Years of conflict between environmental organizations and the forest industry, from 1996 through 2000 saw massive international market campaigns effecting contract cancellations by major wood and paper buyers, protests and blockades.

In 2000 calls from the marketplace for resolution led the environmental groups and the Coast Forest Conservation Initiative forest companies to form the Joint Solutions Project. They agreed to logging deferrals in 100 key valleys and to a suspension of market campaigns so they could participate with workers, community representatives, and others in government-sponsored multi-stakeholder Land and Resource Management Planning processes.

Simultaneously, individual First Nations engaged in their own planning processes to develop land use visions for their territories, which would later inform their negotiations with the province of B.C. to confirm final land use plans.

On February 7, 2006, the Great Bear Rainforest Agreements were announced to the world - Two million hectares of protection and a phase in of Ecosystem-Based Management throughout the region by March 2009.

It was customers of products from this region who demanded change, and that same attention is now required to ensure the outcomes are successful. The Great Bear Rainforest is a global model for collaborative solutions. But it is not yet complete.

photos: Adrian Dorst (banner), Dott/Greenpeace (centre)