When First Nations, government officials and stakeholders celebrated victory on the Great Bear Rainforest Agreement this week they celebrated not only the protection of an enormous amount of old-growth forest in one of North America’s greatest natural treasures, but also the resolution of conflict between parties that 20 years ago, refused to look each other in the eye.

The timber industry may have sacrificed millions of dollars in possible future business to reach a conservation deal, but they maintain that what they gained was much more valuable: relationships with Indigenous people and environmental communities, certainty for their operations, and the freed up time of senior management, which no longer had to deal with a major social licensing problem.

Timber industry stakeholders join environmental representatives, Indigenous leaders, and the B.C. government in welcoming the finalized Great Bear Rainforest agreement on Mon. Feb. 1, 2016. Photo by Andrew S. Wright.

“Foresters, such as those who work for Timber West, other companies or the government,” said Iannidinardo, “are very much content and satisfied to have that clear direction and instruction to balance multiple resources and their ecological integrity, as well as the human well-being components that make management of a resource such as this work.”

Only 15 per cent of the Great Bear Rainforest remains open to commercial logging today, but the timber industry now has assurances that as long as they abide by the rules, no one will come after them with torches and pitchforks. The rules — ‘lighter-touch’ logging or EBM — apply to rainforest that is outside a designated protected area, and are designed to protect cultural and ecological values by determining what must be left intact before deciding where and how much to log.

“It’s really focused on the ability of the commercial forestry to contribute to human well-being,” Armstrong explained. “That’s investments in infrastructure, health, and education in those communities.”

B.C. Premier Christy Clark shakes hands with Coast Forest Products Association president Rick Jeffery and Heiltsuk Tribal Council Chief Marilyn Slett after the landmark Great Bear Rainforest conservation announcement on Mon. Feb. 1, 2016 at the Museum of Anthropology in UBC, Vancouver. Photo by Elizabeth McSheffrey.

From now on, all logging activities in the Great Bear Rainforest must preserve and enhance the forest resources, culture, and livelihood of the Indigenous people who live there. From where Geiger is sitting in Bonn, Germany, the conservation deal looked pretty good:

“The Germans have a very special relation to the forest,” he explained delicately. “Our forests have been managed for 250 years in a sustainable way, but we don’t have primary forests anymore, so these big trees are really a monument.”

He sounded almost wistful reflecting back over the decades of conflict and negotiation, breakdowns and restarts. After all, it had been many, many years since office windows in Bonn were shaking with the vibration of protesters’ chainsaws. Uncomfortable as it may have been, Geiger now appreciates the importance of conflict in catalyzing change:

“The protest of the NGOs,” he said, “… they showed us that there’s something really happening in that extraordinary piece of land there.”

This article is part of a series produced in partnership by National Observer, Tides Canada, Teck, and Vancity to highlight the stories, people, and history behind the Great Bear Rainforest conservation agreements. Tides Canada is supporting this partnership to foster integrated solutions for conservation and human well-being. National Observer has full editorial control and responsibility to ensure stories meet its editorial standards.