The Western Canadian province relies on Old Growth Management Areas (OGMAs) as a method of accounting towards its commitment to protect 30% of lands by 2030, but an environmental non-profit reported Monday that BC’s OGMAs do not meet Canadian or international conservation standards, do not entirely contain old forest, and are at risk of logging.

The British Columbia chapter of environmental non-profit Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS BC) found that less than one third of BC’s 1.87 million hectares of legal OGMAs are composed of old forest.

“The majority (58%) of legal OGMAs by area are young forest,” the CPAWS BC report noted.

“When broken down into individual OGMAs, 37% of the approximately 22,000 legal OGMAs in BC do not contain any old forest.”

The report also flagged significant vulnerability to logging as active cutblocks – areas of land approved for harvest – overlap 27,300 hectares of legal OGMAs in the province.

“The small proportion of old growth captured in OGMAs, as well as OGMAs capturing non-forested areas, minimises their effectiveness – both in facilitating biodiversity conservation and protecting old growth.”

OGMAS AT ODDS

In Dec. 2022, BC committed to the global 30 by 30 movement in an effort to halt biodiversity loss and mitigate climate change.

The BC government accounting notes that 19.6% of BC is currently protected, and 4.1% of these currently protected lands include OGMAs, the report noted.

But CPAWS BC, alongside environmental advocacy group Ecojustice, has flagged as early as 2022 that OGMAs do not meet Canadian or international standards for areas that provide biodiversity conservation outside of formal protected areas, known as Other Effective Conservation Measures (OECM).

“OGMAs have been criticised by multiple independent reports for their shifting boundaries, allowance of timber harvesting and road construction, and lack of management,” the report read.

“With no formal, consistent monitoring programme, it is impossible to know how compliant the areas are with the regulations or whether they meet the results they’re intended to achieve.”

CPAWS BC also highlighted Justice Buke of the BC Supreme Court’s July 2021 concerns about OGMAs’ ability to protect biodiversity.

The report further detailed examples of how legal OGMAs can be amended to allow boundary changes and incursions such as logging and road building.

In the Campbell River Resource District, largely located on Vancouver Island, many of the areas removed as OGMAs have now been harvested, the report found.

CPAWS BC recommended not counting OGMAs towards protected area targets unless they are improved to meet OECM criteria.

Specific actions include the amendment of OGMA guidelines to ensure effective protection of old growth forests and biodiversity, conducting a provincial review of OGMAs, and reforming laws and regulations to ensure protection from further boundary changes and industrial activity.

By Allison Gacad – allison@carbon-pulse.com

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