Conservation group buys out hunting rights in B.C. rainforest to protect wildlife

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https://www.castanet.net/news/BC/465527/Conservation-group-buys-out-hunting-rights-in-B-C-rainforest-to-protect-wildlife

A British Columbia conservation group says it has purchased exclusive hunting rights to a quarter of the Great Bear Rainforest on the province's north and central coast to protect wildlife there.

The Raincoast Conservation Foundation says it took two years to raise $1.92 million to buy the 18,000-square-kilometre tenure off commercial hunting operators.

Raincoast's guide outfitter co-ordinator Brian Falconer says the group has fulfilled all aspects of the purchase except the physical transfer of the hunting licenses, a process that is being completed.

Raincoast says in a statement the purchase makes the environmental group the largest hunting tenure holder in B.C., with six tenures covering more than 56,000 square kilometres.

Falconer says the acquisitions allow Raincoast to protect wildlife while "lighting a path" to the development of an ecotourism economy "not dependent on killing and extracting things."

The group has been buying hunting rights in the province since 2005, after a 2001 moratorium on grizzly bear hunting was overturned.
 
Every other Tenure is use it or lose it... yet an exception is made for Anti Hunting Groups.
 
This is bad for hunting. It’s happened before but I don’t think on this scale. It’s tempting to blame the sellout operators who took their pieces of silver, but many in their shoes might do the same for the right price.

The real fight is against the anti-hunting groups who are paying those pieces of silver. They disguise themselves as conservationists, but they’re not. They’re emotion-driven anti-hunters.

If they were genuine conservationists, they would realize their best ally is the hunting community.

If they truly cared about ecosystems, they’d go after the logging industry before they went after hunters. If they truly cared about animal welfare, they’d go after the beef, pork and poultry industries before they went after hunters.

For the record, I’m not taking a dig at any of those industries, I’m just saying it’s ridiculous to go after hunters, unless it’s about virtue signalling and emotions.

If this group was sincere about conserving the BC rainforest, it would not try to replace limited-tag hunting — which is by definition sustainable — with ecotourism which will bring in habitat-destroying hotels, parking lots and souvenir shops.

I just came home from a late-season deer hunt, and we were careful not to leave anything behind, not even our scent. In contrast, typical tourists stomp through habitats like it’s a theme park, and carelessly pollute the area with their litter. Ecotourism isn’t the holy grail this group claims it will be.

One strategy might be for hunting orgs to raise money to incentivize operators to NOT sell out. I don’t know the answers, but hunters have to be aware of this practice and collectively not be apathetic to what’s happening.
 
Everyone is supposed to be treated the same, try and sit on any other tenure and watch what happens.
 
The word "group" says it all. It's no longer available without paying monies to that group to use crown lands.
 
So,the snowflakes bought out the local outfitters hunting zones after successfully lobbying leftist snowflake governments to ban Griz hunting altogether. I wonder how much cash they coughed up to each? What kind of deal did they work out with First Nations? In Ontario,outfitters have exclusive rights to BMA's (Bear Management Areas) which effectively bars other outfitters from placing client hunters in that area. In no way shape or form does that allow them to bar resident hunters from hunting in that area (although,some have tried with the predictable dastardly consequences). I would presume it was the same type of system in BC. It doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense to buy eveyone out after the hunt was cancelled and outfitters shut out. Something seems a bit "off" about the whole thing. Some folks are laughing all the way to the bank.
 
Trimmer 905 you have it right. All they can buy is the tenure for guided hunting, resident hunting of legal game during hunting season and the other provisions in the BC Hunting Regulations are not affected by these licences. Resident hunters continue to have the right to harvest game in these areas, subject to the regulations. This foundation will be the sole legal provider of guided hunts (almost exclusively non resident) in the territories they purchase and if they choose not to offer these hunts so be it, but they can not exclude resident hunters, even though they might try to do so with scare tactics. Most of these areas will be in wilderness with no easy access unless you have a seaworthy boat or a floatplane and are seldom visited by resident hunters. We’re talking about a combined area larger than the complete province of Nova Scotia with no public roads. Big game in this coastal rainforest consists mainly of small deer and bears - lots of bears, a few mountain goats and a very few moose. Black bears are plentiful and popular game for europeans and orientals but grizzlies were the moneymakers until the province shut them down. That decision bankrupted many guide outfitters, this is a chance for them to bail with at least their shirt tails. There will be little or no effect on resident hunting.
 
However if it's just the tenor that has been sold out, every Canadian can use the land for hunting and fishing, but doesn't use it commercially!
 
riversrest said:
However if it's just the tenor that has been sold out, every Canadian can use the land for hunting and fishing, but doesn't use it commercially!
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Not correct. BC hunters must either be a BC resident and hold a valid BC Resident hunting licence or if a non resident of the province they must buy an expensive non resident licence and must be accompanied by a guide, either professional or a BC resident family member with a permit to guide this particular individual. Non residents may not hunt big game without a guide in BC.
 
^^ I agree. You can also have family hunts with brothers in law and uncles from overseas without a guide other than a BC hunter/relative.
 
It is a public relations exercise and a handy way out for the guide-outfitter because the only valuable guided hunts in that area were for grizzlies which are not legal to hunt any more anyway.

As mentioned, if a BC resident wants to hunt blacktails or black bear there, there is nothing stopping them except access. It is mostly boat only.

