In this series of columns, I am exploring the UN鈥檚 call for humanity to make peace with nature. Last week, I noted that B.C.鈥檚 颅government is failing to act, or is taking inadequate action, on climate change.
This week, I look at B.C.鈥檚 continuing war on nature, focusing on the second of three global ecological crises noted in the UN report 鈥� biodiversity loss. But I also look at its failure to address the wider economic, social and other transformations needed if we are to make peace with nature.
In a May 2021 biodiversity report card, Ecojustice and the Wilderness Committee described B.C. as 鈥渁 鈥榩oster child鈥� for the biodiversity crisis 鈥� it has the richest 颅biodiversity in Canada, but also the highest number of species at risk.鈥�
In fact, the B.C. government鈥檚 2021 update to its Red and Blue List found 782聽ecological communities, native species and 颅subspecies in B.C. are at the greatest risk of being lost (Red List) and a further 1,141 on the Blue List that are 鈥渙f special concern鈥� 颅(vulnerable).
Yet the government reneged on Premier John Horgan鈥檚 2017 commitment to bring in a Species At Risk Act. As a result, B.C. is 鈥渙ne of the few remaining provinces without a stand-alone law to protect at-risk species and the habitat they need to survive and recover,鈥� the biodiversity report card notes. This was one of the four out of five areas considered in the report where B.C. earned an 鈥淔鈥� grade.
And then, of course, we have the B.C. government鈥檚 failure to implement the 颅recommendations of the Old Growth 颅Strategic Review and put in place a 颅moratorium on the cutting of the tiny 颅fraction 鈥� about three per cent, according to a May 2021 report from three 颅independent forest-management experts 鈥� of the 颅high-quality old-growth big-tree forests in B.C.
Also in May, the Wilderness Committee released a report based on publicly 颅available data showing a 43 per cent increase in 颅cutblock approvals in the year following the government鈥檚 receipt of the Old Growth Strategic Review. Moreover, 鈥渆ighty per cent of this logging was concentrated in the medium and higher productivity forests.鈥�
In an article on the old-growth issue in The Tyee in June, Michael M鈥橤onigle 鈥� who, among other things, held the eco-research chair in environmental law and policy at the University of Victoria 鈥� was blunt: 颅鈥淗organ鈥檚 government of New Democrats shows no will to take up the struggle. It is incredible that, as biodiversity collapses globally and locally, no substantive 颅discussion exists of what a transformation away from [the] inherited political economy might look like.鈥�
The inherited political economy he refers to is rooted in a 19th- and 20th-century 颅worldview, an industrial society and economy that treats nature and people as a resource to be exploited in the pursuit of continued economic growth.
I agree with M鈥橤onigle that the 颅fundamental problem is that the NDP, like the Liberals and Conservatives to its right, is still rooted in this worldview. From that perspective, what matters is jobs and money 鈥� and votes 鈥� today, with no sense of 颅long-term responsibility. The only real difference between the parties is about how equitably the spoils and the power are divided.
But the UN Environment Programme is very clear, in its February 2021 report 颅Making Peace with Nature, that 颅鈥渆conomic and financial systems can and should be transformed.鈥� Specifically, the report 颅suggests ditching GDP, noting that: 颅鈥淵ardsticks such as inclusive wealth (the sum of produced, natural, human and social capital) provide a better basis for 颅investment decisions.鈥�
This is another example of where the NDP could and should have led in the shift to making peace with rather than war on nature 鈥� and failed to do so. Its formal agreement with the Green Party in 2017 set up a work group to look at developing an alternative to GDP for B.C., but the whole project seems to have been shunted aside and made to disappear into the bureaucracy 鈥� no report has emerged, so no significant changes were required and no old thought patterns were harmed.
Clearly we can鈥檛 look to B.C.鈥檚 government for action on making peace with nature. So in future columns, I will look at what 颅鈥渕aking peace with nature鈥� might mean here in the Greater Victoria region.
Dr. Trevor Hancock is a retired professor and senior scholar at the University of 颅Victoria鈥檚 School of Public Health and Social Policy.
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