and informed by traditional ecological knowledge and used to prioritize the protection of the most at-risk ecosystems (i.e. valley bottom, big tree old-growth) versus lower productivity ecosystems (i.e. alpine, bog, glaciers) that have been traditionally favoured for protection because of their limited value to the industry.

Despite the announcement of more than a billion dollars in conservation financing to support the long-term protection of ecosystems, there is still no funding available to support the deferral of logging in old-growth forests in the short term. This is the biggest conservation gap that must be closed.

Therefore, we’re calling on the BC government to provide an estimated $120+ million in deferral or “solutions space” funding for First Nations communities to offset any lost revenues from accepting logging deferrals in the most at-risk old growth stands in their territories. The province must provide these funds immediately if these vital deferrals are to be secured for the full 2.6 million hectares of the most at-risk old-growth forests (currently 1.3 million or roughly half the deferrals have been agreed upon by First Nations).

These funds can be tied to stewardship and Indigenous Guardians’ jobs, Indigenous land-use planning initiatives to develop new protected areas, and longer-term investment in sustainable businesses congruent with new Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas.

Governments must also ensure that a greater portion of the conservation financing streams goes to support economic funding for Indigenous-owned sustainable businesses linked to new protected areas, as alternatives to economic dependency on old-growth timber revenues and jobs.

Importantly, when developing new protected areas to achieve conservation commitments, such as protecting 30% of the land area in BC by 2030, the province must link conservation funding to “ecosystem-based protection targets” for all types of ecosystems that include forest productivity distinctions. These targets would be set by science and informed by traditional ecological knowledge and used to prioritize the protection of the most at-risk ecosystems (i.e. valley bottom, big tree old-growth) versus lower productivity ecosystems (i.e. alpine, bog, glaciers) that have been traditionally favoured for protection because of their limited value to the industry.

History & Success of Conservation Financing in BC

When conservation financing was first introduced in the Great Bear Rainforest as a way to help First Nations diversify their economy, it was met with skepticism. Nothing like this had been done before in Canada, but economic alternatives to old-growth logging were necessary for communities to embrace ambitious new protected area plans. Many First Nations communities were torn between a desire to protect the environment, and the need for jobs and economic development in their remote communities.

In the case of the Great Bear Rainforest, a specific fund was set up — Coast Funds — with $120 million sourced half from private donors and half from the BC and federal governments. The money was split into two sub-funds: Coast Conservation Endowment Fund and Coast Economic Development Fund. The money was earmarked for building stewardship capacity and for new investments supporting innovative and sustainable new businesses in First Nations communities.

It turned out to be a major success.

In the 16 years since this conservation financing model was introduced, it has generated over 1,200 First Nations jobs and supported over 100 Indigenous-owned businesses in the Great Bear Rainforest on the Central and North Coast of BC and in Haida Gwaii, raising the average household income in some communities by $20,000 per year and infusing $63 million into local communities as salaries. These incredible economic gains have come hand in hand with a vast expansion of old-growth protection, with over 50% of Haida Gwaii now in legislated protected areas and 80% of old-growth forest in the Great Bear Rainforest off limits to logging. A similar initiative is underway in Clayoquot Sound. These stories demonstrate that conservation financing enables communities to protect ecosystems and develop their economies simultaneously.

Recent projects benefiting from conservation financing

The Ahousaht First Nation in Clayoquot Sound, for example, has used conservation financing to help drive forward their ambitious Land-Use Vision, which calls for the protection of over 80% of their territory, including the majority of old-growth forests. They used this funding to help launch Indigenous-owned and operated sustainable businesses such as Ahous Adventures, offering eco-cultural adventure tours near Tofino.

The Mowachaht-Muchalaht First Nation near Gold River also recently received a $15.2-million commitment from the federal government to help fund their ambitious Salmon Parks initiative as well, a project that Ancient Forest Alliance continues to support alongside our partners at the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance and the Nature-Based Solutions Foundation.

Take Action

The progress we’ve seen wouldn’t have happened without the tens of thousands of citizens speaking up. Will you help us push the provincial and federal governments to finish the job on funding? Send an instant message to decision-makers below!

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