In 1997, conservation groups intent on protecting British Columbia's largest remaining rainforest from clearcut logging approached a team of internationally-renowned conservation biologists with an ambitious request: Identify a system of conservation areas that will maintain and restore the biological diversity of this coastal temperate rainforest ecosystem.

It was a daunting task, first of all because of the size of the area. This area, known as the Great Bear Rainforest, extends nearly 500 kilometres along the B.C. coast, from Knight Inlet near the northern tip of Vancouver Island to the Alaskan Panhandle. It covers almost 7 million hectares - over 20 times the size of Clayoquot Sound.

Daunting finally, because it had never been done before. Conservationists and industry typically battle over one valley, one river, one species. Conservation targets, such as B.C.'s 12% target for protected areas, are based not on science, but on politics and economics.

Over 35% of B.C.'s protected areas are located in the rock and ice of alpine-tundra zones, and over 75% are smaller than 1000 hectares - about twice the size of Vancouver's Stanley Park. Over time, these small, isolated patches do not protect species or preserve ecosystems. Instead, they become islands, cut off from similar ecosystems and leading to the extirpation of local wildlife populations.