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Government warned poor to very poor conditions in
many
of British Columbia’s
Ecological Reserves.
December 5,
2006
Today, in Victoria,
the Friends of Ecological Reserves (FER) released
a report on the state of British
Columbia’s ecological reserves. The
report is based on information derived from Ministry of
Environment (MOE) files and interviews with MOE staff
and volunteer
wardens. It rates the ecological condition and status of
information
of the Province’s 147 ecological reserves. Those reserves
comprise roughly 167,000 hectares of the province. The
report
indicates that one-third of the reserves are in poor to
very poor
condition. A further one quarter of the reserves were
rated as being
in fair condition. Only half of the ecological reserves
have volunteer
wardens who provide information to MOE staff on issues
such
as reserve conditions, trespass, site damage, illegal
logging,
invasive plants etc.
Ecological reserves are meant to be flagships of
conservation
within British Columbia’s
park and protected areas. Most of the
reserves
were established over three decades ago to
preserve representative and special natural ecosystems,
plant and animal species, features and phenomena. They
also provide benchmarks for research and monitoring of
natural ecosystems. The core review of the role of the
MOE
conducted during the Liberals first term in government
identified conservation as a primary Ministry mandate.
This report seeks to put conservation back as a Ministry
priority.
Upon reading the report Bristol Foster, renowned
biologist and
the original
Director of the Ecological Reserves Program,
said “As more people come to recognize the planet
is in real
peril due to human activities, it is more important that
we
protect these tiny fragments of natural British
Columbia.
If we
can not do even that where is the hope for future
generations?”
The report recommends that government work to ensure
that each ecological reserve has a volunteer warden, a
standardized baseline inventory of plants and animals, a
management plan, up to date monitoring information that
is
maintained in a database, and adequate resources for
protection.
The Friends of Ecological Reserves remains committed to
and
supportive of ecological reserves and wishes to work
with the
MOE in a renewed and revitalized ecological reserve
initiative.
Contact:
Mike Fenger,
President of FER
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