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Protection of Northern Rockies Welcomed As 'Gift to The Earth' By WWF

October 9, 1997

Snow Covered Mountain Gland, Switzerland-- The announcement today by the government of British Columbia to designate one million hectares of Canada's Northern Rockies as new protected areas and an additional 3.3 million hectares of surrounding lands as special management areas is being recognized by the WWF--World Wide Fund For Nature network as a "Gift to the Earth'.

The Northern Rockies of British Columbia supports wildlife populations of global importance including grizzly bears and black bears, and a large diversity of ungulates such as the Stone's sheep, mountain goat, bison, moose, elk, caribou, white-tailed deer and mule deer. The area harbours 50 undeveloped watersheds, including the Kechika, British Columbia's largest at 2.2 million hectares.

Attending today's proceedings in Vancouver, Monte Hummel, President of WWF Canada, read from a special letter that had been forwarded for the occasion by His Royal Highness Prince Philip, President Emeritus of WWF. In his letter the Duke of Edinburgh wrote, "This is a triumph of good sense and I am delighted to have this opportunity to offer my warmest congratulations to everyone who has played a part in this outstanding conservation initiative. It now remains to ensure that the core wilderness and adjacent special management area are effectively managed to accomplish the overall conservation objective. I have little doubt that it will be accepted as one of the most significant 'Gifts to the Earth' under the WWF Living Planet Campaign."

One of the major goals of the Living Planet Campaign is the conservation of 200 of the Earth's ecoregions as a representative selection of the world's most outstanding and distinctive biological regions. The Northern Rockies decision affords considerable protection for the Northern Cordillera Boreal Forest ecoregion - one of the Global 200.

"Here in Canada, the Northern Rockies announcement also secures the first of 14 key wilderness sites identified under WWF Canada's Hot Spots '98 Campaign," said Mr. Hummel. "This is a major step towards the Endangered Spaces goal of completing a comprehensive network of protected areas by the year 2000."

WWF also gives full credit to the hard work done by local participants in land use planning, including guide outfitters, aboriginal peoples, oil and gas and forest industry representatives, as well as B.C.-based conservation groups, especially the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, whose work was financially assisted by WWF. In many ways, this step is as much a new beginning as it is a culmination of the hard work to date, because now the real challenge will be to implement the commitments made here today.

World Wildlife Fund Canada is part of the international WWF network, the largest conservation organization in the world. Other 'Gifts to the Earth' through WWF's Living Planet Campaign include protection by the state of Florida of the coral reef that runs along the Florida Keys in a national marine sanctuary and protection by Panama of the Darien Biosphere Reserve. WWF Canada's Endangered Spaces goal of completing a terrestrial network of protected areas by the year 2000 and a marine network by 2010 has earned widespread support from the Canadian public, governments and industry. WWF's Hot Spots '98 Campaign has identified 14 key wilderness sites for which protection is being sought by Canada Day - July 1st, 1998. These sites, one of which is the Northern Rockies, is the leading edge of the much larger effort needed to meet the Endangered Spaces goal.

CONTACT:
In Toronto, Canada, Pegi Dover, WWF-Canada, Telephone: + 1 416 489-4567, ext. 254
In Gland, Switzerland, Liz Foley, WWF-International, (speaks French and English)
Telephone: +41 22 364 9554; E-mail: efoley@wwfnet.org