Research Team in Great Bear Rainforest

Representing 1/4 of the world’s remaining coastal temperate rainforest, the Great Bear Rainforest stretches along the mainland coast of British Columbia (B.C.) to the Alaska border, covering an area the size of Switzerland. This largely intact rainforest is tucked amongst majestic mountain fjords creating a cool, misty world with soft carpets of moss and a biomass (weight of organic matter) four times greater than comparable areas in the Amazon jungle. In March '09, after a decade-long campaign, Greenpeace celebrated an enormous success—the government of B.C. announced the implementation of the most comprehensive rainforest conservation plan in North American history for the Great Bear Rainforest. The conservation plan legally protects 2.1 million hectares from logging. New ‘lighter touch’ logging regulations are now a legal requirement, maintaining 50 per cent of the natural level of old growth forest of the region or an additional 700,000 hectares of forest set aside from logging.