But to the general public who doesn't know the above, the Raincoast Conservation Foundation appears to have scored a major victory.

The only real victor is the outfitter who got $1.92 million for a worthless white elephant.
 
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A few million dollars is small potatoes, I heard a young successful multi millionaire from Vancouver a while back talking about buying up land to turn into parks.... people with serious money are privately funding 10 % of the WHO budget and out buying up all the farm land in the US on their days off.

Back when the crack epidemic first hit and the "war on drugs" was raging.... I always wondered how much money and lives would have been saved if the US had just paid off all Columbia's debt and or simply bought all the coca crops world wide.

I believe the Cartel offered to pay the national debt at one point.... I'm surprised Columbia didn't take them up on the offer!
 
MD said:
It is a public relations exercise and a handy way out for the guide-outfitter because the only valuable guided hunts in that area were for grizzlies which are not legal to hunt any more anyway.

As mentioned, if a BC resident wants to hunt blacktails or black bear there, there is nothing stopping them except access. It is mostly boat only.

But to the general public who doesn't know the above, the Raincoast Conservation Foundation appears to have scored a major victory.

The only real victor is the outfitter who got $1.92 million for a worthless white elephant.
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This is correct. The engine for this deal was the political moves that led to the cancelation of the grizzly hunt. That closure put outfitters in a tenous position where they had 100's of thousands invested and the potential returns were cut in half or more by the stroke of a pen. No matter how you slice it, all Canadian hunters are in for a battle, from sea to shining sea... I recommend we all stick together, regardless of what our regional biases may be.
 
Won't all this land be off use anyways with Trudeau's 30 x 30 initiative?
I thought the fine print says off use to everything eco tourism to, whatever that really is
 
Trimmer 905 said:
So,the snowflakes bought out the local outfitters hunting zones after successfully lobbying leftist snowflake governments to ban Griz hunting altogether. I wonder how much cash they coughed up to each? What kind of deal did they work out with First Nations? In Ontario,outfitters have exclusive rights to BMA's (Bear Management Areas) which effectively bars other outfitters from placing client hunters in that area. In no way shape or form does that allow them to bar resident hunters from hunting in that area (although,some have tried with the predictable dastardly consequences). I would presume it was the same type of system in BC. It doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense to buy eveyone out after the hunt was cancelled and outfitters shut out. Something seems a bit "off" about the whole thing. Some folks are laughing all the way to the bank.
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And they screwed resident hunters in Ontario by eliminating resident guide licenses..so now people who don't live in bear country pay same guide rates as non residents and the rates are going up as a result.
 
Galt said:
And they screwed resident hunters in Ontario by eliminating resident guide licenses..so now people who don't live in bear country pay same guide rates as non residents and the rates are going up as a result.
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As a resident, you can hunt with any other resident, just "not for profit." There are probably many hunters who would assist you with hunting if you pay your share of the expenses... bear hunting in Ontario can be expensive, the cost of gas, bait, equipment ie. cameras, barrels, chain, stands etc... and party hunting for bears is legal in Ontario, in some units, a second tag is available.
 
Conservation group buys out hunting rights in B.C

Conservation group buys out hunting rights in B.C.'s Great Bear Rainforest to protect wildlife

A conservation group says its latest purchase of exclusive hunting rights in a British Columbia rainforest is a major step toward protecting the area's wildlife, but hunters say the move is an "abuse" of the licensing system.

The Raincoast Conservation Foundation, based in Sidney, B.C., said Thursday that it raised $1.92 million over two years to buy the rights from hunters that cover roughly a quarter, or 18,000 square kilometres, of the Great Bear Rainforest on the province's north and central coast.

Raincoast has been buying hunting rights in the province since 2005, after a 2001 moratorium on grizzly bear hunting approved by an NDP government was overturned when the Liberals were elected to government.

The province again brought in a ban on grizzly hunting in 2017 after the NDP returned to power, but Falconer said Raincoast will continue its efforts because there are many other species the group can protect by controlling hunting tenures.

"We are required to do hunts in order to maintain these territories at this point," Falconer said.

"We've been very unsuccessful at those hunts, and so the harvest rate has gone down to zero in those properties. We just have very, very poor hunters."

Hunting group calls purchase an abuse of licensing

Raincoast's purchases, however, have upset the group Hunters for B.C., which says the move amounts to abusing commercial licensing to stifle legal hunting activities.

The group's president Robin Unrau said the 2017 ban on grizzly hunting put several outfitters in a difficult financial situation, which gave conservation groups like Raincoast an opportunity to the buy tenures from hunters with the plan to not hunt.

"Whether they're taking them out hunting physically or whether it's just on paper to look good, it should be written better that a hunting tenure is for the purpose of hunting and not as we say just going through the motion on paper and using this propaganda," Unrau said.

Unrau said hunting, when done responsibly, is actually a key tool in maintaining biodiversity and balance in a given region, and Hunters for B.C. are members of the Fish, Wildlife and Habitat Coalition that play a role in conservation efforts.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/conservation-group-buys-out-hunting-rights-in-b-c-s-great-bear-rainforest-to-protect-wildlife-1.7075126
 
Nothing better for a bear than a tasty ecotourist. This article made me curious as to how the ban is going on BC grizzly density. The 2022 report is from info in 2019, and Alberta records are even older. It seems Alberta encounters are up and I've heard rumours of opening up a season again. Probably coffee shop BS but what about BC? Numbers seem good enough for a few tags.
 
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