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Thread: B.C. conservation group raising money for commercial hunting licences to protect wildlife

  1. #1
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    Default B.C. conservation group raising money for commercial hunting licences to protect wildlife

    https://vancouversun.com/news/local-...ear-rainforest



    B.C. conservation group raising money for commercial hunting licences to protect wildlife in Great Bear Rainforest


    The Raincoast Conservation Foundation announced Tuesday that it plans to raise $1.92 million to buy the commercial hunting licence covering 18,239 square kilometres.

    Once completed, it would be the foundation�s sixth purchase of trophy hunting rights representing 79 per cent of the Great Bear Rainforest, an area known worldwide for attracting tourists looking to see bears in their natural habitat. The foundation has already raised $100,000 and has two years to raise the rest, said Brian Falconer, Raincoast�s guide outfitter coordinator.

    He said buying the licence means �wildlife is freed from the burden of commercial trophy hunting.�

    �One of the things that�s been easy for people to support is that it�s something really tangible: you�re buying a right to not kill animals,� he said from Nanaimo.


    He said the purchase also supports the continuing transition from extractive trophy hunting to tourism. He said the area already has 19 tour operators offering bear-viewing opportunities to tourists from around the world.

    �I think it�s a really important message: We can make a living with these resources without extracting them and sending the trophy parts to another part of the world,� he said.

    Falconer pointed in particular to Spirit Bear Lodge, operated by the Kitasoo/Xai�Xais Nation in remote Klemtu, located on Swindle Island about 530 km northwest of Vancouver.

    �It literally changed the culture of that village,� he said. �It went from massive unemployment to full employment.�

    Raincoast plans to buy the commercial trophy-hunting licence from Peter Klaui of North Coast Adventures .

    Commercial trophy-hunting tenures with a duration of 25 years were sold for a nominal fee to private operato rs by the provincial government in the middle of the 20th century and have been continually renewed ever since. The tenures were set up with the idea that if someone from outside of B.C. wanted to hunt big game, they had to hire and be accompanied by a B.C. guide.

    Raincoast plans to buy all the remaining licences covering the Great Bear Rainforest when owners are willing to sell, Falconer said.

    �We understand that people have, in some cases, put in a generation or two generations building up a business,� he said �We said we�re willing buyers and we�re looking for willing sellers.�

    Raincoast started buying hunting tenures in 2005 because of what happened with grizzly bear hunting. When the NDP government in 2001 was defeated, the Liberals allowed grizzly bear hunting to resume within months of taking power.

    Falconer said the change motivated the foundation to come up with a way to stop hunting permanently in specific areas that survive governments.

    Buying commercial trophy hunting doesn�t stop B.C. residents from hunting, he said.

    The planned purchase by Raincoast protects not only grizzly bears, but also other big game such as black bears, cougars, wolves and Roosevelt elk.

    In December 2017, a ban on grizzly bear hunting throughout B.C. was reinstituted by the provincial government.

    The Commercial Bear Viewing Association said in a 2020 story that 70 bear-watching companies employ 62 full-time and 211 seasonal employees. Bear-viewing tours charge about $400-a-night per person and visitors spend on average $10,000 a week in B.C., in addition to what they pay for the tours.

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  3. #2
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    Well they still are required to hunt the bears, but they never seem to find that perfect bear to actually harvest. LOL

    Its clearly more sustainable to have the bears alive and have tourists come and view them, its a win, win for everybody.

    Thank goodness those savage pro hunter Liberals are gone.

    When the NDP government in 2001 was defeated, the Liberals allowed grizzly bear hunting to resume within months of taking power.

    https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/b-c-conservation-group-raising-money-for-commercial-hunting-licences-to-protect-wildlife-in-great-bear-rainforest
    Last edited by Gilroy; November 27th, 2021 at 06:05 PM.

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