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The NDP government made good on a high-profile election promise Monday by announcing a B.C.-wide ban on the trophy hunting of grizzly bears, while allowing hunting to continue for meat.

Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development Doug Donaldson told a news conference that grizzly trophy hunting is “not a socially acceptable practice in 2017” and encouraged wilderness operators to look instead to the economics of bear viewing.

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Effective Nov. 30, 2017, the province pledges to “end grizzly bear trophy hunting throughout the province and stop all hunting of grizzlies in the Great Bear Rainforest,” Donaldson said. The timing of the ban allows hunts already scheduled for this fall to continue.

While the grizzly trophy hunt will end, hunting for meat may continue outside the Great Bear Rainforest.

The province will close “loopholes” by forbidding a meat hunter from possessing the paws, head, and hide of a grizzly to ensure trophy hunts are not conducted under the guise of a meat hunt, he added.